Possible location of Penny Black, , Cheetham Hill. (c) Google 2012. View Larger Map.
This pub-shaped little car park on the corner of Levenhurst Road and Winterford Road, behind the Post Office delivery depot, may be the remains of one of Manchester's more infamous pubs, the Penny Black. The name fits the location but there are no photos of the pub standing to confirm - the building behind may also be the old boozer. The Penny Black was part-owned by Derek Noonan of the notroious Irish-Mancunian crime family, and it made the news in February 1991 when local gang-leader 'White' Tony Johnson was executed outside the pub. Derek, and his brothers Desmond and Damian were all cleared of the murder, but it seems like the Penny Black was closed and torched soon after the murder.
An Independent article from 20 years ago described the court proceedings: "An 'execution squad' led by a man in a wheelchair shot two men after cornering them in a pub car park, a jury was told yesterday... Michael Shorrock QC, for the prosecution, said the two victims were attacked after they drove into the car park of the Penny Black pub in Cheetham, Manchester [1]." To quote Mikey AKA Gene Hunt at flickr: "this side of Cheetham Hill is known as the Waterloo Estate, where in the 1980s and 1990s the Cheetham Hillbillies, a gang that operated in the area and specialised in blags, pushing drugs in clubs and violence ect., all originated from [2]."
The former Penny Black is the building in the second photo. It was built in 1978 on vacant land (the area had been terraced housing prior to this but all properties were served with compulsory purchase orders in 1976 to facilitate the council building new housing). The pub closed in 1991 and the following year it became a day nursery. The nursery was vacated in 2000 and it became a mosque.
ReplyDeleteLast time I went past the Penny Black it had no roof and looked derelict, that would have been around 1995. Used to drink there in the early 80s.
ReplyDeletedoes any one no wayne willis or williams who used to drink in there
ReplyDeleteIt is now "Al Sunnah Mosque"
ReplyDeleteI heard it was rough but these things are usually exaggerated and as a stranger i wouldn't drink in there
ReplyDeleteI knew a wayne williams who used to go in there, i used to go in there a lot in the early 80s
ReplyDeleteWayne well last I heard he had moved near whitefield on the hillock estate
ReplyDeleteWhere was the car park of the pub?
ReplyDelete