The Fox Inn on Byrom Street is seen here one hundred years ago as a Groves & Whitnall's house. The Fox is featured heavily in Frank Heaton's The Manchester Village: Deansgate Remembered with Doris Brack, whose father William Henry Forth ran the pub for years in the late 18th century, reminiscing. It is pictured as a Groves & Whitnall house advertising Bass's Bottled Ales, Guinness's Bottled Stout and Mild 'C' Ale, with the Vault and Bar Saloon also signed in the windows [1].
Fox Inn, Byrom Street. (c) Frank Heaton/Neil Richardson [1].
Drinkers in the Fox tended to be railwaymen in the morning (often from 6am), businessmen and gamblers during the day, locals in the evening, with older women sitting the snug and chaps in the vault. But, unlike many other Deansgate pubs, the prostitutes of Severn Street and Camp Street weren't welcome in the Fox as landlord Forth ran a tight ship, although he often showed his generous side by letting returning or visiting soldiers stay for free in his lodgings. The Fox Inn closed in about 1939 after Forth had died a decade earlier. Groves & Whitnall surrendered its licence along with a few other of their city centre pubs in exchange for a new licence for their Mersey Hotel on Princess Road, West Didsbury [1].
1. The Manchester Village: Deansgate Remembered, Frank Heaton/Neil Richardson (1995).
I met Doris Brack when she was an old Lady,when she was a young girl she and my mother were best friends,this was about the time of the first world war and this is mentioned by Doris in,The Manchester Village.My great grandparents,Grandparents and parents came from this little area. I note there is no mention of the Queens ( Bottom Hamers )at the other end of Grove St or the Bridgewater Arms. Alan Jennings.
ReplyDeleteWow! The only copy of that Deansgate book that I can find online comes in at £25 secondhand.
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