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.”

Four in Hand – Hattersley

Hattersley Road East, Hattersley SK14 3EQ

Hattersley – above Hyde beyond Manchester.

Created as an *overspill estate* to ease inner-city housing congestion, hopefully affording a more amenable, rural life.

Seven of its 1960’s tower blocks were demolished in 2000, Tameside Towers is next.

Hattersley – once home to Ricky Hatton.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2009/feb/01/ricky-hatton-boxing

I chatted to former resident Keith – he’d been happy in his home in the sky, buying binoculars to watch the passing airplanes and birds.

Since rehoused in a nearby maisonette, there is much less to see.

Or do.

The estate once had five pubs, now only one remains – not the Four in Hand.

A boarded up bricked bunker of a boozer,  elevated and nestled against the flats.

The wind now whistles, little else.

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 Greyhound – Stockport

27 Bowden Street, Edgeley. SK3 9HG

Surrounded by tower blocks and maisonettes, my former local The Greyhound has finally stopped running.

Surrounded by fellow former pubs the area is now served solely by the Ye Olde Vic just around the corner.

As I snapped away a passing stranger commented:

” Case of beer, wide screen, chill with the lads”

Stella and telly it’s killing the trade – this once busy, family community pub is surrounded by folk who just don’t care to go in there any more.

Now they can’t.