Beatles themed-pub goes up at auction for £275,000

A Beatles-themed pub is going up at auction for £275,000 - and it comes with a very special link to Ringo Starr.

Fab Four fans are being urged to want to raise your hand and bid for the former Empress pub just yards from drummer Ringo's birthplace and his childhood home.

The building featured on the cover of his first solo LP Sentimental Journey in 1970, in tribute to its importance to him when growing up - as his local pub and where his mother Elsie worked as a barmaid.

It now also boasts a spectacular Beatles- and especially Ringo-themed mural across the outside, painted on in 2022 and swiftly becoming a popular Liverpool visitor attraction - while there is plenty more vibrant artwork about the band indoors.

The bar has been closed in recent years but SDL Property Auctions are now offering the chance to buy and run both a pub and a seven-room Airbnb upstairs.

The guide price for the February 14 auction has been set at £275,000 plus fees.

The previous day the same firm will be auctioning another eye-catching Liverpool property - this one a two-bedroomed terraced house and former Airbnb less than a mile from Liverpool's Anfield football stadium.

The home features internal artwork celebrating Reds stars such as current winger Luis Díaz, former captain Steven Gerrard and other stars.

The property firm believes any buyer who snaps up the Beatles lot could bring in between £40,000 and £50,000 in rental income each year if let as a pub and HMO, or houses of multiple occupation.

The auctioneer and SDL Property Auctions managing director Andrew Parker insisted proceeds could 'significantly increase' if used as an Airbnb or holiday rental.

He said: 'We’re offering a unique opportunity to secure a piece of Beatles history, not to mention an ongoing business investment, subject to a scheme of refurbishment work for the former pub.

'The pub is not currently trading - however, it still regularly attracts tourists visiting the property to take photos and soak up the ambiance that the impressive building displays.'

The upper floors have been used as Beatles-themed Airbnb lets, although suggestions of a Fab Four gift shop on the ground floor have not yet happened.

A SDL Property Auctions spokesperson said the pub was 'still as it was with an original bar' and offers 'potential for many uses as well as the gift shop'.

The property is at 93 High Park Street in Liverpool's Toxteth district, not far from 9 Madryn Street where Ringo was born in July 1940.

Just around the corner is what would be his main childhood home 10 Admiral Grove.

He has fondly recalled drinking in the Empress as a youth and singing along with old musical standards - a selection of which he covered on his Sentimental Journey LP.

The cover image by Dutch photographer Richard Polak shows the pub with tuxedo-clad Ringo superimposed at the front door while pictures of family members appear in the windows.

The album, released around the same time as The Beatles' final studio LP Let It Be and Paul McCartney's self-titled debut, featured Ringo singing family favourites previously performed by the likes of Doris Day, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.

These included the title track as well as Cole Porter's Night And Day, Whispering Grass and Love Is A Many Splendored Thing - and the album reached seven in the UK charts despite being panned by many critics at the time.

Yet Starr insisted he wanted to record some of his mother Elsie Starkey's favourite songs and she backed the idea of a first solo album, assuring him about his voice.

The pub building's huge three-storey Beatles mural was unveiled in March 2022.

Liverpool artist and Beatles fan John Culshaw said at the time: 'There were designs with all The Beatles but, after meetings with the building’s owner, we made Ringo the main feature because of his link to the area.'

The two-bedroom terrace house in Admiral Grove - where Ringo held a party to celebrate his 21st birthday and lived until he was 23 - sold for £70,000 in an auction at the city's legendary Cavern Club in March 2016.

Beatles fans have campaigned for his 9 Madryn Street birthplace to be preserved by the National Trust but it rejected an offer to take over the lease in 2019.

Starr referred to both his childhood addresses in the title track of his 2008 album Liverpool 8.

The lyrics include, 'Liverpool I left you, said goodbye to Madryn Street - I always followed my heart, and I never missed a beat'.

They later add: 'Liverpool I left you, said goodbye to Admiral Grove - I always followed my heart, so I took it on the road.'

The Beatles returned to the top of the singles charts last November with Now And Then, an old Lennon demo reworked by Starr, now 83, and 81-year-old McCartney.

The timed auction of the old Empress building starts at 12noon on February 14.

The same time the previous day will be when 4 Morecambe Street, with the Liverpool FC artwork, also opens to timed auction bids.

Mail Online told earlier this month about another SDL Property Auctions sale of a Liverpool home - a city centre 'pod' flat made available for just £1.

The Hong Kong-based owner of the one-bedroom studio apartment in Wright Street, where neighbouring properties have been marketed for up to £139,000, is said to be 'desperate to sell' what agents insist could be a 'high yield' investment.