This oddly extended building on Fairfield Street, on the less-used approach to Piccadilly Station, looks like an old pub. Lo and behold, it was, as this 1969 photo confirms, with the front extension unmissable. It was the Bridge Inn, named after the dominating railway viaduct and bridge in the shadows of which it sits. These two 1903 photos show the rear of the pub, and hint at the houses that once stood in this now derelict area. It was a three-roomed house with a central bar, only the smoke room being fitted out in any comfort with carpets and soft seats. In the 1970s the Bridge Inn was a rare example of a central Manchester pub with a busy billiards table. Typical of the real ale desert that much of the city was in the '70s, the beer engines on the bar were for show only, and only keg Whitbread and Guinness was on offer [1]; a few years earlier Chesters was also served as the 1969 photo above shows.
1. The Manchester Pub Guide, Manchester & Salford City Centres (1975).
