Swinging Sporran / Carlisle Club / Barbarella Club / Legends / Devonshire, Liverpool Road

Swinging Sporran, Liverpool Road, Eccles, 1979. (c) TBC at SalfordOnline.

This Eccles club and pub on Liverpool Road has gone through many names over the years, first opening as the Carlisle Club in 1963. The functional flat roof building had actually been built after the First World War when wood salvaged from an army building was used to build the frontage [1].

 

Barbarella Club, Liverpool Road, 1972. (c) TBC at SalfordOnline.

After a fire in 1966, the club reopened as the Barbarella Club, which itself also burnt down in 1971, leading to claims the site was cursed. Following acquisition by McKewan's Brewery, the rebuilt building, still at No.46 Liverpool Road, became a pub - the Swinging Sporran [1]. 

Former Swinging Sporran, Liverpool Road. (c) Google 2017. View Larger Map.

Opening in May 1976, the Swinging Sporran was described unfavourably as "a licensed amusement arcade" popular with youngsters, and with a pool table vault named the Q Room. The main room had a Scottish theme with tartan kilts and claymores on display [2]. In more recent years the pub was renamed Legends and the Devonshire, before closing and becoming a restaurant.

1. http://salfordonline.com/26126-50-years-ago-carlisle-club-eccles-goes-flames.html.

2. A History of the Pubs of Eccles, Tony Flynn (1983). 

Caxton Inn / XX Inn, River Street

Caxton Inn, River Street, Hulme, 1921. (c) Bob Potts [1].

The Caxton Inn was a Carlton Brewery house that stood on the corner of River Street and Welcomb Street, just off City Road, in Hulme. The Caxton Inn was at No.80 River Street and lasted from 1859 to 1922 [2], and was originally called the rather unusual XX Inn. The pub was eventually demolished in the mid 1930s [1].

1. The Old Pubs of Hulme Manchester (2) Reminisces, Bob Potts (1983).
2. The Old Pubs of Hulme Manchester (1) 1770-1930, Bob Potts (1983).

Roebuck, Lower Moss Lane

Roebuck, Lower Moss Lane, Hulme, 1957. (c) Bob Potts [1].

The Roebuck was a Groves & Whitnall house on Lower Moss Lane in Hulme, pictured about in 1957. It was at No.138 and lasted from 1867-1963 [1]. The Roebuck was on the corner of the lost Cedar Street and Lower Moss Lane, about midway between City Road and Stretford Road. So the former location of the old Roebuck is roughly where Ribston Street is today. Only a short northern stretch of Lower Moss Lane off Chester Road, and a southern stretch of Upper Moss Lane (which is confusingly south of Lower Moss Lane) off Stretford Road, remain today.

1. The Old Pubs of Hulme Manchester (2) Reminisces, Bob Potts (1983).

Three Crowns / Buskers, King Street / Garden Lane

Three Crowns, Garden Lane (former King Street), Salford, 1983. By Stanley Horrocks, with kind permission and (c) Rose Horrocks.

The Three Crowns stood on King Street on the corner with Queen Street, opposite the Black Friar in old Salford. The pub dates back to 1798 but it was in the 1860s that it took its place in Trade Union history. The first meeting of the Manchester and Salford Trades Council, forerunner of the Trades Union Council, took place at the Three Crowns in 1866 [1].

Three Crowns, Garden Lane. (c) Neil Richardson [1].

The Three Crowns was a Whitbread pub in the 1970s, now with a Garden Lane address due to street realignment (for full details, see Neil Richardson's book [2]). The pub had apparently seen better days, with its former green, brown and cream interior tiling sprayed over in battleship grey. The games room had pinball and table football with players decked out in City and United colours [2].

Buskers, Garden Lane / King Street. (c) deltrems at flickr.

In 1984 Whitbread made the dubious decision to turn the Three Crowns into a Chesters Brewery theme pub called Buskers. What an odd theme, but the pub was actually decked out inside as a street scene with lamp posts and pillar boxes, so maybe they had busking musicians playing too?

Three Crowns, Garden Lane, 1989. By Stanley Horrocks, with kind permission and (c) Rose Horrocks.

A bonus of this theme pub conversion was that at least the previously hidden exterior colour scheme was uncovered, and the pub looked quite smart. Sadly by 1994 Buskers had suffered a fire, as shown below in Stanley Horrocks' photo, and it never reopened.

Three Crowns, Garden Lane, 1994. By Stanley Horrocks, with kind permission and (c) Rose Horrocks.

The pub was pulled down a year later in 1995 [1], and is now the site of a small car park for business premises.

Former location of Three Crowns, Garden Lane. (c) Google 2017. View Larger Map.

1. Salford Pubs - Part One: The Old Town, including Chapel Street, Greengate and the Adelphi, Neil Richardson (2003).
2. The Manchester Pub Guide, Manchester & Salford City Centres (1975).