Royal Hotel, Chapel Street

Former Royal Hotel, Chapel Street, Salford. (c) Adam B. at flickr.

For the first century of its existence, the former Royal Hotel on Chapel Street was an alehouse, originally called the Black Swan from 1763. In 1824 it was known as the New Legs of Man only to change to the Rose & Crown a couple of years later [1].  The 1849 map shows that the pub almost backed onto the small Harding's Buildings Police Station to the rear [2].  The Rose & Crown was rebuilt in the 1860s as the building that still stands on Chapel Street today, on the other side of the road between the recently closed Black Lion and the still trading Rovers Return.  Following a spell as the Amalgamation Inn, the Royal Hotel (or Royal Commercial Hotel) name was adopted and the Royal was taken first by Dawsons Croft Brewery of Greengate, then the even closer Chesters Brewery [1].

Former Royal Hotel, Chapel Street, 1980. (c) Neil Richardson [1].

In 1898, with the pub trade in old Salford already in decline, it was suggested that the Royal Hotel had its upstairs billiards room converted into a workshop, then that the licence should be transferred to another more suitable Chesters pub nearby.  It did eventually close in 1907 when the the police at the Manchester Brewster court sessions reported that it was being used by "persons of bad character and drunken men had been seen fighting outside" and undesirables had also been using the steps and rear entrance on the Manchester Exchange Station Approach (on the right, below) to enter [1].  The old pub has been used as various business premises over the years, such as the steel and non-ferrous foundry suppliers seen above in 1980, and the S Kershaw & Sons Chartered Surveyors at 48-50 Chapel Street today.

Former Royal Hotel, Chapel Street (Black Lion, left). (c) googlemaps.

1. Salford Pubs - Part One: The Old Town, including Chapel Street, Greengate and the Adelphi, Neil Richardson (2003).

2. Manchester Victoria 1849, Alan Godfrey Maps (2009).