John Lennon Memorials
Refurbished terraced house at 9 Madryn Street, Liverpool, Ringo Starr's birthplace, in 2020
Photo: Rodhullandemu, CC-BY-SA-4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

9 Madryn Street, Ringo Starr's Birthplace in Liverpool

Liverpool, United Kingdom

9 Madryn Street, in the Welsh Streets of Toxteth, Liverpool, is the terraced house where Ringo Starr was born on 7 July 1940; it was saved from Pathfinder demolition by government decisions between 2010 and 2015 and later refurbished.

9 Madryn Street is a Victorian terraced house in the Welsh Streets of Toxteth, Liverpool 8, where Ringo Starr was born on 7 July 1940. Regeneration plans marked the area for clearance, but government decisions between 2010 and 2015 kept the house standing. It was refurbished from 2018 and is lived in again.

A house in the Welsh Streets

Richard Starkey was born at number 9 on 7 July 1940. Welsh architect Richard Owens designed the Welsh Streets, and Welsh builders put them up for workers, most of them in jobs connected with the docks. The streets were finished around 1882 and named after places in Wales: Madryn, Powis, Voelas, Rhiwlas, Gwydir and others.

Accounts differ on how long he lived there. Several sources say he moved when his parents separated, when he was three. Wikipedia's Welsh Streets article says he stayed until he was four, and one local history blog puts it at about five months, allowing for time in hospital. What they agree on is that he grew up nearby at 10 Admiral Grove, about 120 m away.

Twelve years under a demolition plan

The Welsh Streets were included in the Housing Market Renewal programme, known as Pathfinder, which aimed to clear older terraces and build fewer new houses. In outline, the fight over the house went like this:

YearWhat happened
2003The threat to Starr's birthplace is announced.
2005Someone proposes taking the house down brick by brick and rebuilding it in the Museum of Liverpool Life. Starr says a rebuilt house would no longer be his birthplace. In a consultation, Madryn Street residents vote 33 to 1 against demolition.
October 2010The Beatles Story is the registered owner.
31 December 2010Housing minister Grant Shapps asks that no bulldozer move until community groups have had a chance to propose ways of keeping the house.
June 2011Eric Pickles rules that the clearance needs an Environmental Impact Assessment, following a challenge by SAVE Britain's Heritage.
2012Shapps visits and announces that number 9 and 15 neighbouring houses will be kept.
2014The empty house is valued at £525, down from about £60,000 a year earlier.
January 2015After a public inquiry, Pickles stops the wider demolition. He accepts the argument from SAVE and the National Trust that it would damage people's ability to understand Liverpool's Beatles heritage.

The house stayed on Beatles tour routes the whole time. Fans wrote messages on its boarded-up front.

Refurbished, not rebuilt

With demolition off the table, the council brought in Placefirst to refurbish the streets for rent. Its pilot houses on Voelas Street let in 2017. Madryn Street stayed derelict until 2018 and was then renovated along with the streets around it. In October 2019 the Welsh Streets scheme won the top residential award at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors awards. A photograph from April 2020 shows number 9 with a clean front, looking like its neighbours.

The house is someone's home, so you can only see it from the pavement. The neighbouring Powis Street stood in for Watery Lane in Peaky Blinders until refurbishment stopped filming there in 2017.

Common misconceptions

  • Claim9 Madryn Street is the house Ringo Starr grew up in.

    RecordHe was born there on 7 July 1940 but moved to 10 Admiral Grove, about 120 m away, in early childhood and lived there until 1963. Sources differ on when he moved: after three years, at four, or after about five months.

    Why the mix-upBoth houses are in Liverpool 8 and appear on the same tours, and the long demolition fight made Madryn Street the better-known address.

Nearby

Sources

  1. GOV.UK (Department for Communities and Local Government). Shapps moves to stop bulldozers demolishing Ringo Starr's birthplace (31 December 2010). Accessed 13 September 2026.
  2. SAVE Britain's Heritage. Pickles Deals Huge Blow to Welsh Streets Demolition Plans (17 June 2011). Accessed 13 September 2026.
  3. Wikipedia. Welsh Streets, Liverpool. Accessed 13 September 2026.
  4. Ultimate Classic Rock. Ringo Starr's Birthplace Saved from Demolition (3 June 2012). Accessed 13 September 2026.
  5. OpenStreetMap. Ringo Starr's Birth House. Accessed 13 September 2026.
  6. Aidan O'Rourke (blog). The Welsh influence in Liverpool. Accessed 13 September 2026.
  7. Wikimedia Commons. 9 Madryn Street, Liverpool 2020 (photo, April 2020). Accessed 13 September 2026.

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