Ringo Speaks

Despite what the council leader tried to claim recently, Ringo Starr was born at No.9 Madryn Street. To prove this, not only do we have a copy of his birth certificate in the SAVE office, but we also have the words of Ringo himself.

'I was born at Number 9 Madryn Street, Liverpool 8' are the first words, highlighted in bold, of Ringo's section of the Beatles Anthology, the band's authorised autobiography. 'Said goodbye to Madryn Street' is the lyric of his valedictory single 'Liverpool I love you', on his valedicoty solo album 'Liverpool 8'. A picture of an imposing Victorian pub at the end of the street, the Empress, fills the cover of his first solo album 'Journey'.

Ringo has spoken out in the past about the threatened demolition of Madryn Street under the controversial Pathfinder scheme. In an interview given in 2006 he said:

'Why are they knocking them down? If it is economically viable, they should do them up. Are they going to knock out the centre of Liverpool again? That's what they did before. They moved everybody to high-rise apartments outside the city and forgot to rebuild. I believe it's now very nice. They even have bathrooms, which we never had.'

No.9 Madryn Street (left) before it was emptied and boarded up

Since then Ringo has, understandably,  kept his distance from the controversey surrounding the proposed demolition of No.9. Yet, in a recent interview to mark the start of his European tour he made it clear that he would support the retention of the property:

Asked about the controversy over tearing down his birthplace at 9 Madryn Street, he said, 'Yeah, I keep getting letters. 'We're gonna tear your house down.' Then three months later, 'We're gonna save your house.' Then they were gonna save the house and put it somewhere else, which I didn't think was the right thing to do. If you're gonna save the house, save it where it was. So if they're saving it where it is, I'm all for it.'