You won’t find the Albert Hotel or its predecessor, the Queens Stores Vaults, on Oldham Street, and their disappearance calls up some fascinating and twisty bits of history.
Today, 109 Oldham Street is home to Gullivers, which as well as being a bar is a centre for live music and is totally separate from an earlier pub by the same name which superseded one called the Grenadier which in turn replaced the Albert Hotel.
Nor is that quite all, because along with all these names we can add the King’s Arms and Coronation Vaults, where in 1850 a Mr. James Buxton dispensed beer and good cheer.
This pub appears to date back to 1803, but not necessarily at 109 Oldham Street, indeed the following year it has shifted along the road to no. 133 where at one time it had added “Top King” to its listing to distinguish it from The King at 73-75. And for those not already overwhelmed with names the King’s Arms is now the City.
So, with that done and dusted it is back to the Albert Hotel which, was one of the few pubs in the city centre, where you could enter on one street and exit on another.
The other was 90 Tib Street, and the story of how it became part of the Albert has occupied me for most of the day.
Up until 1868 the Tib Street property had been the home of a Maria Greenwood who was a cap maker, and for the purposes of the Rates Book is listed as a house and shop, with annual rent of £14.
And here comes the twisty bit, because just four years earlier, a Mr. James Ramwell had bought the Albert Hotel from Esther Rowbottom, paying £700 for the goodwill of the business and spent a further “£1000 in improving the house, by adding a beer shop and cottage”.*
I can’t quite fathom how Maria Greenwood fitted into the new development, but by 1871 she has moved on to Rochdale Road, and is again renting a house and shop for the much increased yearly rent of £22.
And by the mid-1870s the street directories list the Albert Hotel as at “109 Oldham Street, Whittle Street and Tib Street”, which remains the case into the middle years of the last century.
But sometime after 1969, the Albert loses its Tib Street bit, and no. 90 reverts to a separate property.
Just what it morphed into I have yet to discover but in 2008 it was the CEBU Café, offering “FLIPONO FAST FOOD AND TAKEAWAY”, which by 2015 had again become part of the pub again, which is a nice bit of historical continuity.
All of which leaves one last puzzle and a final twist to the story.
I had long wondered when the Queens Stores Vaults, became the Albert Hotel. It was still listed as such in 1863 when it was run by Esther Rowbottom, and that was also the year James Ramwell applied for the license, so I guess that will be when it was renamed.
Either way, his entrepreneurial ambitions rather hit the buffers because in 1864 he fell foul of the licensing authorities, who took umbrage that he had extended the pub on to Tib Street using the old license, which didn’t cover such a move.
Once the authorities discovered what he had done they at first ordered him not to use the Tib Street end, and later“refused to grant any license at all either to the premises, including the additional portion or to the old house”.
Happily, all was eventually sorted out.
Except to say Mr. Ramwell saw a gold mine. In the 1860s it commanded an estimated annual rent of £200, which was much higher than the surrounding properties, and in 1911 the then landlord employed eight staff, to look after the twelve rooms of the property.
All of which just leaves me to mention the three pubs books which feature 78 city centre pubs, the 33 Chorlton pubs and bars and the 49 bars and pubs of Didsbury.
They are less a guide and more a history of all that is good, combining original paintings by Peter Topping, stories by me and lots of photographs.
You can order the books at www.pubbooks.co.uk email Peter at peter@pubbooks.co.uk or the old fashioned way on 07521 557888 or from Chorlton Bookshop
Location; Manchester
Pictures; The Albert Hotel, 1970, A Dawson, m49145, the Albert on Tib Street in 1959, H W Beaumont, m49149, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
and Tib Street in 1851, from Adshead’s map of Manchester, 1851, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
Sources, Manchester Rates Books, 1849-1900, census returns 1841-1871, Whellan and Co’s Directory of Manchester, 1852, Slater’s Directories of Manchester and Salford, 1850-1911, Manchester Guardian 1860-1864, Manchester City Licensing Records, 1730-1964, courtesy of Bob Potts.
*The City Magistrates and the Licensing System, Manchester Guardian, November 25th, 1865.
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| The Albert Hotel, Oldham Street, 1970 |
Nor is that quite all, because along with all these names we can add the King’s Arms and Coronation Vaults, where in 1850 a Mr. James Buxton dispensed beer and good cheer.
This pub appears to date back to 1803, but not necessarily at 109 Oldham Street, indeed the following year it has shifted along the road to no. 133 where at one time it had added “Top King” to its listing to distinguish it from The King at 73-75. And for those not already overwhelmed with names the King’s Arms is now the City.
So, with that done and dusted it is back to the Albert Hotel which, was one of the few pubs in the city centre, where you could enter on one street and exit on another.
The other was 90 Tib Street, and the story of how it became part of the Albert has occupied me for most of the day.
 |
| The Queens Stores Vaults, Oldham Street, 1851 |
And here comes the twisty bit, because just four years earlier, a Mr. James Ramwell had bought the Albert Hotel from Esther Rowbottom, paying £700 for the goodwill of the business and spent a further “£1000 in improving the house, by adding a beer shop and cottage”.*
I can’t quite fathom how Maria Greenwood fitted into the new development, but by 1871 she has moved on to Rochdale Road, and is again renting a house and shop for the much increased yearly rent of £22.
And by the mid-1870s the street directories list the Albert Hotel as at “109 Oldham Street, Whittle Street and Tib Street”, which remains the case into the middle years of the last century.
But sometime after 1969, the Albert loses its Tib Street bit, and no. 90 reverts to a separate property.
Just what it morphed into I have yet to discover but in 2008 it was the CEBU Café, offering “FLIPONO FAST FOOD AND TAKEAWAY”, which by 2015 had again become part of the pub again, which is a nice bit of historical continuity.
 |
| The Albert Hotel, Tib Street, 1959 |
I had long wondered when the Queens Stores Vaults, became the Albert Hotel. It was still listed as such in 1863 when it was run by Esther Rowbottom, and that was also the year James Ramwell applied for the license, so I guess that will be when it was renamed.
Either way, his entrepreneurial ambitions rather hit the buffers because in 1864 he fell foul of the licensing authorities, who took umbrage that he had extended the pub on to Tib Street using the old license, which didn’t cover such a move.
Once the authorities discovered what he had done they at first ordered him not to use the Tib Street end, and later“refused to grant any license at all either to the premises, including the additional portion or to the old house”.
Happily, all was eventually sorted out.
Except to say Mr. Ramwell saw a gold mine. In the 1860s it commanded an estimated annual rent of £200, which was much higher than the surrounding properties, and in 1911 the then landlord employed eight staff, to look after the twelve rooms of the property.
They are less a guide and more a history of all that is good, combining original paintings by Peter Topping, stories by me and lots of photographs.
You can order the books at www.pubbooks.co.uk email Peter at peter@pubbooks.co.uk or the old fashioned way on 07521 557888 or from Chorlton Bookshop
Location; Manchester
Pictures; The Albert Hotel, 1970, A Dawson, m49145, the Albert on Tib Street in 1959, H W Beaumont, m49149, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
and Tib Street in 1851, from Adshead’s map of Manchester, 1851, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
Sources, Manchester Rates Books, 1849-1900, census returns 1841-1871, Whellan and Co’s Directory of Manchester, 1852, Slater’s Directories of Manchester and Salford, 1850-1911, Manchester Guardian 1860-1864, Manchester City Licensing Records, 1730-1964, courtesy of Bob Potts.
*The City Magistrates and the Licensing System, Manchester Guardian, November 25th, 1865.
On 2 August 1915 Charles Steer (b. 19 August 1892 in Spalding, Lincolnshire) married Sarah (Sally) Bostock (b.28 November 1892 and baptised at St Mary's Church, Lower Ince, Wigan) at ST Paul, New Cross, Manchester. They both listed as their home address the Albert Hotel 109 Oldham Street Manchester on the marriage certificate. Steer's job before the first world war was as a slaughterhouse butcher. After serving in the war Steer returned to a job as a waiter at the hotel whose proprietor was listed as Mrs S Nichols on his demob papers. Family oral history has it that he took over as the licensee of the Hotel and had it for a very long time. By 1939 he is listed as living with his wife and family at 131 Ashton Old Road but is still a pub landlord or beerseller. In other words living off the premises. As a local historian can you throw any light on his tenure there please?
ReplyDeleteI am not sure l can add much to your excellent research other than to suggest you might be able to use the directories to fill the gaps. These are on microfilm in Central Ref in St Peter's Sq. But at present with Covid l can't get into town.
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