John In Bournemouth

Where was the 3rd place the Beatles most frequently played in the UK after London and Liverpool?  The seaside town of Bournemouth. 

They held a week-long season of two shows a night at the Gaumont Cinema in August of 1963, as well as well as shows at the Winter Gardens. They returned to the Gaumont the following year.   

(Mimi and John, photo from google image search) 

Later on Lennon was to return to Bournemouth on the request of his Aunt Mimi, (who was with him) who he was buying a house for at the time. They visited a number of houses he was thinking of buying his Aunt. Until then Mimi was still living in Johns childhood home, a place that was becoming a hot spot for Lennon and Beatles fans, and John no longer wanted his beloved aunt to have to put up with masses of fans outside the house. When he announced to her that he wanted to buy her a new home he asked where she wanted, Aunt Mimi picked Bournemouth, so off they went on the search for just the right house. 

(Aunt Mimi's Sandbanks home. Photo from google image search) 

Lennon bought her a seafront bungalow home at Sandbanks in 1965. Aunt Mimi and John were very close, even though they often had many disagreements, for the best part she had brought him up, especially following the death of his mother after she was ran over by an off duty police officer.

John phoned her every day and made once she moved to Poole he made regular visits to her, when he would give her gifts and then go for long walks doing cartwheels on the beach. John and Yoko left for Southampton (as in the song ‘the ballad of John and Yoko) from Mimi’s home before getting married in Gibraltar in 69. 

(John on the balcony, photo from google image search) 

He decided at some point to create a balcony for her to sit on and watch the boats go by. A wrought iron balustrade of seven hearts was commissioned to show how much he loved his Aunt Mimi. The house was called Harbour’s Edge, and as well as a peaceful home for Mimi the house was also an escape for Lennon on his many visits before he move to the states, never to return to England again. John was often spotted around the area driving in a Mini Cooper or being driven in his psychedelic Rolls Royce! Lennon paid £25,000 to buy the six-bedroomed semi-bungalow at 126 Panorama Road, a large amount when you compare it to the average price of a house in England at the time of around £3,500. Mimi’s ‘words of wisdom’ given to A teenage John “The guitar’s all right as a hobby John, but you’ll never make a living out of it” were engraved on a plaque, which hung on the wall at the house, one of the many gifts he had given her. “He would just turn up and there would be a whirlwind when he arrived” Mimi said as she described his visits in a 1981 interview. 

(Photo from google image search) 

“It was usually when the pressure got a bit much. He used to like to come here and turn cartwheels on the beach just by himself” John would borrow a neighbours boat and go up the River Frome to Wareham. When John left his wife Cynthia for Japanese artist Yoko Ono he still continued to visit Mimi, the first time she met Yoko she asked her what she did, when Yoko replied she was an artist Mimi told her she had never heard of her. John was planning on visiting his Aunt in years following 1980, he was going to bring Sean to meet her. Sadly this visit never took place due to John’s untimely death.