Origins of the Park View pub’s light display, and what it means to the neighbourhood.
10:18, 16 Dec 2025Updated 10:28, 16 Dec 2025
Some of the Christmas decorations at Park View(Image: LLipiec)
Hundreds of lights have transformed a Blackley pub into a festive spectacle this December, where heart and ambition lies behind the warming glow.
The ornate and colourful display lighting up the Park View, on Heaton Park Road, is the passion project of landlords Steve and Dan. Early winter sunsets have helped set the stage around the pub, and Santa’s workshop scenery is visible from every angle.
Having grown up in Newton Heath, Steve Lord, 58, cited the area’s bygone ‘Christmas House’ as direct inspiration for his decoration efforts. He said: “It was off the scale. People used to queue up and down the road to go around the terrace house front garden. It was sort of a part of Christmas.”
The house belonged to Jim Coupe, whose notably extravagant Christmas light decorations drew locals to his neighbourhood for over thirty consecutive Christmases. Steve added: “When he passed away, his family sold the house, and it’s gone now.”
Neighbours and regulars have shown their appreciation for this return of the tradition at Park View. Last Christmas, Steve said families, which had met through his pub “put on a collection”. He told the Manchester Evening News: “Without us knowing obviously, [they]bought us between them all a night at a spa. It was a bit posh for us like, but it was mint. It was nearly £400 altogether, and they gave us £150 of spending money as well.”
Park View landlords Dan Lee (left), and Steve Lord (right)(Image: LLipiec)
The lights are not the first transformation the bar had undergone in recent years. According to Steve, he had rebranded the pub formerly known as The Hilltop to cultivate a welcoming community vibe, which he felt the establishment formerly lacked.
“I’ve eradicated The Hilltop. We need all these families here to feel okay bringing their children up them stairs.”
One look inside the pub during its Christmas grotto event suggests the efforts have been successful, with a queue of children chanting for Santa with a level of energy that brings back the fondest childhood Christmas party memories.
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Sacrifices were made from the landlords’ pockets to make this light show a reality. Dan Lee, 58, jokes that the duo “haven’t looked at the cost yet” and “don’t want to”.
He added: “That’s irrelevant. It’s for the kids. It’s magical… We don’t make a living here. We scrape a living, because we do mad things like this. And then for the next quarter, we have to pay the electrical bills back. But if we didn’t do it, what would we have around here? Nothing.”
The pub has additionally chipped in for community events, most recently a buffet for funeral-goers following the tragic passing of Blackley legend Mark Pinder, 54.
“He’d been around here forever. Everyone loved him, everyone gave him clothes, fed him,” said Steve. The landlords noted that some of the neighbours had “lived here twenty-two years and never visited”, and they are now delighted to be able to call more locals their friends.
Steve labelled the whimsy restored to Heaton Park Road as “contagious,” noting that “the neighbours have put lights up on their fence, and they never used to bother”.