You have been closed since 2015, but acquired a facebook site all to yourself, and a place in that definitive book on Manchester Pubs.*
But age, changing demographics and a developer’s plan has sealed your fate.
Soon, the demolition teams will make a start on wiping you away, and in your place will rise a new office block to be called 4 Angel Square.
And 200 years of pub history will disappear, but not completely, for in your time you upset the authorities enough to feature in the papers, prompting Peter and I to record that in 1870, the then landlord, a John Ashton tolerated “thieves and reputed thieves who were in the habit of assembling in the pub.”**
Giving evidence at the City Police Courts, Police Sergeant Potts said on one occasion he had seen “four convicted thieves, namely John Silk, John Harrison, Ellen Tucker and Margaret Tracey, besides 12 reputed thieves and a ‘ticket to leave man,’ as well as men at the door of the house who seeing him, ran in quickly and then others came running out.”***
In his defence Mr Ashton claimed that given that the area was in a low locality “if I do not serve them I may as well close the house for very few come into the house except thieves.”
And that pretty much sealed his fate. Mr Ashton was fined £10 ordered to give security of another £20 to keep the peace for another 12 months and lost his license.
There is more, but for that you will have to turn to our book, Manchester Pubs – The Stories Behind the Doors – City Centre, which offers up the stories of 78 of our most iconic and historic pubs , grouped into 15 walks, and accompanied with 600 paintings, pictures and period maps.****
But all is not entirely lost as according to the planning application, Salford Archaeology will be undertaking a full and detailed dig of the site, concluding that the area “holds considerable potential to contain buried remains of archaeological interest, relating to both the later medieval and post-medieval settlement along Long Millgate, as well the 18th-and 19th-century workers’ housing and commercial buildings which occupied much of the site (Salford Archaeology 2019).
The majority of these buildings were cleared in the 20th century, although a group of three 19th-century buildings survives on the site, which are of local archaeological interest”.****
All of which I think is quite exciting, and is some consolation for your passing, which of course will forever be remembered in Manchester Pubs – The Stories Behind The Doors – City Centre which is available from http://www.pubbooks.co.uk/
Location; Corporation Street,
Pictures, The Ducie Bridge Painting, © Peter Topping, Miller Street,1851, from Adshead’s map of Manchester, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
*Manchester Pubs- The Stories Behind the Doors—City Centre, Peter Topping & Andrew Simpson, 2016
**Manchester Guardian, March 30, 1870.
***Ticket of leave, issued to a criminal who had shown good conduct and was awarded certain freedoms including permission to get a job. Tickets of leave recorded details of employment and addresses.
****A new book on Manchester Pubs, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Manchester%20Pubs
*****Manchester City Council Planning Portal, CDN/19/0860 | Discharge of planning condition 3 (written scheme of archaeological investigation) associated with planning permission 123438/FO/2019 | 5 Angel Square Corporation Street Manchester M4 4DU, https://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=PZKEJSBCJ4F00
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| The Ducie Bridge Inn, 2016 |
Soon, the demolition teams will make a start on wiping you away, and in your place will rise a new office block to be called 4 Angel Square.
And 200 years of pub history will disappear, but not completely, for in your time you upset the authorities enough to feature in the papers, prompting Peter and I to record that in 1870, the then landlord, a John Ashton tolerated “thieves and reputed thieves who were in the habit of assembling in the pub.”**
Giving evidence at the City Police Courts, Police Sergeant Potts said on one occasion he had seen “four convicted thieves, namely John Silk, John Harrison, Ellen Tucker and Margaret Tracey, besides 12 reputed thieves and a ‘ticket to leave man,’ as well as men at the door of the house who seeing him, ran in quickly and then others came running out.”***
In his defence Mr Ashton claimed that given that the area was in a low locality “if I do not serve them I may as well close the house for very few come into the house except thieves.”
 |
| The Ducie Bridge Inn, 1851 |
There is more, but for that you will have to turn to our book, Manchester Pubs – The Stories Behind the Doors – City Centre, which offers up the stories of 78 of our most iconic and historic pubs , grouped into 15 walks, and accompanied with 600 paintings, pictures and period maps.****
But all is not entirely lost as according to the planning application, Salford Archaeology will be undertaking a full and detailed dig of the site, concluding that the area “holds considerable potential to contain buried remains of archaeological interest, relating to both the later medieval and post-medieval settlement along Long Millgate, as well the 18th-and 19th-century workers’ housing and commercial buildings which occupied much of the site (Salford Archaeology 2019).
The majority of these buildings were cleared in the 20th century, although a group of three 19th-century buildings survives on the site, which are of local archaeological interest”.****
Location; Corporation Street,
Pictures, The Ducie Bridge Painting, © Peter Topping, Miller Street,1851, from Adshead’s map of Manchester, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
*Manchester Pubs- The Stories Behind the Doors—City Centre, Peter Topping & Andrew Simpson, 2016
**Manchester Guardian, March 30, 1870.
***Ticket of leave, issued to a criminal who had shown good conduct and was awarded certain freedoms including permission to get a job. Tickets of leave recorded details of employment and addresses.
****A new book on Manchester Pubs, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Manchester%20Pubs
*****Manchester City Council Planning Portal, CDN/19/0860 | Discharge of planning condition 3 (written scheme of archaeological investigation) associated with planning permission 123438/FO/2019 | 5 Angel Square Corporation Street Manchester M4 4DU, https://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=PZKEJSBCJ4F00
Shame to see this landmark pub go, thank goodness The Unicorn on Church Street has been grade 2 listed and preserved.
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