The dark wizard identified as "Lord Voldemort" was born at an orphanage in London in 1926. His mother, a witch and a descendant of Salazar Slytherin had fallen in love with Tom Riddle, a Muggle, according to Voldemort. Tom Riddle resided in a beautiful mansion on a hill overlooking the town of Little Hangleton. The manor home was one of the largest and most impressive structures for kilometers around. When Voldemort's mother informed him that she was a witch, he abandoned her and returned to his parents' house. According to Lord Voldemort, his father "didn't enjoy the magic." Voldemort's mother died shortly after giving birth to him, leaving him only long enough to be named Tom Riddle after his father and Marvolo after his grandfather. He grew up in a Muggle orphanage.

Tom was reared in a tidy but harsh Muggle orphanage in London for the first eleven years of his existence. He began to steal items as he grew older and appeared to cause "nasty" things to happen to the other children and creatures in the orphanage.