"Said Goodbye to Madryn Street..."

10 Admiral Grove

Dingle

Liverpool 8

Admiral Grove

Ringo Starr was only three years old when his parents' marriage ended. In 1943, his father, Richard "Richy" Starkey, left the family home at 9 Madryn Street and returned to live with his own parents at 59 Madryn Street, the house where he and Elsie had begun their married life in 1936. He subsequently moved away from the area altogether. Elsie remained in Liverpool to raise their son, supported by friends and by her former in-laws, with whom she maintained an amicable relationship despite the separation.

Reflecting on this unusual family arrangement, Ringo later recalled:

"Now my dad had gone, I was brought up by my grandparents and my mother. It was strange because the grandparents were the parents of my father; they weren't my mother's parents. They really loved me and looked after me. They were great. They'd take me on holiday, too."

— Anthology

With little or no financial support from her former husband, Elsie struggled to maintain the rent on 9 Madryn Street. Consequently, she and her son relocated to the smaller terraced house at 10 Admiral Grove, only a few hundred yards away on the opposite side of High Park Street.

Ringo later reflected on the move:

"We lived at first in a huge palatial house with three bedrooms. It was too big and we couldn't afford it now my dad had stopped supporting my mother. We were working class, and in Liverpool when your dad left you suddenly became lower working class. So, we moved to a smaller, two-bedroom place (they were both rented – houses always were).

The move was from one street to the next, from Madryn Street to Admiral Grove – people around us didn't move very far. It was only 300 yards."

 — Anthology

Indeed, The distance was so slight that Ringo later joked that, while sitting on the back of the removal van, the movers did not even bother to raise the tailgate. 

Despite representing a necessary financial compromise, the Admiral Grove property offered few improvements. As Ringo observed, "It had been condemned as derelict ten years before we moved in, but we lived in it for twenty years." Nevertheless, it became the house most closely associated with his childhood and adolescence. It was here that he spent the formative years of his life and where he remained until leaving for London in late 1963 following the Beatles' success.

Remembering the contrast between his two childhood homes, he wrote:

"I don't remember the inside of our house in Madryn Street—I know we never had a garden—but a lot of my pals grew up on the same street and I went into their houses. I remember the Admiral Grove house, and that didn't have a garden either. It had a toilet down the yard; we never had a bathroom. But it was home, and it was fine. We had two bedrooms: one for my mum, and one for me."

— Anthology

Even decades later, No. 10 Admiral Grove continued to display a faded Second World War "V for Victory" symbol above its front door, a tangible reminder of the era in which Ringo grew up.

As he entered adolescence, Ringo became increasingly conscious of the poverty and physical environment of the Dingle district.

"From about thirteen, things came into focus a little. I felt Liverpool was dark and dirty; I wanted to get out, to live somewhere [where] there was a little garden. I wanted to escape Admiral Grove. I didn't need to move very far—just somewhere like Aigburth where there was some green. I used to love the park; we'd sag off school and go to Sefton Park and Princes Park. I have an affinity with green, the sea and space. In my life I have had houses with lots of land, but it's the view that I need."

— Anthology

These reflections reveal not simply dissatisfaction with his immediate surroundings but a lifelong attraction to open space and nature, something that would later influence his choice of homes after achieving fame.

Paul McCartney, Elsie and Richard Starkey, Harry Graves, Admiral Grove, 30 August 1963 (photographer unknown)

A significant positive influence entered Ringo's life when Elsie began a relationship with Harry Graves, whom she later married. Harry worked as a painter and decorator at Burtonwood, the large American military base near Warrington, and became an important father figure. 

Ringo recalled:

"Harry, my stepfather, came into the picture when I was eleven. He worked as a painter and decorator up at Burtonwood, which was an American army base. He made me laugh, he bought me DC comics; and he was great with music. He used to lay music on me, but would never force any of it. He was into big bands and jazz and Sarah Vaughan, while I'd be listening to stupid people. He'd say, 'Have you heard this?' That was always his line: 'Have you heard this?' He was a really sweet guy; all animals and children loved him. I learnt gentleness from Harry. 

I loved Harry, and my mum loved him—and then she said they were going to get married. She asked me, 'What do you think?' I was pretty angry for a while, because I was thirteen; but I knew if I said 'no', she wouldn't have got married. It was a terrible position to be put in as a kid. But I said, 'Sure, great,' because he was a good guy." 

— Anthology

Harry Graves remained a constant and supportive presence throughout Ringo's early adulthood. I had the pleasure to meet and pass the time of day with Harry many times. Before he passed away in 1994, he was quite a regular visitor to the Beatles Shop in Mathew Street where I would spend my lunch breaks. I never asked him about his famous stepson, although inevitably he would come up in conversation from time to time, and I never asked him to try and get me an autograph or anything else. It didn't seem right to do so. He was a nice, quiet man and it's clear that Ringo thought the world of him.

Many years later, while promoting his digital photography book Photograph, Ringo reflected warmly on one of the family photographs taken outside Admiral Grove: 

"This picture blows me away. I mean, it's just me with my mum and my step-dad—Elsie and Harry—outside our house in Admiral Grove, Liverpool. But I'm wearing Birkenstock sandals! How cool am I? Birkenstocks, ha ha ha ha! In those days! When I saw that picture I was like, 'What? Where did you get them?!' Anyway, there they are. We were just having a bit of fun outside the house. We moved in there in 1945 and I lived there until I was 23 and moved to London."

Among the four Beatles, Ringo's childhood home is the best documented.  Numerous photographs survive showing both the exterior and interior of 10 Admiral Grove during his time there, and uniquely, there's also film footage. 

This film was shot between 27 and 30 August 1963 during production of the BBC documentary The Mersey Sound, directed by Manchester producer Don Haworth. Haworth had first discussed the project with the Beatles in Blackpool on 21 July 1963, proposing a documentary that would examine the Mersey Beat phenomenon in greater depth than contemporary television programmes normally permitted. With the group's approval, on 6 August Brian Epstein signed a contract with Haworth granting exclusive filming access, which also prevented the Beatles from participating in a similar ATV production, Beat City which was being made at the same time. 

The final day's filming, on 30 August, centred on Admiral Grove. To illustrate how life had changed for them since becoming household names (at least on Merseyside) the BBC cameras recorded Ringo emerging from his front door before valiantly pushing through an enthusiastic crowd of fans towards George Harrison's open-top sports car where George waited, seemingly unnoticed and unmolested by the screaming horde even though he was only parked a few doors down.

Why has nobody noticed me? (George in the Mersey Sound, BBC)

Of course, the whole thing was staged for the cameras, many people in the years since pointing out that the majority of the "fans" look like local kids from St. Silas School, enjoying their summer holidays and the novelty of appearing on telly.

Between takes, Ringo chatted comfortably with neighbours gathered outside the house while Elsie watched from the doorway. John Lennon and Paul McCartney were also present, seated in the rear of George Harrison's car, although they were omitted from the finished programme.

I took the above photo while on a visit to the Beatles' Story Museum in Liverpool.

Members of the Beatles' inner circle were equally visible behind the scenes. Tony Bramwell helped coordinate Ringo's movements, while road manager Mal Evans ensured that the excited crowd remained under control.

The resulting programme, The Mersey Sound, was first broadcast on 9 October 1963—John Lennon's twenty-third birthday—from 10.10 until 10.40 p.m. in London and northern England, before receiving a nationwide transmission on 13 November. Although only thirty-six minutes in length, it remains one of the finest surviving visual records of Beatlemania in its earliest stages, capturing both the Beatles themselves and the ordinary Liverpool streets from which they emerged. Clips from the show have since been featured prominently in numerous documentaries about the band. 

Seen today, this 36-minute BBC special perfectly captures one of music’s most magical moments: the birth of Beatlemania. This phenomenon powered the Mersey Sound and sparked the full-blown British Invasion that transformed the world in 1964.

Years later, Ringo would pay tribute to both Liverpool and Admiral Grove in the lyrics of "Liverpool 8":

Liverpool I Left you

Said goodbye to Admiral Grove
I always followed my heart
So I took it on the road
 
Destiny was calling
I just couldn’t stick around
Liverpool I left you
But I never let you down

(written by Richard Starkey, Dave Stewart)

Composite by Keith Jones (Liverpool Then and Now)

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