Yahoo Finance The Beatles: John Lennon's family house up for auction
The home of John Lennon's mother, dubbed the House of Sin, is set to go under the hammer.
The Liverpool property which played a major role in Beatles history is expected to sell for £250,000 at auction this September.
The three-bedroom house on Blomfield Road in Liverpool played a significant role in the musical development of both Lennon and Paul McCartney, the auction house said.
The pair, who became founding members of The Beatles, rehearsed at the semi-detached house with Lennon's first band The Quarrymen without fear of noise complaints from Lennon's mother Julia.
Lennon was a frequent visitor to the house while living with his aunt Mimi in nearby Menlove Avenue, the auction house said.
The house was dubbed "the House of Sin" by Lennon's aunt Mimi, who he referred to as a "young aunt or big sister" figure to him in his teenage years.
From 1950 to 1958, John’s mother Julia and his sisters, Julia and Jackie, lived in the three-bedroom council house with his mum’s new partner John "Bobby" Dykins.
In her 2007 book Imagine This, John Lennon's sister Julia Baird remembered the bathroom jam sessions: "I shall never forget the hilarious bathroom jam sessions she shared with the budding Beatles.
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"The bathroom in our little house in Blomfield Road was probably one of the smallest in Britain.
"To see John, Paul, George, Pete Shotton, Ivan Vaughan, my mother and probably a couple of hangers-on scrambling around inside, trying to find a place to sit, was like a comedy act.
"They would be squeezed into the bath, perched on top of the loo seat, propped up against the handbasin, squatted on the floor, and standing with one leg up on the edge of the bath to support a guitar.
"Even getting the door closed was a feat. They sometimes went on for hours, letting rip into all those now classic tunes like Maggie May, Besame Mucho, Alleycat, and the theme music from The Third Man."
Eric Griffiths of The Quarrymen said: "We used to skive off school, buy ten Woodbines and a bag of chips then go to Julia's house. She always let us in."
On 15 July 1958, a 17-year-old Lennon answered the door of this property to a policeman who informed him his mother had been killed in a road accident. After his mother died the house was reclaimed by The Corporation once they discovered that Julia and Bobby were never married.
Afterwards, Lennon said: “It was awful, like some dreadful film where they ask you if you’re the victim’s son and all that. Well, I was, and I can tell you it was absolutely the worst night of my entire life.”
The musician, who died in 1980, last visited the home in 1970 when he took wife Yoko Ono on a visit to his old Liverpool haunts. The couple drove up to the house in their white Rolls Royce and were shown around.
Paul Fairweather, auctioneer at Omega Auctions, said: "This house is well known to Beatles fans and anyone who has even a passing interest in how the world's most famous musical group came to be.
"We saw worldwide interest in our recent sale of George Harrison's childhood home and we expect possibly even greater attention on this property.
"It has huge historical importance, is in a great area and is an established part of the Beatles tours around the city. We are excited to see what it will achieve when the sale ends."
The online-only auction will finish on 26 September 26 7pm.
