The Robin Hood was an odd looking grey brick Robinson's house on Upper Lloyd Street in Greenheys (or Moss Side), and one of many pre-match boozers frequented by Blues. The Robin Hood closed well before Manchester City moved from Moss Side to Bradford and has been an appliances shop for years.
Shown as a Robinson's house in 1971, it was a rough and ready locals boozer, heavily frequented by the Afro-Caribbean community. There is a wonderful photo of a crowd gathered outside the Robin Hood at Mancky [1]. A fine Clement Cooper mini-documentary on black culture in Moss Side featured the Robin Hood in the 1980s, and later after it had closed and become filled with washing machines and cookers [2 - link now dead].
"The opening sequence concentrates on day to day events taking place within the pub as they have always been doing for countless years without change. A mid-morning card game slips by to a lilting reggae beat into an afternoon of volatile dominoes played for pennies. Life outside, casually observed through ornate stained glass windows tinged acrid yellow with the last drifting whiffs of stale tobacco smoke, carries on regardless. Doing what merciless time has and will always do, progress. Leaving the Robin Hood pub and the lives of all the unemployed middle-aged patrons seeking refuge and solace in there far, far behind [2 - link now dead]."
"The opening sequence concentrates on day to day events taking place within the pub as they have always been doing for countless years without change. A mid-morning card game slips by to a lilting reggae beat into an afternoon of volatile dominoes played for pennies. Life outside, casually observed through ornate stained glass windows tinged acrid yellow with the last drifting whiffs of stale tobacco smoke, carries on regardless. Doing what merciless time has and will always do, progress. Leaving the Robin Hood pub and the lives of all the unemployed middle-aged patrons seeking refuge and solace in there far, far behind [2 - link now dead]."
This passage about the Moss Side Carnival gives further indication of the type of inner city pub the Robin Hood was: "When I moved to Acomb Street my friend Joe, who grew up on Cowesby Street, made me swear on my life that I would never go into the Robin Hood pub which was very close by. He wouldn’t tell me why, but he implied that this was for my own safety [1]."
"I probably would never have gone in the pub anyway but I was always intrigued by Joe’s dire warning. When the carnival parade made its way along Lloyd Street, the people in the Robin Hood came outside to watch. This was my chance to see what the regulars looked like without going inside, so I took a picture of them. They didn’t look scarey after all – but they had great hats [1]."
"I probably would never have gone in the pub anyway but I was always intrigued by Joe’s dire warning. When the carnival parade made its way along Lloyd Street, the people in the Robin Hood came outside to watch. This was my chance to see what the regulars looked like without going inside, so I took a picture of them. They didn’t look scarey after all – but they had great hats [1]."
1. http://www.mancky.co.uk/?p=1654
2. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE4ZLKw3JdA (link now dead).
Myself and two friends used yo love over the 23rd from the pub on upper Lloyd st. In the winter we sometimes had a thick fog which gave us the courage to run over to the pub and throw fireworks inside the porch doorway then put a stick between the handles on the outside allowing us time to escape . We then watched from a upstairs window over the 23rd where we lived at the Jamaican folk scratching their heads and shouting
ReplyDeleteBLOODCLARTS we will kick it arses if we find you. Great days of fun for three young boys were had.
The more elaborate frontage for this pub was round the back in the paralell Maine Road, the football ground side. The Blue tiled frontage is still there in all its glory, although slightly derelict and closed.
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