Ringo lived at 10 Admiral Grove, a property in Toxteth, Liverpool, England, for twenty years before he rose to fame with the Beatles.
Starr’s parents, Richard and Elsie, initially rented a house at 9 Madryn Street for 10 shillings (£0.50) a week. His parents separated when Starr was three years old, and Elsie and her son moved to the smaller, less expensive two-up two-down house at 10 Admiral Grove. This remained Starr’s home until 1963, when he became famous.
Ringo’s childhood
Starr’s infant school, St. Silas Primary School, on Pengwern Street, was yards away from his front door. He was a sickly child and, due to his many absences from school, was taught to read and write at home. A severe bout of peritonitis led him to spend much of his seventh year at the Royal Children’s Hospital.
When Starr was 13, his mother Elsie married a Londoner, Harry Graves.
The Empress
The Starkeys’ local pub, The Empress, where Elsie was a barmaid, adjoins Admiral Grove. The pub was immortalised in 1970 by being featured on the front cover of Starr’s first solo album Sentimental Journey.
The Mersey Sound documentary
During “Beatlemania”, the documentary The Mersey Sound, filmed by BBC producer Don Haworth, showed Starr being mobbed by fans on Admiral Grove as he made his way to George Harrison’s open-topped sports car.
Our visit in 2006
In 2006 we played with our Beatles tribute Mal Evans Memorial Band in Liverpool for a week during the Beatleweek festival. In between our performances we visited a lot of Beatles spots. This includes this house on Admiral Grove.
A very kind lady proudly let in anyone interested in The Beatles. She enthusiastically told visitors in the tiny living room about her relationship with Ringo’s parents and with Ringo himself! She lived a few houses away during Ringo’s childhood and later moved to number 10.
Finally, she proudly showed everyone the guestbook. While browsing we saw the names of Ringo’s offspring and… Sean Lennon!
In 2016, the house at 10 Admiral Grove was purchased by a Beatles fan who also owns houses owned previously by George Harrison and John Lennon’s mother Julia.
2006:
During the fifties and sixties with his mum and her husband Harry:
