What was life like at Mendips?
John Lennon’s Aunt Mimi has been misunderstood and unfairly maligned.
She was never ‘mum’ to John, just Mimi…and he stayed Lennon, not John Smith. But he knew where he stood. He benefited enormously from her determination to provide him with what he’d never had in his tempestuous life to date: stability, assurance, certainty. Mark Lewisohn, The Beatles, Tune in
251 Menlove Avenue is a semi-detached house on a ‘leafy but busy boulevard’ that runs through the Woolton, a ‘self sufficient village that was the least Irish and so most English suburb of Liverpool’. It is a handsome property and still would be sort after today. (Lewisohn pp.31–7)
In May 1945 it offered unheard of luxury to a newly married young couple from an inner city that was several decades away from gentrification. There was an indoor bathroom (rather than an outdoor privy and tin bath), lead windows, a telephone and a front and back garden. The previous owner had even installed electric bells for servants.
The bells had never worked and the servants did not materialise. Nonetheless, Jones, the construction company which built numerous similar properties in the locality in the early 1930s, had known their aspirational market. Each of their houses came with an official name. Common old 251 Menlove Avenue became glamorous: Mendips, a touch of class (in every sense) that would later impress Paul McCartney.
Along came John
After an unsettled early childhood, Mimi’s nephew John Lennon settled permanently at Mendips in September, 1945. Mimi immediately enrolled him in a better primary school (Dovedale) from where he graduated to one of the best grammar schools in Liverpool, Quarry Bank High.
John also attended Sunday School and sang in the church choir. Though not personally religious, Mimi appreciated the social and educational opportunities the Anglicanism offered her nephew.
Hunter Davies, who interviewed Mimi at her home in the mid 1960s was struck by a how bookish the Smith household was. This is confirmed by Mike Hennesey, a journalist who knew her.
It is significant the frequent references John made to the importance of Just William in his formation. Like Richmal Crompton’s hero, John was an unruly figure in a sedate world. the boy who rattled his maiden aunt’s teacups.
William, would escape stifling suburbia through applying his imagination to transform mundane locations into exotic ones where adventures took place. For John and his fellow Outlaws (Pete Shotton et al) the grounds of a local Salvation Army children’s home was their barn in Farmer Jenks’ field. Memories of apparently inconsequential children’s pay would eventually inspire one of Lennon’s greatest songs, Strawberry Fields Forever.
Life Chez Mimi
Mimi has sometimes been unjustly portrayed as harsh and unloving. It is true that the Mendips was austere by contemporary standards. Mimi was frugal by temperament: ‘She eats one simple meal a day, has never been to the hairdresser in her life and never wears make-up or jewellry.’ (Hennessey quoted by Lewisohn)
No record player in the house and the only indulgence she allowed herself were books. This was something she passed onto John. From a surprisingly early age, aunt and nephew were an informal mini book group, exchanging paperbacks and forthright critical opinions.
Mimi also encouraged John’s poetic inclinations. Later she would be immensely proud that he publish two books of verse. She also treasured the poem the fourteen year old John wrote on the death of his step-father.
Though she certainly ran a tight ship and had high expectations, Mimi was not a bully. She never physically punished her nephew, though she did show her displeasure by giving him the cold shoulder. This might seem harsh but it was effective. From an early age John craved attention and an audience: ‘Mimi don’t ‘nore me’
Certain puritanical tendencies were balanced by a fierce intelligence and sense of fun. Sometimes she would break into a Charleston dance to make her nephew laugh. It be became a party trick in his own repertoire
Later Mimi would say ‘I never wanted children but I always wanted John.’ In return, John loved and respected Mimi while fearing her, too. He remained in weekly contact with her for the rest of his life.
Double blow
In his early teens John began to see his mother much more frequently.. Relations between the Stanley sisters warmed and their lives intertwined. By the mid 1950s Julia was visiting Mimi on a daily basis.
After a very rocky start, John appeared to be blossoming. Then his world was turned upside down.
In 1955 George Smith died suddenly and unexpectedly. The loss of the ‘kind and impish’ man Lewisohn describes John’s ‘surrogate father’ was a severe blow. It foreshadowed an even more devastating family trauma.
Julia was returning home from Mendips on the 15th July, 1958 when she was killed by a drunk driver. She was forty-four. John was inconsolable.
Mendips remained John’s home until late 1962. Their relationship remained sparky, especially after the summer of 1962, when John announced that Cynthia was pregnant. Mimi was incensed when the then declared he would marry his ‘gangster’s moll’. The remark revealed the best and worst of Mimi: her sharp intelligence combined with a lack of empathy.
Mimi refused to attend the ‘shotgun wedding’ and actively discouraging other relatives from doing so. This hostility relented a little in subsequent months and Mimi invited gangster and moll to rent out the downstairs part of Mendips. This uneasy arrangement held through the early months of 1963.
Beatlemania
Then everything changed with bewildering rapidly. John became a superstar, paid off Mimi’s mortgage and took his wife and child to Weybridge via London. Financially comfortable for the first time in her life, Mimi was now pestered day and night by her nephew’s fans.
In 1965, John, Cynthia and Julia visited Mendips for the last time. Soon after, Mendips was sold and Mimi moved to a new house in The Sands, near Bournemouth. This was another huge leap in the social rankings for Mary Stanley from Toxteth. Tragically, she would outlive her nephew.
John and Mimi did not meet in his final decade, though they remained in close contact, through letters and weekly phone calls. Mimi died in 1991. Mendips was eventually bought by Yoko Ono in the early 2000s and donated it to the National Trust. The NT have painstakingly renovated 251 Menlove Avenue to how it looked when Mimi ruled the its roost. Now visitors can ‘walk in the footsteps of John Lennon’ or rather pad around in his blue suede shoes.
Related Beatles FAQ Posts
Why did John Lennon Live with his Aunt Mimi?
Which Beatle had the most difficult childhood?
What happened to Julia Lennon?
Sources
The Beatles Tune In by Mark Lewisohn. * Lennon by Phillip Norman
The Beatles: The Authorized Biography by Hunter Davies * Lennon Remembers by Jann S. Wenner
Teaching Materials/Artwork
Pernille Eriksen Beatles Homes
