Shakespeare Hotel, Stockport and London Road, Ardwick. (c) Mark Fynn with kind permission.
The Shakespeare Hotel was a Chesters Brewery house on the main road through Ardwick, which used to be called called Stockport and London Road (nowadays just the former). Shown here in a year unknown, the landlord is seen in the doorway below a signed advertising Walkers 'Kilmarnock' Whisky, better known today as Jonnie Walkers.
In the mid-1800s, Ardwick was still a posh suburb for merchants and businessmen. In these days before the Apollo and Ardwick's other theatres, on the corner of Hyde Road and Stockport and London Road was Aspley House along with other grand houses entitled Ardwick Villa and Hyde Road House, all with their own huge gardens [1].
Shakespeare, Stockport and London Road, Ardwick. (c) Alan Godfrey Maps [1].
Aspley House has given its name to today's Aspley Cottage, but the Shakespeare is long-gone. It was the only pub in the vicinity in 1849, and was on the corner of Shakespeare Row facing Wilson Street (and the closed Cleveland) [1]. The Shakespeare Inn would have stood just to the right in this 1959 photo of Shakespeare Row being demolished, and has been replaced by a Wickes.
Former location of the Shakespeare, Stockport Road, Ardwick. (c) Google 2013. View Larger Map.
1. Higher Ardwick 1849, Alan Godfrey Maps (2000).
The landlord in the photo is very probably David Kemp who ran the pub with his wife & daughter, both named Emma, in the 1930s. David enlisted in 1914 in the army (at 16) and in 1920, as a temporary policeman in Ireland, was decorated for bravery.
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