It’s a big win for fans of the Beatles. The birthplace of Ringo Starr on Liverpool’s Madryn Drive has been saved from being destroyed for urban development.
Ringo Starr 2012
Almost two years ago, plans were announced to demolish the home along with 444 others in what was a multi-phase process to improve the rundown section of the city. The home itself had been in disrepair and the windows were boarded up to stop fans from ransacking what was left.
Philip Coppell, a Beatles tour guide for over two decades, started the Save Madryn Street Society, working with the Liverpool City Council to try and stop the project. In early 2011, the cause was dealt a blow when the English Heritage Society ruled that home was not important enough to be added to their preservation list.
In stepped British Housing Minister Grant Shapps who took up the cause to and asked the Liverpool Council to hold off on the demolition until alternate plans could be studied. On Wednesday, Shapps proudly announced that the house would be preserved along with 15 others in that area of the city. Instead, the home will be refurbished.
Shapps said that it was through a “tide of community spirit” that the home will remain standing “but it’s also a lot more than that, a real example of communities having the power and voice to step in and save the places they treasure most. Its future will now be in the hands of local residents. If they can make a success of this street then many more similar houses and streets could be saved.”
Ringo is back out on the road with his 2012 All-Starr Band.
