Blue Lion, Cook Street

Blue Lion, Cook Street, Salford. (c) Arthur Chappell.

This is a real rarity - an apparently genuine pub sign saved from a boozer which was lost well over a hundred years ago.  The Blue Lion sign depicts the rampant lion of the Bruces of Scotland and is displayed in the Peel Park Museum in Salford.  It once belonged to a Cook Street pub which stood here from 1784 to 1892.  The White Lion public house was on the right side of Cook Street off Chapel Street and in 1792 had already been renamed the Blue Lion.  The pub operated as a beerhouse called the Apollo Tavern for a time after losing its licence in 1850.  

Blue Lion, Cook Street, Salford (labelled 87). (c) Neil Richardson [2].

The original Cook Street Brewery stood near to the Blue Lion but when Threlfalls took over in about 1860 they expanded it by building offices towards the railway bridge that spanned Chapel Street and the corner of Cook Street, shown below  The railway company acquired the Blue Lion when they built another bridge over Chapel Street and in 1892 the pub was demolished, with the sign seemingly saved by someone.  A few years later Threlfalls built their new brewery on the site of the Blue Lion and its neighbouring houses [2].

Threlfall's office, Cook Street, Salford. (c) Neil Richardson [2].

1. http://arthur-chappell.quazen.com/shopping/salford-pub-sign-the-blue-lion-tavern.
2. The Old Pubs of Salford - Part One: The Old Town including Chapel Street, Greengate and the Adelphi, Neil Richarrdson (2003).