Here are places where Webster Booth stayed during his lifetime, with photographs of the buildings.
Arbury Road, Nuneaton
Their first home as a married couple was at 33 Nineveh Road, Handsworth, and it was there that their eldest son, Edgar John Booth was born in 1890.
33 Nineveh Road, Handsworth
Webster's father's hairdressing shop was originally at 187 Soho Road. It is now the site of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Below: 157 Soho Road, Handsworth. The family moved from Nineveh Road to premises about the hairdressing shop in the mid 1890s.
When Webster Booth was 9 years old he was accepted as a chorister at Lincoln Cathedral.
Lincoln Cathedral, Lincoln (below)
Collage and photos: Charles S.P. Jenkins
After Webster's voice broke, he returned home to Handsworth and attended Aston Commercial School which had opened in 1915, with the idea of becoming an accountant like his older brother, Edwin Norman. Edgar Keey, the father of his first wife, Winifred, was the headmaster there.
Webster Booth married Winifred Keey at the Fulham Registry Office in 1924. They made their home in Prospect Road Moseley, where their son Keith was born on 12th June 1925. After Webster returned from a tour to Canada with D'Oyly Carte he decided to leave the company and become a freelance singer. He and his family went to London but in 1930 Winifred deserted Webster and they were divorced in 1931.
43 Prospect Road, Moseley, Birmingham (below) Photo: Michael Collen
Webster Booth left the D'Oyly Carte after the tour of Canada, changed his name from Leslie W. Booth, as he had been known in the D'oyly Carte Company to Webster Booth and went to live in London to try his luck as a freelance singer.
The family lived in Streatham Hill, the old home of Tom Howell, leader of the Opieros Concert Party with whom he sang for several seasons, and - at the time of his divorce from Winifred Keey - he was living in Biggin Hill.
Streatham Hill (1927 on)
Biggin Hill, 1931 (below)
In October 1932 Webster Booth married his second wife, Dorothy Annie Alice Prior, stage name Paddy Prior. Paddy Prior was a soubrette, dancer, mezzo soprano and comedienne who had been on the stage since her late teens. She was born in Chandos Road, Fulham on 4 December 1904. During their marriage - 1932-1938 they lived at 5 Crescent Court, Golders Green Crescent.
In 1934 Irene Frances Eastwood moved to London and changed her name to Anne Ziegler to appear as the top voice in the octet of By Appointment, starring Maggie Teyte. She lived at 72 Lauderdale Mansions, Lauderdale Road, Maida Vale.
Anne and Webster were married on 5 November 1938, first at Paddington Registry Office, then had their wedding blessed in a special service for divorced persons at St Ethelburga's Church, Bishopsgate.
Photo: Charles S.P Jenkins
Anne and Webster lived at the same address before and after his divorce from Paddy Prior in 1938 and in 1939 they moved into a bigger flat in the same building.
In 1941 they purchased a big house with a big garden from the theatrical couple, Ernest Butcher and Muriel George. This house was called Crowhurst at 98 Torrington Park, Friern Barnet N12.
Photos of Crowhurst today: Pamela Davies
Crowhurst sitting room today.
When
they returned from their concert tour to New Zealand, Australia and
South Africa in 1948, they realised that Crowhurst was too big for them
to manage at a time when it was difficult to find suitable domestic
staff. They decided to buy a smaller house at Frognal Cottage, 102 Frognal, Hampstead NW3.
They sold Frognal Cottage in 1952 and moved to a house nearby at 9 Ellerdale Road, Hampstead, where they remained until they left to settle in South Africa in 1956.
9 Ellerdale Road, Hampstead.
I have created a similar post of the South African and UK residences where Anne and Webster lived from 1956 to 1978.
Jeannie C July 2010.
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