FORMER Beatle Ringo Starr spoke for the first time last night about his old home in Liverpool being knocked down as part of the city's regeneration. Appearing at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show, he said he could not understand why 20,000 Merseyside homes, including his birthplace at 9 Madryn Street, Dingle, were being knocked down. Standing alongside his wife, Barbara Bach, the drummer 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." Ringo's former home, a 19th century terraced house, is threatened with demolition. The world-famous celebrity, who replaced Pete Best as the Beatles' drummer in 1962, was born in the Welsh streets and moved around the corner to Admiral Street where he lived for 20 years. He said: "I haven't lived there for so long. I believe it's now very nice. They even have bathrooms, which we never had," he added. Ringo said he had not seen the television programme Tonight with Trevor McDonald which restored a terraced house for £24,000, little more than the cost of demolishing it. The house in Powis Street has tripled in value since the television crew hired workmen and designers to make over the property set for demolition. The wide-spread demolition organised by the government's Pathfinder programme will see 450 homes in the area wiped out in a scheme similar to the 1960s slum clearance. Many streets in Anfield are already boarded up as tenants move out and homeowners wait to have their homes sold under compulsory buy-out orders. The Liverpool scheme is part of measures rolled out across the country where rows of terraced houses across northern England will be bulldozed down. The historical legacy of buildings used by the Beatles has come under fire in the past. In 1972 the Cavern, where the band started their career and caught the eye of talent spotters, was levelled. In addition the Woolton children's home Strawberry Fields, made famous by the band's hit song, is earmarked for closure in 2007. Sir Paul McCartney was the first Beatle to turn his childhood home into a tourist attraction in 1998. At the time 20 Forthlin Road, Allerton, made history as it was the first 20th century building to be acquired by the National Trust because of its significance to popular culture. Later, the Menlove Avenue home of John Lennon, where he lived with his Aunt Mimi, was donated to the National Trust by his widow, Yoko Ono. katemansey@dailypost.co.uk | 
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