Saturday, 13 April 2013

Gorton Brook / Gorton Arms, Clowes Street


Gorton Arms, Clowes Street, West Gorton, 1994. (c) Alan Winfield with permission.

The Gorton Arms was demolished in the late 2000s having loomed over this corner of Belle Vue Street and Clowes Street as a Wilsons house, previously the Gorton Brook.  Apparently, the Gorton Brook name comes from a mix of Corn Brook and Gore Brook, both of which run through this part of West Gorton [1]. 

Gorton Arms, Clowes Street, 1988. (c) John Law (johnmightycat1 at flickr) with permission [1].

Clowes Street is best known as the location of St. Mark's Church where St. Mark's (West Gorton) Football Club, later to become Manchester City F.C. via Ardwick Association F.C., were formed.  Whether the Gorton Brook and the football club coincided is unknown, but we know the pub became a Banks' house and changed its name to the Gorton Arms.

Gorton Arms, Clowes Street, late 2000s. (c) Gary Taylor at manmates [3].

Shown at the archives in 1971 and 1972 as a Wilsons house, the Gorton Brook / Gorton Arms has been reduced to an imprint on this corner of Belle Vue Street and Gorton Lane, since Clowes Street was truncated after Pottery Lane formed part of the unofficial north-east ring road.  

Former location of Gorton Brook, Clowes Street. (c) Google 2013. View Larger Map.

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11 comments:

  1. Curmudgeon13 April 2013 at 16:32

    It became a Banks's pub in the 1980s, and your photo shows a Banks's sign still there. I also think it was renamed as the Gorton Arms.

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  2. John Clarke13 April 2013 at 17:46

    Yes, it was indeed named the Gorton Arms. Banks's spent quite a lot of money on the place and I sometimes used to drop in after the speedway at Belle Vue. I also recall a CAMRA branch meeting there when we had a speaker from Banks's (this was in the early days of what turned out to be quite an ill judged foray into Manchester)

    In its later Wilsons years the licensee was an ex-wrestler. His two daughters were also wrestlers and apparently they used to stage bouts at the pub.

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  3. granata13 April 2013 at 18:01

    Thanks gents. There is a lovely photo of the 'Gorton Arms' as a Banks' house in the late 80s. Just trying to organise permission to use it

    Before the speedway we'd sometimes pop in the pub at the bottom end of Belle Vue Street at Hyde Road, demolished in recent years. Name escapes me now

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  4. Curmudgeon13 April 2013 at 18:04

    The Coach & Horses, the little two-room Robbies' pub?

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  5. Alan Winfield13 April 2013 at 18:31

    I went in the Gorton Arms on the 9th of December 1994 and i have got what i think is a really nice photo of it with its Banks's signs in place.
    I will send this on to you if you want the photo for your blog.

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  6. John 20188 May 2014 at 11:25

    I understand that the building had to be flattened after someone conveniently drove a bulldozer into it (shades of 'Tommy Ducks'!).I used to pass this pub every day for years in the '50s: the 'Gorton Brook' was practically all that remained of a run-down but busy area that has been 'redeveloped' into yet another bleak architectural- and planning failure as in so many suburbs, one slum being replaced with another. It's sad to see the pics.of the completely-cleared Clowes Street area that I grew up in: it was never more than a dump, with poky houses crammed in for the Victorian factory-fodder (people who might have survived into their mid-forties if they were lucky), but it's still a shock to see everything you remember wiped away.

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  7. Unknown29 October 2020 at 20:38

    Used to go to the brook every weekend for the Teddyboy nights,good times.

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  8. Unknown6 December 2020 at 12:08

    We used to go there when there were half day strikes at Shell Carrington, Strippers and a comedian. Great days, sadly lost forever.

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  9. Unknown25 May 2021 at 06:32

    I remember going in there in the early 70s. After coming out of Openshaw Tech we used to go in there quite often. There was another pub just up the road on the right going towards Ashton Old Rd. I can't remember the name. Maybe the Railway or The Birch..? Good memories 😬

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  10. Unknown26 January 2022 at 05:13

    Just reading comments after searching for The Gorton Arms Pub in 1984, Remembering when I actually lived in the pub 1984/1987 Parents worked for Banks Brewery at that pub where we resided 1984. WOW
    I have a framed professional picture of this pub from back in 1980s where they had it on the pub wall as a monument, They had photographa came to take these of pub by brewery. X

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  11. Anonymous21 November 2024 at 20:35

    Yes when the bulldozer drove through it it was called the half way house

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