10 Admiral GroveDingleLiverpool 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.
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| 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.
