Grapes Inn, Collyhurst Road

Grapes Inn, Collyhurst Road, Collyhurst, 1851. (c) Adshead at Digital Archives [1].

The Grapes Tavern opened in about 1829 as a public house [2] (the year before the Beer Act allowed anyone to open up their own beerhouse).  It was set back off Collyhurst Road and was part of Vauxhall Gardens, a small pleasure gardens hemmed in by the Red Sand Delph Pit, Vauxhall Street and the River Irk.  The gardens were opened by Robert Tinker, who gave his name to the old estate pub that once graced the area.

Grapes Inn, Collyhurst Road. (c) Bob Potts [2].

The Grapes Inn was a huge pub, and was one of the rare public houses to be marked on the 1922 map (centre, above).  By this time the gardens, closed in 1852 and lost to the sand quarrying, had become Collyhurst Polishing Works.  Sadly by 1964 the Grapes was bricked up having had its license suspended as a Joseph Holt's house in 1960 [2], for reasons unknown.  There is not much going on in this area these days.

Former location of Grapes Inn, Collyhurst Road. (c) Google 2014. View Larger Map.

1. Adshead's Twenty Four Illustrated Maps of the Township of Manchester divided into Municipal Wards, 1851 at Digital Archives.
2. The Old Pubs of Rochdale Road and neighbourhood Manchester, Bob Potts (1985).