Hidden away in the shadow of the ridiculous looking "Abito" Greengate development is an unlikely surviving public house of the once thriving Greengate thoroughfare. On the corner of Boond Street and Greengate, the first licence here was for the Duke of Wellington in 1815, though it soon became the Waterloo. By the early twentieth century, Walkers & Homfrays had the pub then Wilsons took it in the 1950s [1]. In the 1970s the Waterloo was a cosy but rather seedy pub with two narrow rooms, one was decorated with guns and swords, the other a garish red with fishtank that was popular with the ladies. Darts, doms and cards were popular with the small band of local gents who supped Wilsons bitter and mild on beer engines [2].
Waterloo, Greengate. (c) googlemaps.
The isolated location of the Waterloo, thanks to the regeneration (sic) policies of Salford's misguided council, led to its eventual closure in 1984. The pub lay empty for many years but was retained when the new builds started to crop up around Greengate and is shown as being cleaned up for sale in 2008 above. In 2009 there was a grim discovery of the body of a man believed to have been a suspect in a murder himself. In a Manchester Evening News story, locals described the Waterloo as being derelict for 10 years [try 25] but the rumour was that it has been sold and will be redeveloped.
Waterloo, Greengate. (c) MEN.
1. Salford Pubs - Part One: The Old Town, including Chapel Street, Greengate and the Adelphi, Neil Richardson (2003).
2. Manchester Pub Guide, Manchester & Salford City Centres (1975).
Sad tale but I refute that Abito looks ridiculous- it is modern and quirky IMHO... and offers affordable single person housing, with a balcony, in the city centre.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, just because it looks ridiculous doesn't mean it's not a good thing. Has anything been done with the old pub yet?
ReplyDeleteThe old pub is just laying vacant, I will post a photo at my mancunianwave.blogspot.co.uk blog on Friday 13 March 2015.
ReplyDelete