The Rovers Return on the corner of Gloucester Street and Tatton Street closed on 27th February 1971 but it had only been fully licensed for a few years. Before then it had been known as the Engine Drivers Arms in 1867 then the Park Inn beerhouse about a decade later, named after Ordsall Park nearby which opened in 1879. Groves & Whitnall took the Park Inn and altered the boozer so that customers didn't have to leave through the front door and go around the corner for a leak. A more significant improvement took place in the 1960s when the newly fully-licensed pub incorporated the café next door. The tiny lobby, vault and smoke room was knocked through into a large lounge and vault [2] and - presumably in homage to the TV version - the pub was renamed the Rovers Return for its last few years. Today Tatton Street only runs through a small part of redeveloped Ordsall, but Gloucester Street still remains and this house marks the spot of the old Park Inn / Rovers Return.
2. Salford Pubs Part Two: Including Islington, Ordsall Lane and Ordsall, Oldfield Road, Regent Road and Broughton.
Did you catch part 3 of BBC4's Punk Britannia on Friday? After about 10 minutes we caught a glimpse of some archive footage of the Rovers Return while Mark E Smith was talking about how smoggy Manchester used to be and how people would mysteriously come out of the fog at you (as you were cycling up Gloucester Street apparently).
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