10 Admiral Grove

10 Admiral Grove
House information
Location	Liverpool, UK
Coordinates	53°23′21″N 2°57′41″W / 53.38904°N 2.961278°W / 53.38904; -2.961278Coordinates: 53°23′21″N 2°57′41″W / 53.38904°N 2.961278°W / 53.38904; -2.961278
Built	1920s
Architectural style	Victorian
Construction type	Terraced house

10 Admiral Grove is a property in Dingle, Liverpool, England. It is the house in which Ringo Starr lived for several years before he rose to fame with The Beatles.

On 7 July 1940, Richard Starkey (also known as Ringo Starr) was born at 9 Madryn Street in the Liverpool neighbourhood known as the Dingle. His neighbourhood was strafed with bombs during World War II. Richard and Elsie Starkey rented a house at 9 Madryn Street for 10 shillings (£0.50) a week, but separated three years later and mother and son moved to a smaller, less expensive house in nearby Admiral Grove.^[1]

Elsie and her son moved to the two up, two down house in Admiral Grove, which remained Ringo's home until 1963 when he became famous. Ringo’s infant school, St Silas Primary School, was yards away from his front door on Pengwern Street. Ringo 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 Ringo was 13 his mother married a Londoner, Harry Graves. The Starkey’s 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 Ringo’s first solo album Sentimental Journey.^[2] During "Beatlemania", the documentary, The Mersey Sound, filmed by BBC producer Don Haworth, showed Ringo being mobbed by fans on Admiral Grove as he made his way to George Harrison's open-top sports car.

In 2010, it was announced that Ringo’s Madryn Street house was being demolished.^[3] Local groups have called for its preservation, and the city has had to board up the house due to relic hunters stealing bricks. An online petition has collected several thousand signatures demanding for the house to be preserved by the National Trust.^[4] In The Beatles Anthology, Ringo is quoted, “I don’t remember the inside of our house in Madryn Street.” However, he does remember his grandparents' house, which was on Madryn Street.^[5]

Elsie and Harry were persuaded to leave Admiral Grove for a house Ringo had bought them in Gateacre neighbourhood of Liverpool. Ringo would pay homage to both his Madryn Street and Admiral Grove addresses in his 2008 song Liverpool 8.

See also

• 251 Menlove Avenue – childhood home of John Lennon; a National Trust property
• 12 Arnold Grove – birthplace of George Harrison
• 20 Forthlin Road– childhood home of Paul McCartney; another National Trust property

References