John Lennon's birth location (9th October 1940)

A short walk from the centre of the Liverpool's centre is a student housing building which used to be Oxford Street Maternity Hospital. John was born here on a ward on the second floor as World War Two raged. His 26-year-old mum Julia pushed him out at about 6:30pm without any family members present. His 27-year-old dad Alf was working for the war effort as a merchant sailor. Julia's eldest sister Mimi phoned the hospital, was told a boy had been born and ran the two miles to the hospital not thinking of German bombs.

That Wednesday when John was born Liverpool was a dangerous noisy city due to an especially ferocious German night attack. Outside the wails of air-raid sirens could be heard everywhere and all public transport had come to a standstill. Two days before bombs were dropped on the city centre, Wavertree, Everton Valley, Knotty Ash and Mossley Hill. Julia and her new baby could easily have been bombed as within two days of the birth Liverpool received two more raids on the city and docks. Houses, train sheds, railway tracks and four ships were hit.

As I walked around taking photograph students passed by and everyone was Oriental, had black hair and looked like they should be at school. I'd walked under a sign saying this was "Unite Student Village" and a few other student blocks had gone up to accommodate this lucrative market. It was good to see a plaque on the wall by the door yet it hides a sad story: John's mum was run over and killed when he was 17, his dad disappeared from his life when he was still a boy and he was shot dead aged 40.

I put some litter in a commercial bin and read the plaque again. At least there was something of note. In New York near his death location there's a Strawberry Gardens devoted to him and annual visitors are in their thousands. Recently I listened to a documentary about the doctor who tried to save John but said it was what medics call a "Hail Mary" case - only a miracle would save the patient. John had been rushed to the hospital in the back of a police car but there was little hope. The cops said he moaned but he never said anything or regained consciousness. The doctor used the rib-spreaders to access John's heart and manually pumped it but the injuries were too many to be combated. Doctors worked on him for 45 minutes without getting a pulse or boost blood pressure and had to accept defeat.

This is where it all started though, up on the second floor of this student block. Someone's bed and increasingly-green shower is probably eclipsing the bed where he was pushed out into the world. I did a salute and left. Close by is Rodney Street where Brian Epstein was born. It's a small world.

John as a baby...