Irwell Castle, Great Clowes Street

Former Irwell Castle, Great Clowes Street, Lower Broughton. (c) Google 2011 - View Larger Map.

The Irwell Inn opened at the bottom of Great Clowes Street near Broughton Bridge in the 1850s, becoming a Manchester Brewery Company house by the early 1900s.  The brewery gave the exterior of the pub a makeover to match the Victoria Theatre next door by adding tiling, imitation columns and balustrades and three ornate pediments to the roof, each containing carvings depicting Castle Irwell which had stood where the nearby racecourse was [1].

Irwell Bridge, Great Clowes Street, Lower Broughton. (c) Neil Richardson [1].

By now the pub was known as the Irwell Castle and only in 1960 did then owners Wilsons Brewery remove the grand frontage giving it the plain rendering we see today on the closed pub [1].  It's been shut since 1992 and appears to now be a couple of houses.

1. Salford Pubs - Part Two: Including Islington, Ordsall Lane and Ordsall, Oldfield Road, Regent Road and Broughton, Neil Richardson (2003).