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Rolling Stones wildman Keith Richards pops in to Darling Buds of Kent florist in Dartford

It’s not every day a music legend pulls up outside your front door and chats over a cuppa - but that is exactly what happened to florists Andrew Dellow and Lorna Chapman.

The couple were astounded when Rolling Stones wildman Keith Richards visited their shop, Darling Buds of Kent in Dartford.

For it was here, in a two-bedroom flat above the shop in Chastilian Road, that the multimillionaire musician spent the early years of his life.

Andrew Dellow and co-owner, Lorna Chapman of The Darling Buds of Kent florist with Keith Richards
Andrew Dellow and co-owner, Lorna Chapman of The Darling Buds of Kent florist with Keith Richards

In his documentary Under the Influence, released on Netflix to promote his first studio album in 23 years, the guitarist and songwriter gives a revealing insight into his early life and the important influence of his parents Doris and Bertrand and grandfather, jazz musician Gus Dupree.

He talks poignantly of how his mum was “a wizard of the radio dial” and they would listen to Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong “with a dash of Mozart”, in the tiny flat.

It was in November 2008 while researching his autobiography, Life, he made his impromptu and entourage-free visit to his former childhood home.

Not only did he enjoy a cup of tea – strong with five sugars – but he also had his photograph taken with Andrew and Lorna, signed memorabilia and shared stories of how as youngsters he and Mick Jagger would throw rotten fruit at each other – in those days the shop below was a greengrocer’s.

A plaque on the wall of The Darling Buds of May florist
A plaque on the wall of The Darling Buds of May florist

And his visit made such an impression that the couple now plan to name their vintage tearoom in the garden behind the florist shop in Richards’ honour.

“We are thinking of calling it Rolling Scones, or maybe Keef’s Cafe,” said Andrew, 53, who worked at the luxury London hotel and restaurant Claridge’s for 10 years before venturing into floristry 18 years ago.

“We hope to open next spring and will have vintage tables and chairs, wall signs and even a till that is 100 years old. Maybe Keith will open the tearoom for us.”

When Richards made his surprise visit he was wearing his familiar necklace chains and leather and stepped out of a black Chrysler PT Cruiser with his wife and one of his three daughters.

“When he got out I said: ‘Look who it is’. We had a picture of him upstairs and I ran out and got it and asked him to sign it.

“He then went around the corner and when he came back he came into the shop. We had a cup of tea with him in the garden and a chat.

“He was a really nice bloke and very talkative. He was actually very well-spoken, very polite – he wouldn’t have a cigarette even in the garden – and sounded quite educated. He was here for about an hour and it only caused a stir after he had gone. People were coming in and asking about him.”

During his visit, Richards also ventured into the upstairs flat.

Andrew Dellow, co-owner of The Darling Buds of Kent florist with a visitor book
Andrew Dellow, co-owner of The Darling Buds of Kent florist with a visitor book

“Mick used to live around the corner and Keith told us they used to throw rotten fruit from the shop at each other,” said Andrew.

When Andrew and Lorna, 54, bought the property they were aware of its famous past, but were mistakenly told by the former owner that the resident in question was Cliff Richard.

A plaque highlighting the shop’s connections to Richards has been temporarily put up by his record company to one of its outside walls to promote the album, Crosseyed Heart.

Film crews and fans are also regular visitors and it is a stop-off point on an official Satisfaction Tour experience along with Richards’ and Jagger’s first school, Wentworth Primary, and Dartford railway station where the pair rekindled their friendship and lay the foundations for their music career.

“We have had hundreds of fans here, usually from South America and Japan, and they come into the garden and have a look in his room,” said Andrew.

The Rollings Stones on tour in Australia
The Rollings Stones on tour in Australia

“One fan came in with a guitar. He was about 19 or 20 and from Argentina and he even deleted photos of Buckingham Palace on his phone so he could take some here. He sat in the garden playing and crying, saying it was too much. He was very passionate.”

In his autobiography, Richards talks about that same visit to his childhood home, made some 35 years after he had last been there.

He went with his wife Patti and daughter Angela who was, he says, “native” to Dartford, having been brought up by his mum.

Richards describes how the florist proprietor, as he refers to Andrew, “behaved as if he was expecting me, the picture ready, as unsurprised as if I came every week”.

He also recalls the moment he stepped back inside his old bedroom, and how he knew the exact number of stairs he had to climb to reach it.

“Tiny room, exactly the same, and Bert and Doris in the tiny room across a three-foot landing,” he says.

He also gives an insight into how he dreamt of fame and fortune in that very room when, during that same visit to his home town, he stopped to sign autographs for staff in the hair salon next door to the florist's, Hi-Lites.

The Darling Buds of Kent florist
The Darling Buds of Kent florist

Despite being 65 at the time, he flirted with women of all ages, telling them he had forgotten what it was like to be “mobbed by Dartford girls”.

Recalling the conversation that took place, Richards writes that when one fan told him her colleagues were too young to remember him, he replied: “Whatever you’re listening to now, they wouldn’t have been there without me. I’m going to have dreams about this place tonight.”

But contrary to popular belief that he spent the first six years of his life in the council-owned flat, Richards says in his book that he did not live there until 1949 – when he would have been six – and left in 1952, moving to a semi-detached council house in Spielman Road, Temple Hill.

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