Never paid the Bowling Green a visit, but by all accounts it was a quiet and largely empty boozer in recent years which led to its closure in April this year. Real ale was apparently on offer [1] and in this one-roomed boozer which had a beer garden out the back, presumably the old bowling green itself [2].
Bowling Green, Grafton Street (c) Alan Perryman at flickr / East London Drinker.
Under competition from the nearby Grafton Arms, a Holt's house, and the various other cheap, student-friendly pubs along Oxford Road, it's no real surprise to see the likes of the Bowling Green struggle and eventually shut. The East London Drinker blog about the Bowling Green is worth a read [1].
Bowling Green, Grafton Street. (c) ManchesterHistory.
