Prince of Wales, Hope Street

Prince of Wales, Hope Street, Salford. (c) Neil Richardson [1].

Pictured in Neil Richardson's book in the 1920s, the Prince of Wales stood on Hope Road, just off Oldfield Road, opening in the 1840s. Walkers Brewery of Warrington owned the beerhouse in the twentieth century and it closed in 1930 [1].  The old site of the beerhouse on Hope Street is in front of this industrial unit where the concrete fence is.

Former location of Prince of Wales, Hope Street. (c) Google 2013. View Larger Map.

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

Swan, Hamerton Road

Swan, Hamerton Road, Collyhurst. (c) Caldecotte Group.

This Swan, a former Greenalls house tucked away off Rochdale Road in Collyhurst, closed in 2012.  This leaves Collyhurst almost pub-free district, save for the Valley estate pub and the Parkland, which is more of a residential hotel these days.

Swan, Hamerton Road, Collyhurst. (c) Caldecotte Group.

The pub stands on Hamerton Road on the corner with , these days a dead end.  The Swan's life also appears to be at a dead end as it's up for sale for just GBP150,000 [1], with apparently little hope of reopening as a boozer.

Swan, Hamerton Road, Collyhurst. (c) Google 2013. View Larger Map.

1. www.caldecottegroup.com/propertydetail.aspx?id=5KPxXqIIBnk%3D.

St Stephens Tavern, St Stephen Street

St Stephens Tavern, St Stephen Street, Adelphi, Salford. (c) Neil Richardson [1].

Diagonally opposite the Friendship on the corner of Rigby Street, the St Stephens Tavern was the first pub  to open on St Stephen Street, back when this marked the edge of the old town of Salford.  It opened in 1823 just north of the church, and it's from the church tower that the tavern can be seen in the 1950s, around the time it closed.  In later years the St Stephens Tavern was a Hardy's Crown Brewery house, but the pub was closed and demolished after its inclusion in one of the post-war clearance areas [1].

1. Salford Pubs Part One: The Old Town, including Chapel Street, Greengate and the Adelphi, Neil Richardson (2003).

Friendship, St Stephen Street

Friendship, St Stephen Street, Adelphi, Salford. (c) Neil Richardson [1]

The Friendship Inn stood on the north-eastern corner of Rigby Street and St Stephen Street, off Chapel Street in the Adelphi area of old Salford.  Originally a draper's shop, it was converted into a beerhouse in about 1858 and by the 1890s was under the control of Walkers Brewery.  The Friendship, shown above in 1896, was the last beerhouse on St Stephen Street to close in about 1955, as it fell under the post-war clearance of the area [1].  The old location of Rigby Street and the Friendship was as marked on the modern day map, south of where Nathan Drive meets St Stephen Street.

1. Salford Pubs Part One: The Old Town, including Chapel Street, Greengate and the Adelphi, Neil Richardson (2003). 

Golden Tavern, Rochdale Road

Golden Tavern, Rochdale Road, Harpurhey, 2008. (c) Google 2013. View Larger Map.

There was minor uproar in the local press when Manchester's odd council decided to spend over GBP210,000 in order to secure then demolish the Golden Tavern to make way for "green space" (the 2012 Evening News article on this story has been lost in the ether).  

Golden Tavern, Rochdale Road, Harpurhey, 2012. (c) Google 2013. View Larger Map.

However, as can be seen above, they indeed succeeded in turning this boozer on the corner of Factory Lane and Rochdale Road into an empty green space, after building a 'Youth Zone' next to it.

Golden Tavern, Rochdale Road, Harpurhey. (c) Manchester Evening News.

The Golden Tavern is shown at the archives in 1958, 1968 as a Wilsons house and 1971 with the addition of Watneys to the sign.  Four decades later and this Harpurhey boozer was pulled down.

Golden Tavern, Rochdale Road, Harpurhey, 2008. (c) Google 2013. View Larger Map.

The 2008 shot below on Google Maps shows the still-standing Top Derby opposite the Golden Tavern; zoom in to 2012 and the Golden Tavern is gone, having closed its doors in 2010.

Golden Tavern, Rochdale Road, Harpurhey, 2008. (c) Google 2013. View Larger Map.

Townley, Charlesworth Street

Townley, Charlesworth Street, Beswick. (c) Manchester Local Image Collection.

The Townley is best known these days as one of the Manchester City pre-match watering holes, one of a couple of Beswick's surviving estate pubs.  It stands on Albert Street but the original Townley was a big Threlfalls corner pub on Charlesworth Street, probably on this corner.  There is a full 1963 image of the original Townley at the archives, and as is ever the case with estate pubs, its replacement is a shadow of the old boozer.

Townley, Charlesworth Street, Beswick. (c) Google 2013. View Larger Map.

Foresters Arms, Rochdale Road

Sandown Hotel, Rochdale Road, Harpurhey. (c) Google 2013. View Larger Map.

The old Foresters Arms still stands on the corner of Kingsbridge Road and Rochdale Road in Harpurhey, and the Walkers of Warrington & Falstaff Ales stonework can still be seen.  However, it's not been a pub for several decades, and is now a down-market hotel which sounds like it doubles up as a doss house.  These days it's known as the Sandown Hotel (read the terrible Trip Advisor reviews), but was previously Harper's Hotel.

Harpers Hotel, Rochdale Road, Harpurhey, 2006. (c) Brewery History.

The Foresters Arms opened as a beerhouse in the 1850s and a century later was granted its full licence.  It was probably around this time that the Foresters was given a facelift, absorbing the shop next door, as it upgraded from the Empress Brewery house shown below to the Walkers & Falstaff house shown in 1958, 1968 and 1971 at the archives.  Before it closed as a pub, the Foresters was a Tetley house [1].

Foresters Arms, Rochdale Road, Harpurhey, 1930s. (c) Bob Pots [1].

1. The Old Pubs of Rochdale Road and neighbourhood Manchester, Bob Potts (1985).

Crescent Inn, Rochdale Road

Crescent Inn, Rochdale Road, Collyhurst. (c) Bob Potts.

The Crescent Inn, shown above in the 1930s, stood opposite Hall's Crescent, an old stretch of Rochdale Road, which gave the beerhouse its name.  It opened in 1869 and passed to Walkers of Warrington before it was granted a full licence to sell wines and spirits, as well as beer, in 1955.  However, a compulsory purchase order just 14 years later saw the Crescent close in 1969 [1].  The Crescent Inn stood somewhere between Paget Street and Collyhurst Street along Rochdale Road.

1. The Old Pubs of Rochdale Road and neighbourhood Manchester, Bob Potts (1985).

Eagle, Greenbrow Road

Eagle, Greenbrow Road, Newall Green. (c) Gene Hunt at flickr.

Although it was one of the better-looking estate pubs of Wytheshawe, the Eagle on Greenbrow Road, Newall Green had a dodgy reputation which led to its closure.  Cops called time on the Eagle in 2011 following gang-related violence and dealing.

Eagle, Greenbrow Road, Newall Green. (c) sharstonbaths at YouTube.

The Eagle was a Marstons house in 1995 when Alan Winfield visited, and the brewery sign can just be seen in the above photo taken years before that.  Following its closure, the Eagle was converted to a nursery which opened in 2012.

Eagle, Greenbrow Road, Newall Green. (c) Google 2013. View Larger Map.

Red Rose, Greenbrow Road

Red Rose, Greenbrow Road, Newall Green. (c) Gene Hunt at flickr.

STOP PRESS: The Red Rose has reopened!

One of the more recent Wythenshawe estate pubs to close, the Red Rose stands at the top of Greenbrow Road on the corner with Firbank Road in Newall Green, near the Roundthorn Industrial Estate.  It was a keg-only Greenalls house when Alan Winfield visited in 1995, and even if it does reopen it's unlikely to be a real ale haven on this estate.

Red Rose, Greenbrow Road, Newall Green. (c) Gene Hunt at flickr.

The Red Rose and some of the neighbouring houses around here are characterised by corrugated iron cladding, and the story goes that some of these buildings were temporary, post-war pre-fabs which have remained and been converted into standard council housing.

Red Rose, Greenbrow Road, Newall Green. (c) Google 2013. View Larger Map.

Crown, North Kent Street

Crown, North Kent Street, Collyhurst, 1930. (c) Bob Potts [1].

The Crown on North Kent Street, Collyhurst was known locally as "Old Jane's Place", after one of the longer-serving landladies of its 1863-1929 life as an Empress Brewery house.  North Kent Street was just parallel to Rochdale Road and off Collyhurst Street, and was lost to 1960s redevelopments to be replaced approximately by the west part of Thornton Street North (which contains the recently lost Sparrow estate pub on the eastern stretch).

1. The Old Pubs of Rochdale Road and neighborhood Manchester, Bob Potts (1985).

Mechanics Arms, Whitley Street

Former location of Mechanics Arms, Whitley Road, Collyhurst. (c) Google 2013. View Larger Map.

The Mechanics Arms was a Cornbrook Ales house on Whitley Street, most probably on the corner of Teignmouth Street.  This part of Collyhurst was significantly redeveloped in the 1960s and many streets were lost, though a new one was Talgarth Street a few yard along from the part-pedestrianised Teignmouth Street.  The new street recently lost the Billy Greens estate pub in 2012, but the Mechannics went in 1960 due to a compulsory purchase order, having stood here since 1867 [1].  The 1958 photo at the archive shows the Mechanics Arms at number 29-33 Whitley Street, these days Whitley Road.

1. The Old Pubs of Rochdale Road and neighbourhood Manchester, Bob Potts (1985).

Jubilee / Druids Harp, Whit Lane

Jubilee, Whit Lane, Salford, 1973. (c) Salford Pubs of the 70s at flickr.

The Jubilee Inn started out as the Druids Harp in the 1860s, in a row of shops between Chapel Place and Chapel Street on Whit Lane.  The name change was probably around the time of Queen Victoria's Jubilee and later the beerhouse passed to Groves & Whitnall.  They leased it to JW Lees in the early 1900s and by the 1930 the Jubilee had been extended into the next door shop [2].  The tiled and mock timber facade was added around this time and the Jubilee lasted until 1973 before it was pulled down as the area was almost completely redeveloped.  The lower part of Whit Lane, where it used to meet Broughton road, is gone and the site of the old boozer is where Langley Road South meets Cromwell Road today.

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).

Lancaster Arms, Oldham Road

Former location of Lancaster Arms, Oldham Road, Miles Platting. (c) Google 2013. View Larger Map.

The Lancaster Arms was an old Wilsons boozer on this corner of Birt Street and Oldham Road in Miles Platting, just north of where the recently infamous Ace of Diamonds stood until 2010.  Shown at the archives in the 1970s, the neighbours of the Lancaster Arms - the shop next door and workshop on Birt Street - still stand but the pub is a faded memory.

Former location of Lancaster Arms, Oldham Road, Miles Platting. (c) Google 2013. View Larger Map.

Clock Face, Ashton Old Road

Former location of Clock Face, Ashton Old Road. (c) Google 2012. View Larger Map.

Whilst the Clock Face estate pub on Wynne Close in Beswick only closed in the last decade, the original pub that gave it its name was an old Openshaw Brewery then Chesters House situated a short distance away on Ashton Old Road.  The Clock Face, or Old Clock Face, sat between Pottery Lane and Gorton Road on the corner of the lost Royal Street, and is pictured at the archives in the 1970s with its clock face, obviously.  According to Jim Sharpe at the Manchester & Lancashire Family History Society, before the Clock Face was closed and demolished, it had a brief time as a teetotal or temperance tavern [1].

1. http://newsarch.rootsweb.com/th/read/LANCSGEN/2000-05/0959375389.

General Birch, Ashton Old Road

Former location of General Birch, Ashton Old Road. (c) Google 2012. View Larger Map.

The General Birch was a Chesters house sandwiched in between the Old House at Home (still standing no longer a pub) and the railway on Ashton Old Road, near town on the Ardwick/Beswick border.  This 1955 image from the archives allows a nice BEFORE & AFTER comparison of the site of the old pubs today.  The General Birch is also shown in the 1970s with its traditional tiled frontage. The only definite history on the General Birch is that John Hammond Bell was landlord in 1862 [1].  Quite why the decision was made to drop this fine old pub and retain the plainer looking Old House is anyone's guess.  

1. www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/22676/pages/5179/page.pdf.

Wellington, Whit Lane

Wellington, Whit Lane, Salford. (c) Salford Pubs of the 70s at flickr.

The Wellington beerhouse opened in the 1860s on the corner of Wellington Street and Whit Lane, on the end of a row of houses that were all owned by Walkers & Homfray Brewery.  They had extended the Wellington into the house next door by the 1920s and by the 1960s, the boozer passed to Wilsons, such was the way when brewery mergers were commonplace.  The Wellington lasted until the 1970s when it was yet another victim of redevelopment efforts [2].  The stretch of Whit Lane that has vanished from the maps is where the Wellington once stood, between the surviving Indigo Street and Owen Street (Wellington Street is no more), where Haymond Close runs today.

Wellington, Whit Lane, Salford. (c) Neil Richardson [2].

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).

Royal Oak, Hankinson Street

Royal Oak, Hankinson Street, Hanky Park, Salford. (c) University of Salford:  Salford's history in photographs at BBC [1].

One of many forgotten boozers in the old Hanky Park area of Pendleton, the Royal Oak was on the corner of Rossall Street and the one that the gave the area its name, Hankinson Street, which ran south of Broad Street to Ellor Street.  It was nicknamed the 'Brass Handles', which obviously gave rise to the infamous and recently lost estate pub off the precinct, the Brass Handles.  The nickname came from improvements done to the beerhouse by Threlfalls Brewery when they placed a pair of brass handles on the corner door of the renovated beerhouse, which can be dated back to about 1860.  The Royal Oak lasted until January 1962 when it was closed due to the Ellor Street No.1 compulsory purchase order [2], which set the building of Pendleton Precinct in motion.  In the wonderfully evocative photo belonging to the University of Salford and displayed by this slideshow at the BBC, the old Brass Handles is seen in a classic 'island in a sea of rubble' shot during this clearance [1].  Hankinson Way is a reminder of where the original Hankinson Street once ran.

Royal Oak, Hankinson Street, Hanky Park, Salford. (c) Neil Richardson [2].

1. Salford's history in photographs - www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-12892037.
2. Salford Pubs Part Three: Including Cross Lane, Broad Street, Hanky Park, the Height, Brindleheath, Charlestown and Weaste, Neil Richardson (2003).

Thatched House, Broad Street

Thatched House, Broad Street, Salford, 1961. (c) Salford Pubs of the 70s at flickr [1].

The Thatched House beerhouse opened in a row of shops on Broad Street that used to face the still-serving Church Inn on Ford Lane.  It is first recorded in 1834 and by 1911 it was a Walkers & Homfray house.  After passing to Wilsons, the inevitable 1971 closure followed due to regeneration, but this is one boozer that didn't close without a whisper. In a Salford City Reporter interview in '71 just before closure, the landlord, Maurice Roberts, "said that his old customers were suspicious about the new [estate] pubs that the breweries were building and the beer they sold.  New pubs were equipped to sell keg or tank beer, but Mr Roberts' customers liked to see the 'wickets' on the bar [2]."  

This keg beer referred to was the bland, fizzy, filtered, pasteurised beer that the large breweries mistakenly believed would replace cask ale in the '60s and '70s.  Tank beer wasn't quite as bad as keg, being brewery-conditioned, but it wasn't real ale as we know it.  Most old-style keg beer has been phased out, but the ever-popular nitrokeg smoothflow offerings in so many pubs still shows that you can't account for taste, or the power of effective marketing.  The recent revival of the real ale scene in the UK has been followed by a small but noisy resurgence of "craft" keg, and although the prices can be eye-watering, quality seems to be there, unlike the old days.  

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).

Tower / Hope Cottage Inn, Broad Street

Tower, Broad Street, Salford, 1951. (c) Neil Richardson [1].

Originally the Hope Cottage Inn, this beerhouse opened in the 1860s opposite Pendleton Church on Broad Street about half a dozen doors along from the Horse & Jockey.  By the 1890s it had been renamed the Tower Inn.  Shortly after, Walkers & Homfray bought the Tower and this tiny boozer closed, after having passed to Wilsons, in 1971 [1].

Tower, Broad Street, Salford. (c) Salford Pubs of the 70s at flickr [2].

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

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