Angel, Oldham Road, Miles Platting/Ancoats. (c) Manchester Local Image Collection. Click here to view full image.
The original Angel was one of the first licensed houses to open on Oldham Road, on the corner of Butler Street in Miles Platting/Ancoats, listed as far back as 1794. In Neil Richardson's Old Pubs of Ancoats, Mick Burke remembers the 'Chesters cases' (keen drinkers of Chesters Mild!) staggering out of the Angel "like lumps of jelly, their legs wobbling all over the place - but they never seemed to fall [1]."
Angel, Oldham Road. (c) Miles Platting, Ancoats and Collyhurst Facebook [2].
There was a doctor's over the road where patients would see the queue waiting for the Angel to open, and one Chesters case told Mick on a Monday morning: "I'm bloody terrible. I had a load on it last night. I'm going to see if Dr Carroll will give me a bottle." Apparently the doctor gave him one look and his advice was: "Go over there, the Angel'll be open in twenty minutes. He'll do you more good than me! [1]."
Angel, Oldham Road. (c) Miles Platting, Ancoats and Collyhurst Facebook [2].
There was a doctor's over the road where patients would see the queue waiting for the Angel to open, and one Chesters case told Mick on a Monday morning: "I'm bloody terrible. I had a load on it last night. I'm going to see if Dr Carroll will give me a bottle." Apparently the doctor gave him one look and his advice was: "Go over there, the Angel'll be open in twenty minutes. He'll do you more good than me! [1]."
Angel (3), Oldham Road, Miles Platting. (c) Neil Richardson [1].
The Angel was a multi-roomed boozer, with a large vault and hallway where drinkers stood shoulder to shoulder. Albert Cook also remembers playing in his brass band outside the Angel, and after closing time the band would take drunks to the Hall on Butler Street where they could have a free potato pie supper and advice to get them off the drink [1].
Former location of Angel Hotel, Butler Street. (c) Google 2013. View Larger Map.
The Angel is seen from Butler Street here in 1962 with Mazel Records sadly closed (that's the Old Pack Horse in the background on Oldham Road). This 1961 photo shows the Angel in full profile with its Oldham Road and Butler Street entrances. At some point in the '60s the Angel was demolished and replaced with the ugly estate pub, also the Angel, which lasted until the 1990s. The line of Butler Street was moved slightly south during redevelopments of the area in the '60s, so I think the original Angel was on this corner, just south of the new Angel:
1. The Old Pubs of Ancoats, Neil Richardson (1987).
2. www.facebook.com/groups/272836182813205/photos.
2. www.facebook.com/groups/272836182813205/photos.
