Pubs of Manchester

All pubs within the city centre and beyond.
A history of Manchester's hundreds of lost pubs.

Sunday 1 April 2012

Unicorn / Unicorn & Ship Canal / Union, Union Street


Unicorn, Union Street, Lower Broughton, 1961. (c) Salford Pubs of the 70s at flickr.

The Union beerhouse first opened on Union Street, just off Lower Broughton Road, in around 1855, and when the Unicorn on Chapel Street was pulled down for the building of Blackfriars Road, the licence was transferred.  The Union was enlarged and thus renamed the Unicorn Hotel, and in May 1886, it was advertised as the Unicorn & Ship Canal Hotel.  This was in support of the Manchester Ship Canal shares issue and the pub even displayed models of HMS Victory and HMS Unicorn [2].


Unicorn, Union Street, Lower Broughton, 1920s. (c) Neil Richardson [1].

In 1907 George Sandford advertised that he had taken over the Unicorn after running the Hen & Chickens on Deansgate, and soon after the pub passed to Threlfalls Brewery.  In the 1920s or '30s, Threlfalls rebuilt the Unicorn, from its simple corner boozer style (above) to its grander, cream-clad tiled fronatge (top) which is still seen today, set back off Lower Broughton Road as the Unicorn Nursery.  Before its closure, Whitbread renovated the Unicorn in the early '90s but by 1995 it was closed for good [2].

Unicorn Nursery, the former Unicorn. (c) Google 2012. View Larger Map.

2. Salford Pubs - Part Two: including Islington, Ordsall Lane and Ordsall, Oldfield Road, Regent Road and Broughton, Neil Richardson (2003).

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