The Ark Royal – Harpurhey

Lathbury Road Harpurhey M9 5SY

Looks to me as though the pub was launched in the 1960’s along with the surrounding houses and shops.

In 1910 Lathbury Road looked like this.

In 1968 the area was part of the Manchester slum clearance programme.

Photo: Tommy Brooks

The real Ark Royal was built by Cammel Laird at Birkenhead, completed in November 1938.

Torpedoed and subsequently sunk on 10th November 1941.

The pub closed in 2007 – here it is in 1992.

Photo: Alan Winfield

Another great looking estate pub that was on the same estate as the Hipp which it was also fairly close to.

There was the usual two rooms inside, I had a drink in the bar room which was quite busy on my Friday afternoon visit, there was also a more comfortable lounge.

The pub was a Robinsons tied house, there were two real ales on, I had a drink of Robinsons Bitter which was a nice drink, there was also Robinsons Mild on.

Another pub that was was well pleased to do.

Never Ending Pub Crawl

Here its is in 2007.

Photo: Mikey

The pub currently trades as the Pathfinder Church.

We are committed to the growth and development of individual, our local and international communities. In the interim may I use this medium to invite you to be part of the move of God in our church, the Pathfinder.

The Lord bless your richly as you navigate through in Jesus name.

The Four Heatons aka The Moss Rose – Stockport

63 Didsbury Road, Heaton Norris, Stockport, SK4 2BA.

Do not let the unusual design of the exterior put you off visiting this pub. When it first opened it was called the Moss Rose. An extensive refit had very considerably improved the interior decor of this once welcoming pub, with its pleasant vault and well appointed lounge.

Quiz is on Wednesdays and a Disco on Saturdays.

Lunches twelve until three.

Do not let the fact that the pub was demolished on the 26th of November 2013 deter you from visiting – we still have our memories and a few surviving snaps.

I have lived almost opposite the site for sixteen years, though ever so local it was never my local, but it provided a convenient and comfortable bolthole for the odd pint every now and again.

Once it looked just like this.

Opened in 1971, it was and always was a Hydes pub.

Stockport Image Archive

It had a distinctive architectural style and layout all of its own, an asymmetric timber clad dwelling at the core, complemented by a fan of single story rooms extending into the car park.

The name was changed subsequent to the tragic and unfortunate gangland killing that took place in September 1999. It never seemed to recover from such a damning reputation,  and though well used by the many residents in the well populated surrounding area, the offer of hard cash for the site. must in the end have proved irresistible.

The doors closed the windows boarded up – no more karaoke, no more Northen Soul, no more free pool – no more nothing.

 

The hoardings went up – the pub came down.

Now it’s a Co-op, with flats attached.

 

Lowes Arms – Woodley Stockport

18 Hyde Road Woodley Stockport SK6 1QG

I passed by for years on bike and bus, never stopping for a pint but intrigued by the distinctive Sixties architecture, an exciting adjunct to the adjacent Woodley Precinct.

The physical embodiment of the post war brick and concrete optimism which permeates the post-war period. When full employment in a plethora of manual trades ensured a steady flow of post work-customers, expecting a steady flow of Robinson’s draught beers.

Then one day I passed by bike and you were shuttered up, sat silently on Hyde Road, the windows of your soul staring blankly at the passing parade.

When I pass by all the people say, just another pub on the lost highway.

 

 

The Three Crowns – Stockport

Manchester Road, Heaton Norris, Stockport. SK4 1TN

In the 1960’s you were built as an estate pub by Boddington’s to serve the new housing developments at the top of Lancashire Hill, two large rooms separated by the bar.

You were transformed into the Cosmopolitan and latterly the Venue.

Applications were made for change of use to a takeaway and a carwash.

Neither would take, or wash.

In March 2009 you closed your doors to the drinker forever.

Like a seriously unwanted child you were snapped once and only once it seems.

Prior to being boarded up and out.

Then reinvented as luxury apartments.

I’ve belatedly redressed your absence from presence, here’s my small gift to you.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Three Crowns, take a bow.

 

 

Jack and Jill – Brinnington

Brinnington Rd, Stockport SK5 8AD

High on a hill, above Stockport town centre sat the Jack and Jill.

Built in 1954 to serve the emerging nearby social housing estate.

A curved brick frontage overlooking the Goyt Valley.

Classical Moderne with a splash of Brut – it’s all over.

In happier times it served the Community.

 

 

I returned to find:

Tinned-up doors and windows, no sign of a sign.

No sign of signs of life, save the landlord of eight years packing up to leave for pastures new, The Friendship in Romiley.

“I want flat caps, darts and dominoes, its got a bowling green too!”

I asked if the Jack and Jill was to be demolished?

“It’s up for sale.”

No amount of vinegar and brown paper, I fear, will put Jack back together again.

Jill perpetually tumbling.

After.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dog and Partridge – Heaton Mersey

Didsbury Road, Stockport, Cheshire SK4 3AG

Just down the road from my home on Didsbury Road, stands a pub on Didsbury Road.

The Dog and Partridge once an estate pub, clean lines, bare brick, fur coat no curtains.

You know the score.

Over time a boozer gets ideas about itself, ends up getting rendered and whitewashed by the Brewery’s guileless gentrifiers, who possess the unwholesome taste of a past their sell by date bag of pound shop crisps.

Not satisfied with the Farrow and Ballisation of our culture, we now have to contend with the Argosifiers too.

Where will it all end?

I’ve never been in, thieves have though!

A masked gang were frightened off from a Stockport pub by the landlord and landlady. 

Officers describe the gang as wearing dark clothes and balaclavas and carrying large knives.

Detective Sergeant Geoffrey Machent said: “The landlord and landlady were understandably shocked to be confronted by these three intruders in balaclavas. Thankfully neither of them was hurt, but we want to stop these men from doing this again.”

Nicholson’s Arms – Stockport

Lancashire Hill, Stockport, SK5 7RH.

Sitting snuggly in a triangle of of tranquility twixt Tiviot Dale and Lancashire Hill.

There sits the former Nicholson’s Arms.

Still.

Pints no longer pulled, it awaits a new tenant and purpose in life – I’m tempted.

A precise jumble of geometry with white trim and delicious tiny details – the zig-zag wandering wall, hexagonal flags, cardinal red pebble inlay and triumphal timber, strutted porch canopy.

Still.

This is the original Nicholson’s Arms.

The nearby Nip Inn that didn’t last so long at all this former Boddington’s pub opened in 1970 and closed in 2001 

Pub Curmudgeon.

The Moor Top – Stockport

172 Heaton Moor Road, Heaton Moor, SK4 4DU

“I’ve got a personality crisis and it’s killin’ me.”

So sang the New York Dolls – so to The Moor Top.

Seen here in 1975

A brick, tile and render fortress that has attempted to dress up as Tudorbethan barn and failed.

Surrounded by late Victorian and Edwardian mansions, ashamed of its inherent lack of history.

Currently swathed in hanging baskets and the inevitable coaching lamp, it is undergoing yet another period of transition.

Taken over by the adjacent Damson Restaurant, full refurbishment in 2016 promised.

What will emerge from this incipient, disabused chrysalis?

My money is on those twins of contemporary duplicity Farrow and Ball, blowing their elephant’s breath all over the place, like an unwanted after dinner burp!

Me?

I prefer Cannon and Ball – rock on Moor Top!

The Tom Thumb – Stockport

54 King Street West, Stockport, SK3 0DT.

Close by the Fire Station, in the shadow of the Hollywood park flats, sits the former Tom Thumb pub.

Now the Last Monsoon an Indian restaurant.

I only went in there the once, when new to the town and on a mission to visit every extant pub.

It was never a favourite, a large lounge, anonymous and bland, found no easy favour.

The building remains intact, original imposing doors, jazzy asymmetric bays and wooden cladding.

Would that it was an enticing boozer, so close to home.

It isn’t.

The Corner Shop – Beswick Manchester

Rylance Street, Beswick, Manchester, M11 3NA

A stone’s throw from the sweeping curves of the Etihad Stadium and the match day roar, stands The Corner Shop, it’s keg fuelled clientele roaring out an un-muted response to an almost constant stream of Sky Sports.

An implausible brick and tile asymmetric Scandinavian ski-lodge of a boozer, sandwiched between 70’s social housing and a new breed of recent urban redevelopment in the modern manner de jour.

The single storey low angled roof of the main bar area, meets the higher level of the landlord’s living quarters, to form a formidable bunker.

Happily the shutters were up and the light allowed into the open plan, on a day of two conflicted surrounding skies – blue and grey, just about sums it up.