The Mirror, September 19, 2000
WITHIN THESE WALLS: ; HOUSES WITH CELEBRITY SECRETS;
MURDER, POP STARDOM AND A PRIME-TIME TV SHOW HAVE MADE THE HOMES FEATURED HERE FAMOUS AROUND THE WORLD. SO WHAT'S IT LIKE WHEN THE ROOF OVER YOUR HEAD ATTRACTS ALL THE ATTENTION?

Beatrice Newbery

[snip]

Wendy Walton, 39, lives in the council house in Manchester where Morrissey, lead singer of The Smiths, grew up.

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Wendy Walton still gets fan mail addressed to Steven Morrissey, even though the Morrissey family moved out of their council house in Stretford, Manchester, in 1989 - when Wendy moved in. Without a forwarding address for the former lead singer of The Smiths, who is now based in Los Angeles, Wendy opens his mail out of curiosity. 'One girl asked Morrissey to her wedding,' she says. And two teenage boys, composing their own songs, wrote, 'We thought you'd like these,' and included photographs of over-grown graveyards, presumably inspired by Morrissey's song Cemetry Gates.

Wendy didn't know that her flat was Morrissey's childhood home until she met her new neighbours. 'He was weird,' says Hilda from next door. 'A strange one, hardly spoke and kept himself to himself.' All reinforcing Morrissey's reputation as a loner who had a morbid, depressive childhood.

The house in Manchester's suburbs, where he lived between the ages of ten and 24, sits on a main road with a garden that was overgrown with nettles and weeds. 'The house was falling down,' recalls Wendy. 'Plaster was coming off the walls.'

The house is small, although Morrissey lived there with his parents, Peter and Betty, and younger sister Jackie, until his father moved out when Morrissey was 17. Morrissey slept in a little room at the front. 'Not more than a box room really,' says Wendy. There he wrote short stories, spent hours brooding, or occasionally overcame his shyness to invite friends over to listen to the Top 20.

Wendy had to wait two years for the council to redecorate, so she made a start by stripping off the peeling wallpaper. Underneath she found a list of the Top 10, with Lulu's Boom Bang-a-Bang at number one. 'It was written in felt-tip pen, and must have been in 1969 when Steven was ten. Next to it was drawn a profile of a face, with "Morrissey" written underneath. Even at that age, he must have called himself Morrissey, not Steven.'

More secrets were uncovered in the garden. 'Buried at the back was a mattress, tiles, a gate post, and a Matchbox car which must have belonged to Morrissey when he was little. It took a whole skip to get rid of all the rubbish, although I kept the car for my son. I don't know where it is now. I should have held on to it - it might have been of interest.'

Today, the garden is full of flowers, the house has been redecorated, and it's hardly recognisable as Morrissey's family home. But that doesn't stop people flying from all over the world to see it. 'One man from America knocked and we talked on the doorstep. He seemed so nice I let him in for a quick look. He was over the moon and couldn't wait to go back and say he'd been inside Morrissey's house.' Wendy doesn't usually let in strangers. 'One day, a boy came and sat at my garden gate for two hours with a bunch of flowers. Then he left, taking the flowers with him. It was Morrissey's birthday.'

While the house isn't on Manchester's tourist route, busloads of the more determined pass by. 'I was watching TV one afternoon, and there was a flash of light, like lightning. A coach was driving past full of Japanese people - it had been all the cameras flashing.'

But while she enjoys the interest in her house, Wendy has never been drawn to Morrissey's music.

'It's too depressing. He must have been a very lonely lad to sing songs like that.' And even though her son sleeps in the singer's old bedroom, he's too young, at seven, to be excited by The Smiths. But she does have a message for the star: 'If you'd like your fan mail forwarded, let me know your address.'

[end snip]