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Ringo Starr and John Lennon spent years together in The Beatles and, unlike relations between other band members, remained on good terms after the split. Starr even bought Lennon’s sprawling Berkshire mansion when he and Yoko Ono moved to New York. When Starr moved in, he hired builders to work on the property. They found a number of Lennon’s possessions in the home, which Starr reportedly told them to burn.

A black and white picture of Ringo Starr and John Lennon in the doorways of neighboring homes.
Ringo Starr and John Lennon | Stan Meagher/Express/Getty Images

John Lennon and Yoko Ono purchased a mansion in 1969

In 1969, Lennon and Ono purchased Tittenhurst Park, a Georgian country house in the English county of Berkshire. The 26-room home sat on 72 acres, and Lennon poured money into renovating the property. He added an artificial lake, a swimming pool, a sauna, and the Ascot Sound recording studio. The Beatles had their photoshoot for the Hey Jude album cover on the grounds.

By 1971, The Beatles had split up, and Lennon wanted to establish himself as an artist outside the band. He wanted to escape the confines of fame and decided to move to New York to do so.

Ringo Starr moved into John Lennon’s former home

Two years after Lennon grew disenchanted with his mansion, Starr began noticing cracks in his marriage to his wife, Maureen Starkey.

“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?'”

They decided to move, and Lennon had recently put his house on the market, realizing he would not be returning to England. Starr bought the home and renamed Ascot Sound recording studio Startling Studios. Both he and his friends recorded there. 

Though Lennon had made extensive renovations in the short time he lived there, Starr also hired builders. When they discovered clothes, writings, and other personal belongings that Lennon left behind, Starr reportedly told them to “put them in the ground and burn them.”

Ringo Starr spent time with John Lennon when his marriage began to crumble

Though Starr’s instruction to burn Lennon’s belongings seems harsh, he remained on good terms with Lennon. When he learned Starkey was having an affair with George Harrison, Starr flew to Los Angeles to spend time with Lennon in a beach house. Here, they worked on Harry Nilsson’s album and spent many late nights out at bars. 

“I was up next, usually around ten, followed by John an hour later,” Lennon’s girlfriend May Pang wrote 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.'”

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