Sean Smith - Adele

Tottenham, at that time, would have won votes in a contest to decide the least attractive place to live in England. Much of the negativity came from the fallout from the notorious Broadwater Farm riots in October 1985. Penny was still a schoolgirl when the disenchanted young black men of the neighbourhood took to the streets following the death of local mum Cynthia Jarrett. She died from a heart attack when four police officers arrived unannounced to search her home in nearby Thorpe Road. During the subsequent unrest, which included the use of guns and petrol bombs, a policeman, PC Keith Blakelock, was hacked to death.

Marc helped Penny move in to an upstairs unfurnished flat in a street that had little to recommend it. It would be home to her and her daughter for the next nine years. An elderly couple, Henry and Jane Barley, lived downstairs and, in the years to come, they would watch Adele if her mother had to pop out. Marc wasn’t living there at first. About a month after they had settled in, he gave up his own place and joined them.

Together the new family took the train to Penarth to introduce Adele to her Welsh grandparents. Penny could be forgiven for being apprehensive. She had never met Marc’s parents before and here she was arriving on the doorstep with a baby in her arms. His mother, however, had a natural empathy with her. She’d had Marc when she was eighteen and understood perfectly what it was like to be a teenage mum. His father, too, appreciated the difficulties of being young parents starting out in life.

Marc recalled, ‘My mum was very gooey about the baby, while my father was more like, “Oh, very nice”, because all babies look the same, don’t they? It was very daunting for Penny, as you can imagine, but they are very easy-going and laid-back people and they made her very welcome. She was relaxed within an hour and they were the best of friends from then on.’

South Wales would be a home from home for Adele over the coming years. Her Welsh grandparents were important people in her life and the frequent trips across the Severn Bridge were among the best times of her childhood.

Back in London, Penny set about turning the flat into the home she wanted, grabbing unwanted furniture from her sisters or searching vintage shops for a bargain. Adele has often described her mother as ‘arty’ and their flat reflected her taste. It helped that she could fill the wall space with her own work. Marc had his window-cleaning round and, in the early years, Penny claimed the benefits she was entitled to. Adele didn’t go short of the things that every baby needs. As Marc observed, ‘Penny was never skint. She had a huge family, she had me, she had my parents and she didn’t want for anything.’

Penny is particularly close to her sisters, Kim and Nita, who have seven children between them. She also has two brothers, Gary and John Anthony. In total, Adele had something like thirteen cousins living in the Tottenham area, so there were always playmates growing up. She has often joked that she would visit her relations and enjoy the chaos of so many children playing together and then go home to her neat bedroom, where everything was in its place. Her room was never that tidy though.

Everyone clubbed together to buy Penny an old Citroën 2CV, one of those timeless designs with the roll-top roof, which perfectly suited a young woman with bohemian tastes. She could strap her baby in and be round at her mum’s or elder sisters’ houses in a couple of minutes.

Marc was proud to be the dad of such a sweet baby, who didn’t give her parents many sleepless nights. He liked nothing better than to come home and find Penny playing lullabies on her guitar to her sleeping daughter. ‘She was very talented with a guitar,’ he recalled.

All should have been set fair for the couple, but the reality was that they were two young people thrown together more by fate than compatibility. ‘I loved Penny,’ said Marc, ‘but after a few months the chemistry began to go.’ Eventually, when Adele was nine months old, they split up.

It had never been a secret that Marc was Adele’s dad, but he wasn’t named as the father on Adele’s birth certificate. Penny told him she had left the space blank. A practical woman, she may or may not have been influenced by her need to move quickly up the housing ladder. Her decision didn’t have an impact on their break-up in any way; in fact, it probably made it easier for them to resume separate lives. They remained on good terms with one another.

Marc didn’t go far. He moved into a house share near The Flask pub in Highgate. He would still see plenty of Penny and Adele and would frequently stay over in Shelbourne Road. He never had a formal agreement with Penny about supporting her. If he had a good week, he would hand over a wad of cash or come bearing gifts of clothes and toys. And his father, who was quite well off by this time, gave Penny a monthly allowance to help out.

When Adele was a bit older, Marc would take her to the London Zoo in Regent’s Park, which she loved. He recalled, ‘She loved the monkeys most of all. To a child, they are naughty, aren’t they?’ Marc used to tease his daughter: ‘I shall never forget one day at the zoo when she went to the loo, came out and saw that I had a scratch on my hand.’

‘What happened to you, Dad?’ asked Adele.

He replied, ‘Well, the lion jumped over the fence and had me.’

‘She looked at me, eyes wide, and said, “Oh did he, Dad?”’

There was never any question of Penny and Marc getting back together. He started going out with a school teacher and their relationship quickly became serious. When Adele was two, Marc’s father asked him to go back to South Wales for the summer and help him run a takeaway outlet that he had taken for the season on Barry Island, a few miles along the coast from Penarth. Where Marc and his father were based later became famous as the setting for the popular comedy series Gavin and Stacey . Holidaymakers would queue up at one of three counters for burgers, hot dogs, ice cream, candy floss or sticks of rock and then eat them strolling along the front.

The first year was not a success, perhaps because of the decline in visitors to the resort, so at the end of the summer season Marc went back to London to be close to Adele and his friends. He also kept in close touch with his brother Richard, who was happily settled in the capital. They used to meet most weeks for a pint and a catch-up at the Punch and Judy. The following summer, Marc’s father decided they should have another go with the Barry venture. The lease cost £18,000 for the season, so it wasn’t something to be undertaken lightly. He asked Marc to take charge while he continued to run the plumbing business.

Penny brought her daughter down to see everyone and they stayed at the house in Penarth. Adele, who was now three, loved playing along the promenade or going to Rabaiotti’s for one of their renowned knickerbocker glories. It was a huge treat for a little girl living in Tottenham. If he had the time, Marc would take her swimming. He had already taught her to swim at the local leisure centre, within walking distance of Shelbourne Road, and it’s the one sport she enjoyed.

At the end of the summer, Marc decided not to return to London this time. He wanted to see how things would work out in South Wales. Life had moved on for both him and Penny. She now had a steady boyfriend, so the days of casually dropping in to see his ex and his daughter were at end. Penny was still only twenty-one and had her whole life in front of her. She was determined that having Adele to care for wasn’t going to stop her living her life. They were a team.

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