John Lennon’s first home sells for $771k

John Lennon’s first ever home has sold for $771,000.

The late Beatles star grew up in Liverpool, North East England, and spent his earliest years living in a red brick terrace at 9 Newcastle Road, Wavertree, with his mother Julia until he went to live with his maternal aunt Mimi Smith and his uncle George at the age of five.

It was this property that was sold during an auction at The Cavern Club – the live music venue that The Beatles played at hundreds of times at the beginning of their career.

The house – which was listed for between $241,000 and $401,500 – was sold to an anonymous American buyer who made the winning bid via telephone.

The modest property contains a family bathroom, lounge, family room and a kitchen, and the former owner has been careful not to change the ”original features” of the house.

The last owner told the Liverpool Echo newspaper: ”I have made sure original features have been preserved so that they reflect the 1960s period, when the Beatles wowed the whole world with their rock and roll music.”

Stephen Giddins from Entwistle Green estate agents revealed that John’s half-sister Julia Baird went to view the house before it was sold to reminisce about her life there. It was the first time she had stepped through the door since she left in 1949.

Giddins Sky News: ”She wasn’t looking at the house with a view to buying it, she was just really keen to come and see the house to remind herself of the time that she lived here.

”She referred to the fact that the back bedroom was John’s bedroom, her parents were in the room next door and her grandparents slept in the main front bedroom.”

Lennon’s second childhood home in Mendips, on Menlove Avenue in Woolton, where he lived with Mimi and George was sold to his widow Yoko Ono and donated to the National Trust in 2000. Last year, it was last year given Grade II listed status by English Heritage and is open to tours to the public.