Looking for Gibraltar and finding the Kippax in Newton Heath

Now we all know those grim figures which tell the story of the demise of the traditional pub.

The Kippax, 2017

According to the Campaign for Real Ale, on average 27 pubs a week call time, throw the spare beer mats in the bin and shut their doors for ever.

And the Kippax on Grimshaw Lane was one of them.

It is not a pub I knew but Andy Robertson, that diligent chronicler of lost buildings, demolished warehouses and vanished factories  recorded the sad end of the Kippax.

I say the end but it has been closed since sometime around 2014 but did continue to sport the Man City emblem on the front and side walls for another year.

But now even they have gone.

The Gibraltar, 1964

Not that it was always the Kippax, indeed its earlier name was the Gibraltar and according to that excellent pub site Pubs of Manchester changed its name when City moved grounds.

All of which just left Andy to unearth one of those historic pictures from 1964 when the beer will have flowed and the Pink Gins, Babychams and pork scratching were all available for anyone who wanted to drop in.

Location; Newton Heath

Pictures; The Kippax, 2017, from the collection of Any Robertson, and the pub as the Gibraltar in 1964, T Brooks, m49659, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*The Pubs of Manchester, http://pubs-of-manchester.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=The+Kippax