Two old Withington pubs

The Albert, 2014

Today I am out in Withington exploring two of those pubs I haven’t been in since I lived behind the library.

Back then the object was to enjoy the beer and the company and not think over much about the surroundings which is a shame because had I done so I might just have added something to my nights in the Albert and the Victoria.

Of course I have passed them plenty of times but never been back inside although given their age I have thought about what stories might lay behind the doors.

And so when Andy presented me with pictures of the two I decided to go looking for their history.

Withington in 1853

In this I was ably assisted by Withington Civic Society and their excellent publication, A walk through the history of Withington.*

“The Albert Hotel and the shop next door are the oldest surviving Buildings in the centre of Withington.  

On October 26 1793 John Rigby (yeoman of Withington) sold to John Bowker tree acres of land known by several names.  Lower End Pasture Field, the Hay Meadow or the Croft.  

In 1824 Edward Langford, a joiner, acquired a dwelling house gardens and premises probably on this site.

The Albert, 2014

Between 1824 and 1829 he remodelled the site and built three cottages which in 1852 he sold to Thomas Holt a cashier.

During the next ten years, Thomas Holt converted the three cottages into two tenements to form a beer house, a shop and a dwelling house.  The first mention of the public house by the present name was in 1897 when it was called the Albert Inn.”

Back in 1853 the properties were still pretty much surrounded by open land and it would a decade before the field next to them was sold and a full fifty-four years before the Victoria Hotel opened for business.

The Victoria Hotel, 2014

“In 1862, the land on the site of the present Victoria Hotel was sold.  In 1905 Hydes Brewery bought the site from Mr W. M. Kay.

The pub, at that time had a basement and in the yard there was a small cottage.

In 1906/7, Hydes demolished the cottage and the stable extended the public house at the rear and built the single storey side section now fronting Queen Street.  

The interior was renovated in 1984, but the exterior has remained unaltered since those times.”

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Robertson, map detail from the OS 1841-53, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

* A walk through the history of Withington, Withington Civic Society, 2014,
www, withingtoncivicsociety.org.uk