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Princess, Mauldeth Road West, Moss Side. (c) ManMates [1].
The Princess was a huge boozer sat on the main Princess Road into town from the motorways and southern Manchester. It was on the corner of of Mauldeth Road West opposite Hough End playing fields and was an away fan friendly pub in its later years. The oddly shaped and distinctly 1930s architecture of the Princess is seen here in 1959 and then a decade later in 1970 as a Whitbread house. Although it stood closed for a number of years, it was demolished quite recently - I'd guess that it coincided with MCFC's move away from the area in about 2003 - and has been replaced by new build flats.
Former location of the Princess, Mauldeth Road West. (c) Google 2011. View Larger Map.
I think this had closed well before 2003, although it was still standing then. Very distinctive 1930s architecture - I'd describe it as a cross between Brewer's Tudor and Arts & Crafts.
ReplyDeleteYes, I can't ever remember it being open on the rare occasion I passed it in the 90s and early 00s. But then I was so focussed on the first pint of Holts of the morning in the Claremont...
ReplyDeleteDuring the 70s,this pub was the hub of the Withington,Fallowfield community.Massive interior,housed tv room,cards room,grill room,juke box room,huge central area with central bar.There was also a huge cellar vault round the back where you could go with your dad and have your first pint of chesters.There was also a room with a stage used for special occasions.The place was full all week with visitors and regulars,and packed at weekends.The bowling green at the back was used all the time.Sometime during the Thatcher era,whitbread decided to hand over its fate to a misguided bunch of graduates posing as Leisure industry supremos,who closed it down for 6 months around 1979,while the oak interiors were dragged out and replaced with a fake duck pond,mock swiss bar area,fake tree trunk seating,and wall mounted log cubicles to seat up to six diners at various heights.The novelty of the decor lasted about six weeks,and as visitors declined,the void was filled by hardened day time boozers who began to scrape at the decor and use the duck pond as a urinal/giant ash tray.The brewery tried to halt the decline by installing a mini bowling alley downstairs and this served as a fun house for local single parents and drunks for a short while.Needless to say ,like the Titanic,the Princess was sunk,with all its splendour and memories,including mine.My fondest memory was 1974,miners power cuts when we all still turned in one wednesday night for a pint,and were welcomed in to drink bottles of brown ale by candlelight,absolute magic!
ReplyDeleteI remember most of what you have described Kev. I used to go to the Princess with my dad occasionally, aged 16. He'd have a pint and I'd be allowed to have a half of lager. He didn't know that I'd been visting pubs for nearly two years and in the summer I'd sit and watch the bowlers on the green at the back. I also remember the time when it was turned into a restaurant and diners would sit and wait with a drink until they were called because their table was ready. I doubt there was ever a need for this, but it gave the place a posh air. If I remember there were also white plastic doves hanging from the ceiling around the fake trees. I went into the indoor bowling alley once, but the reason it didn't take off was that sometimes you'd have to wait an hour or more to get on
Deletekev,you are simply the greatest orator of local history known to man!
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the best pieces of writing I've read lamenting our lost pub culture, along with 'Shaman of Prestwich'. Come on Kev, do you fancy writing any more?
ReplyDeleteMy Grandparents were the licencees and i remember having my photo taken on a bench on the bowling green they left there and went to The Abercrobie bootle street in the 70s
ReplyDeleteLoved the prinney and the little disco downstairs. First kisses great dancing memories. Followed by the oakes and more dancing.
ReplyDeleteNever went inside the pub, but as a young lad I was nearly run over outside, crossing towards the prefabs...galloping back from the Saturday matinee at the Cresta in a world of my own.
ReplyDeleteI have fond memories of working there full time as a bar man between 1983 to 85 when it was a Beefeater Steakhouse. Both staff and customers were great to get on with.Sadly due to falling customer numbers in the restaurant upstairs,I along with others were made redundant.
ReplyDeleteWhat was the name of the skinhead programme that was filmed there in the 80s?
ReplyDeleteMy Mam was a barmaid at the Princess in the 60s, I still have a photo of her coming out after a Sunday lunchtime shift taken rather precariously on my brownie camera. She’s been gone 40 years now and I miss her everyday. My Dad went in there too and I remember going into the outdoor there as a kid to get some ciggies for him and seeing a couple of coppers in uniform having a pint in the bar, this was before Chief constable James Anderson’s time of course. In 1974 I went in with my now wife and we couldn’t find an empty seat anywhere and it was a massive pub as well of course and we looked in all the rooms including the Dive downstairs, how it goes from an era like that to closure and these miserable times I’ll never know but it’s happened almost everywhere unless it’s Didsbury village or similar, the average working class areas have been decimated of pubs and they’re the areas you would think would survive the best. Apart from the price and the change in culture in our society, I can’t think why the pubs that remain are empty even on weekend nights. I remember the coaches carrying the away fans parked opposite on Hough End and the prefabs before that. I grew up round the corner opposite Stirling Avenue on Hassall Ave until 1977. Strange that The Prinny has long gone along with St Christopher’s church where we got married and Old Moat Secondary where we went to school. The Southern Hotel was even more significant in my life but that’s another story.
ReplyDeleteBack then,Pubs,Banks,Post offices,Police stations churches were civic structures that created a ordered solid image of our community.Now all gone,just faceless appts and low end shops..nail bars...vapes..tattoos,no police,no respect,no community.Only nature,trees,fields,birds have remained thankfully to bring joy and warmth to yearning hearts.
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