John Lennon and Ringo Starr maintained the relationship they built while together in The Beatles after the band split. On one occasion, Starr acquired Lennon’s Sprawling Berkshire mansion after he and his wife, Yoko Ono, relocated to New York.
The now-82-year-old started working on renovating the house to fit his taste, and during the course, some of Lennon’s possessions was discovered in the home, and Starr reportedly asked the builders to burn them.
Lennon and Ono bought a new home
#OTD in 1969, the Tittenhurst Park photo session takes place. It would turn out to be The Beatles’ last photo shoot as a band. pic.twitter.com/zO9CgYubLF
— The Beatles (@thebeatles) August 22, 2022
The same year Lennon and Ono married, the couple bought Tittenhurst Park, a 26-room Georgian country house in the English county of Berkshire. This became the mansion where The Beatles had their photoshoot for the Hey Jude album cover. Lennon invested a lot in designing the 72-acre property by adding an artificial lake, a swimming pool, a sauna, and the Ascot Sound recording studio.
In 1970, the Beatles disbanded, and by 1971 Lennon decided to progress his career as a solo artist. The musician moved to New York to make this dream come true.
Ringo Starr’s reasons for acquiring Lennon’s former home
At that point in Ringo’s life, everything seemed like it was not working, from his marriage with his wife, Maureen Starkey, to his band, The Beatles.
“One thing that we always forget is how young they were,” Chris O’Dell, a friend of the couple, said, per the book Ringo: With a Little Help by Michael Seth Starr. “I mean, they got married when they were very young, she was very young, and they went through a lot. Very few people survive through a huge amount of success and fame. They were exceedingly famous, and I think their marriage began to disintegrate around the time that The Beatles and Apple, and everything else was disintegrating. I think it was a normal time for them to be going, ‘Well, what do we do now?’”
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Starr made a move to purchase Lennon’s house so he could have a fresh start. After buying the home, he renamed Ascot Sound recording studio as Startling Studios, where he and his friends recorded their music. Even though Lennon had already made many changes to the house during his stay there. Starr also hired contractors to redesign some parts to fit his needs. During the process, they found some personal items left behind by Lennon, and Starr reportedly ordered them to “put them in the ground and burn them.”
Ringo Starr stood by Lennon during his relationship fallout with Ono
Tuesday, 8 December 1980 we all had to say goodbye to John peace and love John. I’m asking Every music radio station in the world sometime today play Strawberry Fields Forever. Peace and love. 😎✌️🌟❤️🎶🎼💝☮️ pic.twitter.com/dAEgekrvmW
— #RingoStarr (@ringostarrmusic) December 8, 2020
Despite this decision, the duo maintained a good relationship with one another. This was evident in his trip to Los Angeles to stay with Lennon when his wife was cheating. They spent quality time together and worked on Harry Nilsson’s album during that period.
“I was up next, usually around ten, followed by John an hour later,” Lennon’s girlfriend at the time, May Pang, detailed in her book Loving John. “Ringo and Harry would be next. They always came down in their bathrobes and always wore dark sunglasses, and say, ‘Daylight hurts.’”