Ringo Starr's old house to be taken down and stored as 11 streets are demolished

The Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | September 19, 2005 | Charles Clover

[Stoat]

Ringo Starr's old house to be taken down and stored as 11 streets are demolished

By Charles Clover, Environment Editor
(Filed: 19/09/2005)

The house where Ringo Starr was born will be taken down brick by brick and preserved, after an entire quarter of Toxteth is demolished around it, Liverpool City Council has announced.

The city's housing chiefs have been bitterly criticised by heritage groups and residents for plans to demolish the first home of the Beatles drummer in the Welsh Streets area.

	Saved: the former home of Ringo Starr in Madryn Street

The demolition is part of a £54 million regeneration plan to be funded under John Prescott's housing market renewal initiative.

The decision finally brought to an end months of uncertainty over the future of the 11 roads in Toxteth.

Flo Clucas, executive member for housing, said: "There has been a lot of speculation about Ringo Starr's former home in Madryn Street. I have asked officers to ensure that the property is taken down and stored."

Most of the 60 residents who packed the town hall to hear the decision held bright orange "demolish" posters and cheered at the decision.

Heritage groups reacted with disbelief to the decision to demolish the Welsh Streets - including a house ITV's Tonight with Trevor McDonald programme refurbished for £24,000 earlier this year.

Dr Peter Brown, chairman of Merseyside Civic Society, said of the council's decision: "For sheer surrealism this beats Yellow Submarine hands down - a ribald letter to the Telegraph months ago suggested as a joke the council take down Ringo's birthplace and re-erect it in their new 'Museum of Liverpool Life'; Cllr Clucas seems to have missed the irony. People like the city's authentic character, not packaged replicas."

[bethtopaz]

"extending furry stoat paw for a polite handshake"

I did feel a little "clawed" by your comment so I really appreciate the apology and it is well received.

By the way, what is a "stoat?"

[Stoat]

Regardless of the relative merits of their music, I still think that I would be aghast at the notion of taking a house apart, brick by brick, storing it, and then reassembling it at another location merely because of the fame of the person who once lived there. If the house was particularly beautiful and grand or represented an important architectural style then that might sway my opinion, but in looking at the Starr house, I see nothing remarkable about it whatsoever.

[SpringheelJack]

By the way, what is a "stoat?"

From his profile it appears to be a furry albino chipmunk with a neck mutation.

[buickmackane]

After this, I'm going to have "Back Off Boogaloo" stuck in my head for the rest of the night...

[Stoat]

By the way, what is a "stoat?"

Stoat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Stoat (Mustela erminea) is a small mammal of the family Mustelidae. In North America it is also referred to as the Short-tailed Weasel. When in its white winter coat, it is also called an Ermine

It is an opportunistic carnivore, and grows up to 30 cm long. It eats rabbits; rodents such as the mouse, vole and rat; other small mammals; birds and their eggs and young; and sometimes fish, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates. It is a very skillful tree climber and can descend a trunk headfirst, like a squirrel. The stoat is capable of killing animals much larger than itself

[SpringheelJack]

It's just weird, any way you look at it. If you appreciate the music, fine, but this hoarding of material --- even to taking apart a house brick by brick --- is borderline fetish. If I were Ringo I'd be creeped by people rummaging through my house and treating it like an artifact dug out of an Egyptian tomb just because I used to live there.

[Stoat]

From his profile it appears to be a furry albino chipmunk with a neck mutation.

That was terribly unkind.

"sniffle"

[Stoat]

After this, I'm going to have "Back Off Boogaloo" stuck in my head for the rest of the night...

My sincere apologies.  I know just how you feel....I felt the same way after I heard "The Ketchup Song" the first time.  Gadz!

[Stoat]

It's just weird, any way you look at it. If you appreciate the music, fine, but this hoarding of material --- even to taking apart a house brick by brick --- is borderline fetish. If I were Ringo I'd be creeped by people rummaging through my house and treating it like an artifact dug out of an Egyptian tomb just because I used to live there.

Agreed.  I wonder if anyone consulted him on this issue?  Too bad the usually-thorough Telegraph omits such an essential point.

[SpringheelJack]

That was terribly unkind.

Even the mutants need love and I'm glad you give it. Stoats are one of those things that make the world interesting and special. If I ever see a stoat I shall shake its hairy paw in your honor and pray it doesn't eat me. We'll have an understanding, right?

[Luddite Patent Counsel]

Actually, Stephen Foster's home has been preserved, and is still a tourist attraction. It was moved to Greenfield Village at the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, MI. I've been there, and it's pretty cool.

[fizziwig]

I think they should rebuild the house next to Pete Best's childhood home....That would drive him whacko all over again....ohhhh the pain...dam you brian epstein!

Best was a better drummer but just didn't mix well with the other three.

[SpringheelJack]

Actually, Stephen Foster's home has been preserved, and is still a tourist attraction.

Well I'll be damned. The world never changes. Marilyn Manson, you're next.

[Stoat]

Even the mutants need love and I'm glad you give it. Stoats are one of those things that make the world interesting and special. If I ever see a stoat I shall shake its hairy paw in your honor and pray it doesn't eat me. We'll have an understanding, right?

Thank you for your kind words.  I feel much better now  :-)

[bethtopaz]

Thanks! It's cute! I need one of those in my attic -- I have some little vermin up there!

[Luddite Patent Counsel]

I say buy now before the bidding goes through the roof:

Marilyn Manson's former Canton residence (1420 N.E. 35th St., Canton). Hugh and Barbara Warner raised their only son Brian in this nondescript brick bungalow until they moved to southern Florida in the late '80s.

[Stoat]

Actually, Stephen Foster's home has been preserved, and is still a tourist attraction. It was moved to Greenfield Village at the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, MI. I've been there, and it's pretty cool

Wow!  What an amazing coincidence!  Thanks for the information.

It's a nice-looking house, worthy of keeping (unlike Starr's, in my view)

Also, it's a whole lot easier to move a wood-frame house like that than a brick one.  You just jack it up, put it on a huge flatbed trailer ("lorry", for our dear British Friends) and off you go.  None of this business of painstakingly disassembling it brick by brick, numbering each brick, entering the number into the 3-D CAD database, carefully trucking it to a huge warehouse, carefully unloading and stacking the bricks so that none are chipped or broken.....and then carefully reversing the entire process when you decide where you want to build it....a HUGE difference.

If the Foster house had been a completely ordinary-looking brick box as the Starr home apparently is, would you want to pay to move it?  I'm not so sure that I would, considering the nonexistent architectural value and the incredible amount of trouble required to disassemble and then faithfully restore it as they intend to do with the Starr home.

What do you think?

[Stoat]

Thanks! It's cute! I need one of those in my attic -- I have some little vermin up there!

You're quite welcome  :-)

If they're Marxist vermin I'll do the job for free  :-)

"furry wink"

[bethtopaz]

I believe they are.

[Stoat]

I believe they are.

"loading shells into shotgun"

"kerchunk!"