Where John and Cynthia Lennon Got Married, Liverpool

Here I am on a road leading down into central Liverpool where John Lennon and Cynthia Powell got married in 1962. It was Mount Pleasant Register Office then but it's four flats now. In July 1962 Cynthia told John she was pregnant and he replied, “There's only one thing for it Cyn. We'll have to get married.” Things were hurriedly arranged by the Beatles manager Brian Epstein who was the best man.

Despite the rush it was a happy day. John and ‘Cyn’ had been together for about four years having met a short walk away from this building at the Liverpool College of Art. Cynthia was already engaged but was intrigued by the confident swaggering younger student when he asked her out on a date. The once reserved, modest, soberly-dressed student turned into a bit of a vamp when she heard John was obsessed with Brigitte Bardot. Against her mum’s horror she dyed her hair blonde and started wearing mini-skirts, fishnet stockings and bold make-up. John had been in bands for about five years and Cynthia had witnessed the Quarrymen mutating into various forms of The Beatles. She'd joined John at many concerts and travelled to Hamburg to watch him play.

John was 21 and Cyn was 22 when they married on 23^rd August 1962 but people married young then. The wedding had been hastily arranged but there were few flowers, photographs and no big party. It was a hushed affair - not a full-frills church do on a Saturday but a registry office slot on a Thursday. Paul and George were there but not one parent turned up: Cynthia’s family didn’t approve of cruel sarcastic John and John’s aunty Mimi was disgusted by the union. His dad had disappeared years ago and his mum had been knocked over and killed a year earlier.

As the ceremony started a workman in the backyard of a nearby building started using a jackhammer and drowned out most words. When the registrar asked for the groom to step forward John didn’t hear the words. George did and stepped forward instead. Afterwards Brian Epstein had paid for a meal at Reece’s restaurant in Clayton Square which is now a shopping mall (John’s parents had celebrated their marriage there 24 years earlier.) There was no honeymoon as The Beatles had a gig that night in Chester. Beatlemania was spreading quickly across the UK and the lads were gigging nearly every night. Two months later there was a honeymoon of sorts at the Hotel George V in Paris.

Before and after Julian's birth in 1963 the couple lived at Brian’s flat on Falkner Street in Liverpool although John was often away touring. The marriage was kept quiet as Brian considered a marriage tarnished the band's reputation. Cynthia disliked the limelight and preferred the quiet life anyway. Julian was born at Sefton Hospital but John missed it and didn't see his son until three days later (and then went on a four day holiday to Barcelona with Brian.) Money flooded in and the Lennon's moved to a grand house in Surrey. Despite luxurious surrounding the marriage was over with four years according to Cynthia. She claimed John got lost in a world of LSD and by 1967 it had taken away the man she knew (finding Yoko Ono in their huge Surrey mansion didn’t help.)

Cynthia went on to marry another three times and died of cancer at her home in Majorca in 2015 aged 75. Julian who had been largely neglected by his dad was with her while she died.

I took some photos of the former registry office and even stood geek-like in the doorway. It would have been brill to have some photos of the wedding day so I could do some “then and now” comparison shots of the street. Oh well, I'm sure they'll appear one day on the internet. Isn't everything on the net? Even my ghoulish gonad war wound I picked up in the Falklands Conflict is on there. I did a salute and left.

To see some footage please go here: https://youtu.be/D8jyNYAqekE

This is the building where the wedding reception was held (the couple were toasted with water as there was no alcohol license of a day time.) It's currently occupied by Superdrug on the ground floor and apartments above. It was Reece's Restaurant and when it opened in 1927 it could accommodate up to 2,000 guests over five floors. The ground floor had a confectionery shop and lunch counter, on the first were grill rooms and main restaurant, a cafe on the second, a ballroom on the third, masonic suite on the fourth with staff rooms on the fifth.