{"id":996446,"date":"2026-05-31T14:04:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T14:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/996446\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T14:04:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T14:04:52","slug":"the-lost-pubs-of-oldham-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/996446\/","title":{"rendered":"The lost pubs of Oldham Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

The names trip off Tony Hennessy’s tongue. “You had the Gibraltar, the Copenhagen, the Guido, the Lamb Inn, the Weavers, the Black Horse,” he says over a lunchtime pint of Boddingtons<\/a>. “I can reel them off left, right and centre.”<\/p>\n

The 65-year-old is talking about some of the old pubs<\/a> that used to be in and around Oldham Road. But nowadays, while you can buy a coffee from Caffe Nero, a burger from McDonalds and pretty much every kind of fast food known to man, the one thing you can’t get on one of north Manchester’s busiest main roads is a pint<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That’s because every single pub has closed down. This is the story of the lost pubs of Oldham Road.<\/p>\n

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The yellowing piece of paper details an Oldham Road pub crawl<\/a> undertaken by three pals in the 1970s. Their first port of call was the Cloggers Arms where they sank two halves of mild and half a bitter.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Drinkers in the White Lion in Newton Heath, one of the few pubs left in the vicinity of Oldham Road(Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Just five minutes later they were at the bar ordering another round in the Lamb Inn. Ten minutes after that they were getting the drinks in at the Weavers Arms.<\/p>\n

In all they tackled 11 pubs and 11 halves in just over 90 minutes that night- and very diligently got the barmaid or barman to sign their piece of paper at every stop. Mick Johnson, 69, used to follow a similar route in the late 70s and early 80s.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The hand-written sheet detailing a 1970s pub crawl on Oldham Road(Image: Unknown)<\/p>\n

“I moved up from Salford<\/a> in 1979,” he said. “The nearest pub was the Bull’s Head, two minutes away, then you crossed the road to the Cloggers, then the Lamb Inn.<\/p>\n

“You had the Weavers, the Halfway House, Guido, the Black Horse, the Forresters – that was our pub crawl, then we tried to walk back! They were all top boozers, they were all doing a roaring trade.”<\/p>\n

But if you were to try something similar today, it would be a very long wait between drinks.<\/p>\n

In fact if you were start off in the Crown and Kettle on the corner of Great Ancoats Street you wouldn’t see another pub on Oldham<\/a> Road until you got to the Mowbray Arms in Failsworth<\/a>, some three and a half miles and a one hour and 20 minute walk away (for the purposes of this article I’m discounting Impiety Hour a record and book shop\/ cafe and ‘public drinking rooms’).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(Clockwise from top left) The Weavers, Birmingham Tavern, Copenhagen tavern and the Apollo<\/p>\n

Go back even further and there were even more pubs on Oldham Road – literally dozens. A 1899 ‘Drink Map of Manchester’, published in the Manchester Guardian, shows 45 ‘beer houses’ and ‘licensed victuallers’ along the road with loads more on the side streets.<\/p>\n

And this colourful passage from Angus Bethune Reach’s book, Manchester and the Textile Districts in 1894, as reprinted by the Pubs of Manchester website<\/a>, gives an taste of just how raucous a night-out there might have been at the time.<\/p>\n

“In returning, last Sunday night, by the Oldham Road, from one of my tours, I was somewhat surprised to hear loud sounds of music and jollity which floated out of public house windows,” he wrote. “The street was swarming with drunken men and women and with young mill girls shouting, hallooing and romping with each other.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Drink Map of Manchester<\/p>\n

“Now I am not one of those who look upon the slightest degree of social indulgence as a downright evil, but I confess, that last Sunday night in the Oldham Road astonished and grieved me. In no city have I ever witnessed scenes of more open, brutal and general intemperance.<\/p>\n

“The public houses and gin shops were roaring full. Rows and fights and scuffles were every moment taking place within doors and in the streets. The whole street rung with shouting and swearing, mingled with the jarring music of half a dozen bands.”<\/p>\n

The struggles of the UK’s pubs have been well-documented as the industry has been hit by a cocktail of rising bills, the cost-of-living crisis, increased competition for our leisure and social time, shifting attitudes to alcohol and changes to the way we work.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Prince of Wales on Oldham Road in Newton Heath, pictured in 1984(Image: Mirrorpix)<\/p>\n

On average two pubs a day are closing in England and Wales<\/a>, according to the most recent figures from the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA). Since 2020 the UK has lost more 2,000 pubs<\/a> and more then 16,000 since 2000.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the BBPA, called on the Government to help the industry by reducing taxes and regulation.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What used to be The Cloggers Arms, now Boss Hotel<\/p>\n

“The scale of these closures is avoidable because pubs are doing a brisk trade, but their profits are wiped out by a disproportionate tax burden and huge costs,” she said. “For too many, the sheer weight of taxes and regulatory costs have forced them to shut up shop, which will only hurt communities, workers, and the wider economy.”<\/p>\n

On Oldham Road those lost pubs include The Apollo, a classic estate pub on the corner of Varley Street in Miles Platting, which closed its doors in 2010. The Old Pack Horse was a handsome little boozer, crammed between a church and factory on the Collyhurst stretch of Oldham Road.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Copenhagen Tavern was once a regular Sunday meeting spot for the Quality Street gang(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

It was given a major revamp in the 1980s, but even that wasn’t enough to save and it was pulled down some time after. The Copenhagen Tavern, once a regular Sunday meeting spot for the Quality Street Gang<\/a>, is still standing, but with its windows boarded up and trees growing from the roof, its days appear numbered.<\/p>\n

Last weekend firefighters spent the night battling a blaze at the Weavers<\/a>, which called time in 2011. And the last to go was the Lamb Inn, which closed last year. It’s now a 24 hour convenience store, which will be ironic for those who remember its infamous lock-ins.<\/p>\n

But it’s not just Oldham Road. This is a story that could be written about Rochdale<\/a> Road, Bury<\/a> Old Road, Bury New Road or pretty much any of inner-city Manchester’s main thoroughfares.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Firefighters at the Weavers on Oldham Road last weekend(Image: Dan Mclaughlin)<\/p>\n

Historian Dr Deborah Woodman, who has written several books on Manchester’s pubs, said estates and the outskirts of big towns and cities have been hit particularly hard by pub closures.<\/p>\n

“It’s a massive change in the way we live and the way we consume leisure,” she said. “Around Oldham Road we had the railways, factories and cotton mills.<\/p>\n

“People lived together, worked together, clocked off at the same time and would go to the pub. Pubs were rooted in these working class communities.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Landlord John Seddon and his wife Joan outside The Halfway House pub on Oldham Road in June 1990(Image: Mirrorpix)<\/p>\n

“Often you would go find a job in the pub, you would play sports there, go to read the paper. That has very much changed now. And the pubs on arterial routes such as Oldham Road have really struggled.<\/p>\n

“Everybody just whizzes past to get where they’re going. They don’t have that passing footfall any more.”<\/p>\n

Marie Cusack and Anton Moshkun – AKA well-known Manchester pub turn Tony Banks – run the White Lion in the centre of Newton<\/a> Heath, one of the last pubs still trading in the vicinity of Oldham Road. But its future is also uncertain as the pair are planning to retire and have put the pub they’ve run for the last nine years up for sale.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The arch above the door of The Copenhagen<\/p>\n

“It’s been since covid really,” said Marie reflecting on when things really got tough for the trade. “It destroyed the fabric of the business world.”<\/p>\n

But she also has a more conspiratorial take on the industry’s woes. “We believe they are deliberately trying to close all the pubs on the outskirts to centralise drinking in the city centres to make things easier for the police.”<\/p>\n

Marie has worked in pubs on-and-off for much of her life and says our relationship with the boozer has changed dramatically over the years.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

White Lion landlord Tony Banks(Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

“I used to work at a printers. We would get half an hour for lunch and we’d go for a drink and some pub grub but these days no-one does that,” she said. “When I was a student I used to work at the Land ‘O’ Cakes opposite the Daily Express building on Great Ancoats Street.<\/p>\n

“It was full of pressmen all day long. The hot metal men used to do an hour on, an hour off and they’d be in and out the pub all day. Nowadays all that’s gone.<\/p>\n

“There are so many pubs round here that have closed. There are no pubs at all now in Miles Platting and it used to be full of them. And we’ve benefited from that because people still want somewhere to go.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Foresters Arms<\/p>\n

But while it’s getting harder and harder to make a living as a publican, Marie says it can still be done, if you’re willing to put the work in.<\/p>\n

“A lot of landlords are pisspots,” she said. “It’s like putting a kid in charge of a sweetshop.<\/p>\n

“We’re not like that. This is a business for us, not a social club however, we have always done our best to create a social environment for the wonderful people of Newton Heath<\/a> that have made our journey so rewarding and enjoyable.<\/p>\n

“But we’ve had to work at it. We do everything ourselves, from the cleaning, to the repairs, to putting on the entertainment – that’s the only way you can do it now – and we’ve done well out of it.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

‘There are so many pubs round here that have closed'(Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Marie and Tony hope whoever buys the White Lion will continue to run it as a pub. But if that doesn’t happen and it goes the way of many of Oldham Road’s other pubs over the years, Dr Woodman says the community will have lost more than just somewhere to go for a pint.<\/p>\n

“It’s almost intangible but it’s that connection with people on a fundamental level that a pub provides,” she said. “We think we’re connected on social media, but I just don’t see it, it’s very tenuous.”<\/p>\n

Sat by the window in the White Lion with his partner Sandra Macklin, Tony Hennessy agrees.<\/p>\n

“It’s not just the pubs, it’s all the memories and the people you met,” he said. “It’s sad to see.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The names trip off Tony Hennessy’s tongue. “You had the Gibraltar, the Copenhagen, the Guido, the Lamb Inn,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":996447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8813],"tags":[8830,748,2967,393,4884,2465,12038,24072,11637,8937,16,15],"class_list":["post-996446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manchester","tag-ancoats","tag-britain","tag-collyhurst","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-manchester","tag-manchester-pubs","tag-miles-platting","tag-newton-heath","tag-pubs-and-bars","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116669576536006072","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=996446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/996447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=996446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=996446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=996446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}