“It tore the heart out of communities” - The defiant Salford pubs that survived the 1960s slum clearance – and the ones that didn’t
Let's take a look at the Salford pubs that dodged the bulldozer in the 1960s and the ones that were sadly hit.
Newsletter author: Katherine Stephenson
In this week’s newsletter, we’ll go back in time to visit Salford’s beloved boozers. We’ll analyse the pubs that have perished and the ones who have manged to survive. Plus, keep scrolling for a run-down on sport and what's on in the city this week.
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Although the 1960s clearance of pubs in Salford “tore the heart out” of some communities, others managed to keep on beating.
There are some 19th-century pubs in Salford like The New Oxford, The Black Friar and The Kings Arms that have watched the landscape around them completely change. They stand tall and proud after years of fighting to stay open, especially during the massive push for redevelopment in the 60s and 70s. But before we celebrate the Salford pubs that dodged the bulldozer, let’s take a look at what happened to those who didn’t.
Pubs and public houses once stood at the heart of the working-class northern communities they served. Before the Second World War, there were lots of job opportunities at the local and this didn't just include work behind the bar. Many establishments often paid men to recite the weekly newspapers for those who couldn’t read. You may also find a burial club or a sickness club at the pub that will act as an informal NHS in the absence of more formalised institutions. To top it off, your summer holiday could also be sorted out with trips to and from Blackpool from the local.
“They were focal for sport, football clubs, life and culture. They were very much hubs of the community in every sense of the word,” said Deborah Woodman, a researcher who studies past cultural life in Manchester and Salford at The University of Salford.
These treasured pubs were extremely vulnerable to the huge push for redevelopment in the area after the post-WW2. The authorities wanted most of the run-down Victorian pubs in Salford wiped out. And that’s exactly what happened.
Along with the houses on the former Hanky Park estate off Chapel Street most of the pubs were crushed by bulldozers in the 1960s slum clearance.
In 1963, a BBC journalist visited Hanky Park, an estate in Salford that had been knocked down to a “wilderness of rubble and weeds” in the 60s. Left at the time were just ten pubs that were still very important to the 4,000 people who used to live on the estate.
The landlord of one of the pubs, The Foresters Arms, said he understood why people were travelling from Kersal and Little Hulton to visit the pubs.
Mr Salt told the journalist: “We’ve kept going by all the customers coming back to see us. They just can’t settle where they’ve gone and they miss the company. They’d rather the company they've been used to and what they’ve brought up with.
“Here’s what they call a family house. You get used to one another’s ways and you make it a family concern.”
Shortly after the interview, The Foresters was demolished on Sunday April 28 1963. That weekend, seven pubs around Ellor Street including the Miners Arms, The British Queen and the Oddfellows Arms closed their doors for the last time.
Deborah said the widespread demolition of pubs across Salford completely “broke communities up”.
She said: “Personally, I don’t think it did the community any favours whatsoever. There are different ways of looking at it, in some of these communities the properties were in a bad condition and they did need better housing. But I think the way it was implemented and the speed of which it was implemented and the lack of voice I think was a big issue.”
According to Deborah, nine or so pubs were built in the 1970s to replace some of the losses however most of them only survived twenty years or so after.
Deborah added: “It is quite often said that the new pubs were built but people didn’t want to go in them. They seemed a little bit too posh if you like and they felt out of their reach. So in that desire to modernise, I think something was lost in many respects.
“They just didn’t replace what had been taken away.”
Some pubs managed to escape their death in the 60s but struggled to keep their heads above water as the push for redevelopment continued in Salford in the 70s and through the 20th century.
Here are a few of the pubs in Salford that didn’t manage to survive redevelopment in the 20th century:
The Red Cow
The Red Cow was hailed as Salford’s last beer house which closed in the 1980s. The popular beer house on Albion Street was owned by Boddingtons and only served Boddingtons bitter. That’s right, no lager, no mild, no cider or soft drinks just Boddingtons beer according to pubgoers back then.
In the 1960s and 70s, most of Salford’s remaining beer houses were granted full licenses but for some reason, the Red Cow was an exception and only continued to sell beer.
Howard Parkin, from Salford, said: “I was in there one day, Ian, the landlady’s son, was serving and a stranger came in and ordered a pint of larger. Ian replied: ‘We don’t do cocktails’.
“‘Ok’ the fella replied, ‘I’ll have a pint of bitter and a bag of nuts’. To which Ian replied: ‘What do you think this is, a f***** restaurant?’.”
The Fox Inn
The Fox Inn on Salford’s Regent Road can be traced all the way back to ‘at least’ 1869. The pub sat on the former Goodiers Lane which was knocked down during the redevelopment of Ordsall in the 1970s.
The pub was extended into the next-door shop in 1901 by the owners and brewers Groves & Whitnall.
The large, successful pub was known for being quite a rowdy pub after the war, with tales of fights and tables being screwed to the floor, according to Pubs of Manchester.
It’s also been rumoured that the owner kept a real fox to attract customers.
Poets Corner
The popular Poets Corner was located on the corner of Lower Broughton Road and Hough Lane. In 1864, the Poets Corner was commonly known as the Albion Inn and was unfortunately denied a full licence until Groves & Whitnall took it in 1903.
According to Pubs of Manchester, 'the brewery enlarged the premises by incorporating the Peel Park Inn beerhouse next door on Hough Lane'. The Poets Corner managed to survive the Lower Broughton demolition order in the 1960s and was again spared in 1976 when the owners absorbed another pub, the neighbouring Beehive.
The pub was then sadly demolished in 1993.
The Oakwood Hotel
Eccles’ huge Tudor-style pub The Oakwood Hotel first opened on Lancaster Road in 1938. The massive pub apparently had a lounge, assembly room, dining room, two smoke rooms, upstairs, bowling green and a palm court.
According to this website, the brewery Whitbread took over Oakwood in the 1960s and controversially turned the bowling green into a car park.
The pub opened as a Beefeater Steakhouse chain in 1981 and lasted another 20 years before closing and taking the bulldozer in 2001.
Jubilee Inn
The 19th-century pub Jubilee Inn originally started out in the 1860s as the Druids Harp on Whit Lane. Historians have predicted the name change probably happened around Queen Victoria’s Jubilee.
Locals had to say goodbye to the pub in 1973 when it was pulled down as the surrounding area was almost completely demolished for redevelopment.
The site of the Victorian boozer is located where Langley Road South meets Cromwell Road today according to Pubs of Manchester.
Although a lot of Salford’s favourite pubs didn’t manage to last under the hands of time, there are still a few 18th-century favourites going strong, one of them being The Kings Arms.
The Kings Arms
The Kings Arms is a 200-year-old pub on Bloom Street which has managed to survive the 1960s slum clearance, a pandemic and the ongoing cost of living crisis. First licensed in 1807, The Kings Arms has always been known as quite a successful pub. In fact, when the pub was taken over by Thomas Holden in September 1858, the advertisement stated that the pub had been selling seven barrels of beer a week for seven and a half years.
In 2011, after a few more landlords, the pub lease was taken over by Paul Heaton and Zena Barrie. Since then, more emphasis has been placed on their artistic endeavours. The pub’s current landlord, Lisa Connor, puts the pub’s success down to its unique artistic selling point.
Lisa, who has been managing the pub since 2015, said: “It all comes down to thinking outside the box and investing in the community and theatre and arts. For example, we don’t show sports at all because we’re an arts club and we’ve got a different audience.
“We listen to what our community wants and our customers want rather than going straight for the bottom line.”
The New Oxford
The New Oxford is another 200-year-old pub that’s situated on Salford’s historic Bexley Square. It’s one the few public houses still operating around Chapel Street in Salford.
The ancient pub dates back to the 1850s and is a firm favourite with locals and students. The pub has recently gone through a design revamp this January to take it back to its Victorian roots. The pub was updated with furnishings that would typically feature in a pub in the 19th century, including old copper counters and traditional shutter blinds.
The owner Tim Flynn said: “Salford has lost so many good pubs over the years and the pubs that are open are more bars than pubs. I want to re-create a historic old fashioned, well-designed boozer.”
The Black Friar
The Grade II listed pub on Blackfriars Road was originally founded in 1886 and is still going strong today. The Victorian-style building was built by William Ball, in red brick and red sandstone.
A stone plaque which can be seen on the side of the building commemorates the fact that it was rebuilt in 1886. This may suggest that The Black Friar is a modification of or a replacement for an earlier building.
After reportedly closing down in the 21st century for some time the pub re-opened in 2021. After a £1.4 million restoration, the pub became one of the few independently run pubs in Salford in 2023.
Deborah noted that local pubs “always struggled” through the 20th century.
“In fairness, they’ve always had to fight for survival, right through the 19th century they were legislation to curb drunkenness.
“But I think now pubs really, really are fighting for survival.”
Deborah indicated that cultural changes in the 21st century have led to even fewer people deciding to go out for a few scoops than ever before.
She added: “Supermarkets are selling drink, we’re accessing media at home, and we’re not using them in the same way. The most successful pubs are also restaurants and serve food and they have to offer other things.
“I’ve seen moments in history where they’ve struggled to survive and have achieved but it is a real concern now. They could be slowly dying.”
News and Sport in Salford this week
Family of man who fell from apartment balcony in Salford pay tribute to him
The family of a man who fell from a balcony at Black Friar Court have paid tribute to him amid the launch of a murder investigation. Read more here.
Eccles Old Road to undergo £390k resurfacing works this September
Eccles Old Road will undergo resurfacing works worth nearly £400,000 this September. Read more here.
£20 million invested into improving social homes in Salford
More than £20 million is going to be invested in improving over 1,300 social homes in Salford. Read more here.
Salford City signs international midfielder on loan
The international midfielder Tyrese Fornah will be joining The Ammies on loan from Derby County for the year. Read more here.
‘What’s On’ in Salford this week
🛍️ - Swinton Workplace on Worsley Road is hosting a summer family fair this Sunday August 18 from 10am - 3pm. For more information email: team@swintonworkplace.com
✡️ - Residents can also visit the new ‘Jewish Living Experience’ exhibition every weekday from 11.30am - 2pm till Friday August 16. Read more here.
👩🎤 - The international smash hit musical SIX is making its ‘royal return’ to The Lowry this weekend. Read more here.
Our photo of the week
Pictured above is the Church Inn on Mulberry Road. The pub closed down in 1976. (Image credit: Salford Pubs of the 70s, Flickr)
Expect spells of sunshine for the rest of the week
⛅ - Residents can expect spells of sunshine for the rest of the week in Salford. This will be accompanied by a gentle breeze, with highs of 20°C.
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