Old Veteran / Ugly Duckling, Duxbury Street

Old Veteran, Duxbury Street, Salford. (c) Salford Pubs of the 70s at flickr [1].

The Old Veteran Tavern opened as a beerhouse in 1880 in a converted house on the corner of Stowell Street and Duxbury Street just off Eccles New Road.  It was run by a former Salford bobby, Henry Hargreaves, with a refreshment room, vault to the left of the front door and a newsroom.  Groves & Whitnall took over in 1891 and by the 1970s the Old Veteran was under the ownership of Greenall Whitley [2].  

Former Old Veteran, My Street, Weaste. (c) Google 2012. View Larger Map.

When the pub was included in the Bridson Street compulsory purchase scheme (presumably for the M602), a CAMRA campaign helped the brewery save it from demolition.  The pub closed in 1984 but when it reopened in 1986, it had incorporated the two adjoining houses, and the Old Veteran's grand re-opening ceremony was officiated by Manchester City manager, Billy McNeill [2].  

Ugly Duckling, My Street, Weaste. (c) beerintheevening.

The Busy Pubs Ltd pub company took over in 1997 and renamed it the Ugly Duckling but it finally closed for good in the 2000s [2].  The Old Veteran soldiers on these days as flats on the oddly renamed My Street, sandwiched in between the motorway, railway and tram lines.

Old Veteran, Duxbury Street, Weaste. (c) Salford Pubs of the 70s at flickr.

1. www.flickr.com/photos/61756486@N05.

2. Salford Pubs - Part Three: Including Cross Lane, Broad Street, Hanky Park, the Height, Brindleheath, Charlestown and Weaste, Neil Richardson (2003).