Yoko turns tour guide at John Lennon's childhood home

Apr 4 2008

YOKO ONO gave a special guided tour of John Lennon’s childhood home to patients from Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and pupils of his former primary school yesterday.

She was visiting Mendips, on Menlove Avenue in Woolton, to mark the fifth anniversary of her buying and immediately donating it to the National Trust.

“When I come here and see John’s tiny bedroom it just chokes me up because that’s where his grand dream began – and he finally realised what he was dreaming here,” she said.

Yoko, 75, showed Dovedale pupils the bedroom and told them: “You don’t need a great deal of things, all you need is a great idea.”

Trenton Tomlinson, 11, a Dovedale School pupil, described Ono’s visit “as an amazing experience”.

Lennon lived at Mendips with his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George from 1945 to 1963. He left home aged 23.

More than 30,000 people have visited the house since the National Trust opened it to the public five years ago.

The National Trust said bookings have surged by nearly 300% since Liverpool celebrated becoming European Capital of Culture 2008.

Yoko, who supports Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, said she hoped Mendips would become a “really powerful museum for people all over the world” and said: “In that sense it’s really a cultural centre – a cultural capital!”

Commenting on Liverpool being Capital of Culture 2008 Yoko said it “is great” but declined to comment on whether it would have happened without her late husband’s achievements.

She said she “felt sorry” for Sir Paul McCartney over his recent divorce.

“I’m very sorry for him to have had to go through all that.

“I haven’t spoken to him about that but it’s a subject which he probably doesn’t want to discuss with other people.”

Alluding to Heather Mills, Yoko said it was “not easy” to be associated with a Beatle.

“All I can say is it’s not very easy for a woman to be associated with The Beatles.

“I think all the wives did suffer, and I think quietly suffer. Suffer but endured, I would actually say.”

She said Heather Mills needed to “do her very best and try to survive”.

“I’d not just say to her but to Paul too, it’s a very difficult situation for any couple to go through, especially for people who are really out in the world and their every movement is being observed.” Lennon was gunned down outside his New York apartment by fan Mark Chapman on December 8, 1980.

Chapman will be considered for parole later this year.

Yoko said: “I think that it’s a very hard subject for me to deal with.

“All things considered it’s very dangerous for him to come out because there’s so many people who feel badly about what happened.”

She said Lennon’s legacy lived on: “I just know that he’s going to be an incredibly good energy for the longest time.”