📍Temple Hill, Dartford, Kent DA1, UK
1943 – 1962“Keith Richards was the only child of Bert, a factory worker, and Doris, who loved music and played the radio constantly, and he grew up on the Temple Hill council estate in Dartford, the riverside town at the edge of Kent. The great musical figure of his childhood was his grandfather, Gus Dupree, who had toured Britain with his own dance band. Gus kept a guitar on top of his upright piano and told Keith that when he could reach it, he would teach him; one day he caught the boy balancing on a chair and a stack of books to get at it, and gave in. At Dartford Technical School, the choirmaster picked Keith as one of a trio of boy sopranos who sang at Westminster Abbey for the young Queen. When his voice broke and he was dropped from the choir, he lost interest in school, and in 1959 he was expelled for truancy and moved on to Sidcup Art College, where he played guitar in the toilets between classes. Two years later he recognised an old primary-school friend, Mick Jagger, on the platform at Dartford station. He has always said Gus was his greatest influence.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today