SAVE Blog - 21 Madryn Street: the house that refused to die
Madryn Street, condemned by the council but still standing
Our house: the front has been rebuilt but the interior is largely intact
Paul from Camelot tackles the broken front door
6 June 2011
Madryn Street is in the 'Welsh Streets' area of Toxteth, not far from the centre of Liverpool. It is one of several streets of 19th-century housing designated for demolition under a now defunct government housing scheme called Pathfinder. Beatles drummer Ringo Starr was born at No.9.
Over the last 5 years, the council, with the help of its social landlord, Plus Dane, has acquired, emptied and boarded up almost all the properties in the area. The housing stock, valued at £30m, has been allowed to decay, with the council writing off millions of pounds of value each year, ready to hand over the land at a knock down price to the developer Gleeson Homes. There are currently no plans for any new development and no money to pay for it, but the council is still hell-bent on demolition.
In April the council approved the demolition of nearly 200 houses in phase 1 of the Welsh Streets clearance scheme, but this has been stalled by the government, which may order a full environmental assessment to be undertaken first.
In the meantime SAVE has managed to acquire the last private house in Madryn Street, No.21, which it plans to refurbish. In this way SAVE intends to reverse the decline of the street, draw national attention to the scandalous waste of good housing stock and expose the way in which the council is knocking holes in fine 19th-century suburbs of Liverpool and blighting whole neighbourhoods to honour deals with developers. We believe what has happened to the once thriving community in the Welsh Streets amounts to a national scandal.
SAVE purchased the property in May 2011. Here follows the diary of the 21 Madryn Street, the House that Refused to Die.