The Dakota Building — John Lennon's Home, New York

The Dakota at 1 West 72nd Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan was John Lennon and Yoko Ono's home from 1973 until his murder outside the building's archway entrance on December 8, 1980. Lennon was shot four times in the back by Mark David Chapman as he returned from a recording session at the Record Plant. He was 40 years old. Chapman had been waiting outside the building and had obtained Lennon's autograph earlier that same day. Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital.

The Dakota is one of New York's most famous residential buildings — a massive, ornate, German Renaissance-style apartment house built in 1884. When the Lennons moved in, it was already associated with cultural prestige (and with Roman Polanski's film Rosemary's Baby, which was set and partly filmed there). Lennon and Ono occupied multiple apartments in the building, and it was here that Lennon spent his five-year retirement from music (1975-1980), raising his son Sean and baking bread, before returning to recording with Double Fantasy in 1980.

Yoko Ono continues to maintain an apartment in the Dakota. Directly across the street in Central Park is Strawberry Fields, the memorial garden dedicated to Lennon's memory, featuring the iconic 'Imagine' mosaic. The entrance to the Dakota on 72nd Street is not formally marked as a memorial site, but visitors regularly gather outside. The building is a National Historic Landmark and remains one of the most recognisable residential addresses in the world.