The small flat linked to John Lennon’s mother Julia and boyfriend Bobby Dykins has been located.
Alfred Lennon after his marriage to Julia Stanley in December 1938 was away at sea for most of World War 2 and in 1943 Alfred or “Freddie” as he was known was estranged from his wife Julia and son John Winston Lennon born on the 9th of October 1940.
Julia started dating again and, in the Autumn of 1944, found herself pregnant after having an affair with a Welsh soldier by the name of “Taffy Williams” although there has been much debate as to the father’s identity. Freddie returned home from sea at about the time Julia discovered she was pregnant and offered to take care of her, John, and the expected child however Julia rejected the idea.
On the 19th of June 1945 Julia gave birth to her second child and she was named Victoria Elizabeth Lennon and six weeks later was adopted by Pedr and Margaret Pedersen who changed her name to Ingrid Pedersen.
Entries in the 1945 Liverpool Electoral Register has Julia Lennon living with her sister Harriet Birch at 120a Allerton Road with John and living close to Mimi at “Mendips”.
Julia started to work as a waitress at the Coffee House, 14 Church Road Wavertree and it was here she met John Albert Dykins whom she called “Bobby” and he was employed at the posh Adelphi Hotel as a wine waiter. John started school in November 1945 at Mosspits Lane Primary School which was a short walk from the Coffee House and Julia was able to drop him off in the morning and collect him after her shift finished.
During the early months of 1946 Bobby Dykins located a small one-bedroom flat for them to live in and so the three moved in and it was said that on the day they were moving from Newcastle Road where the pair had been living Alf Lennon turned up but was rejected once again by his wife and he returned to sea.
So, they moved to their very small flat and it was soon evident to John’s Aunt Mimi that the John had to sleep with his mother and Bobby Dykins in the one and only bed in the flat. Mimi was not at all satisfied with the living accommodation and reported Julia to Liverpool Social Services on two occasions and finally Julia was ordered to give her five-year-old son up to his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George Toogood Smith and by May 1946 John had been enrolled in his new school Dovedale. The date that the Liverpool Electoral Register was documented was the 15th of October 1946 indicating the timeline for John’s departure to be questioned however school documents prove him to be a pupil at Dovedale in May 1946 and so presuming Julia and Bobby were still living at 51 Menlove Gardens West in late 1946.
For many years the whereabouts of the flat has been a complete mystery to historians and its location was documented as in Gateacre possibly Gateacre Brow however to my knowledge has never been identified. I am now excited and proud to reveal the mysterious location which is situated at 51 MENLOVE GARDENS WEST in the Wavertree constituency of Liverpool and is a 0.7 mile walk from 9 Newcastle Road, only half a mile from Mosspits Primary School and a mile from the Coffee House. The flat which would have been above a local garage Dudlow Motors is at least 1.5 miles from Aunt Mimi’s at 251 Menlove Ave.
Dudlow Motors was located there from 1938 and was operating as a garage at the time Bobby and Julia were living there and in the present day operates as an MOT garage.
I feel proud to have located this address which has been a long awaited find for those of us interested in John Lennon’s life in Liverpool as a young boy. Julia Lennon was desperate to find a place where she could live with her son and her newfound partner however the flat signalled a tragic turn in the story as Julia was made to give up her son as she had done the previous year in July 1945 when she put her baby daughter up for adoption.
References
Liverpool Electoral Register 1946…. Liverpool Wavertree West Derby Garston.
Liverpool Echo …. Dudlow Motors advertisements 3rd March 1938 & 16th July 1946
No comments:
Post a Comment