Blacksmiths Arms, Viaduct Street

Viaduct Street, Ancoats/Beswick. (c) Google 2012. View Larger Map.

Seen in 1964, this is the intersection of Viaduct Street from Palmerston Street, the corner shop is advertising Senior Service, Park Drive, Woodbines and Capstan cigarettes - evocative brands.  The off licence up the road offered the same but also Yates Ardwick Gold Medal Ales, on draught or by the bottle ("Beer, porter and tobacco to be served OFF the premises only").  Today, Viaduct Street ends at Palmerston Street here at the Ancoats/Beswick border, but in the past it ran all the north to Ashton New Road as this 1962 photo shows.  Viaduct Street was named because it runs alongside the railway, still in operation as a freight line, that runs past City's stadium.  Here's the Midland signal box on Viaduct Street in these two 1962 photos.

The Blacksmiths Arms was a Threlfalls house on the corner of Napier Street and Viaduct Street seen here in 1963.  It was a classic street corner boozer with the Threlfalls tiling to the lower half of the pub, a style which still survives on a few pubs in town such as the Lass O'Gowrie and Bank of England.  Though only a small boozer, the Blacksmiths was a multi-roomed house with the vault indicated on the window.  There were more beerhouses on Viaduct Street, the Palmerston and the Viaduct Inn...