Historic Preston Pubs: Part 10

PART 10 NORTH ROAD

In the latest instalment of our look back on the closed pubs of Preston, we focus on the area in the vicinity of North Road.

Starting at the Adelphi Roundabout we head out of town along Moor Lane, and after a short distance, on the right hand side of the road, we come to our first pub. A relative newcomer, the CROSS KEYS at 148 Moor Lane only opened in

1967, and had been built to replace another Matthew Brown pub with the same name on nearby Adelphi Street. The pub was close to the site of Preston’s last windmill. The design was typical 1960s, with an open plan lounge style and little in the way of distinctiveness. The 1992 Preston Guild Real Ale Guide shows the pub as serving Theakston Best Bitter. The pub was known by a number of different names over the next 13 years: RAVEN, RAT & RAVEN, RAT & PARROT and at the time of closure in 2005, EINSTEIN’S THEORY, by which time real ale had long since been discontinued. The building was demolished in 2007 and student flats built on the site. [Author’s note: this pub should have featured in Part 3: The University Quarter, but was somehow overlooked.]

Further up on the other side of the road on the corner with Victoria Street was the PRINCE ARTHUR. The original pub was built in 1851 and was a more traditional looking three storey building. At some point the original pub has been demolished and a rather squat and ungainly looking flat roofed replacement built. In the late 1980s this was a Bass house with one large room around a central bar and was recorded as serving Stones Best Bitter. At one time this was the brewery tap for the long defunct Victoria Brewery, which was in the adjacent building on Victoria Street. The building to the right in the picture of the pub shows the end of what was once the premises of Thomas Powell & Son, biscuit manufacturers. It is a similar story here to the Cross Keys, change the name, in this case to UNIVERSITY TAVERN (no doubt to try to cash in on the nearby university), take out the real ale and give it a garish paint job. Another name change followed, this time to JJ’S LOUNGE BAR, leading to the inevitable closure in 2011. The building is still in existence and is occupied as a food take-away.

At the top end of Moor Lane, on the corner of Vernon Street, we come to our next pub, the MITRE TAVERN. This was a modern, two-roomed pub, with a comfortable lounge and a more basic tap/games room. This was once a Vaux pub, and significantly the only one in the city serving real ale, although by the time of it’s closure in 2005 it was serving Tetley Bitter. The building still stands and is occupied as a vet’s surgery.

At the traffic lights, where Moor Lane meets North Road stood our next casualty, the UNICORN. A fine stone-built pub, which became a Theakston’s house when Matthew Brown were promoting that brand. Described in the 1992 guide as a comfortable spacious pub specialising in live music and quiz nights and with a decent range of real ale, a function room and a beer garden, this would seem to be exactly the sort of pub that would survive. However, the ever-growing university acquired the pub and closed it in 2017. It is currently being used as offices but will be turned into student accommodation once other building work in the area is completed.

Our next closure is another recent one. The NEW WELCOME on Cambridge Walk was a Thwaites’ pub that again survived until 2017. It was described in the 1992 Guild Guide as “a small cosy locals’ pub, which has survived the surrounding demolition and which now serves new housing developments. The well preserved windows include the information that ‘Home Brewed Ales’ are on offer here”. Thwaites Mild & Bitter were available on handpump and real ale was available here until only a few years ago. It is interesting to compare the fate of this pub, owned and run by a local brewery with a seeming

lack of interest in its ‘wet-led’ pubs, with the Princess Alice – only 80 yards away on the same street, which has in recent years been thriving under independent ownership.

A short walk west along Aqueduct Street takes us to our next casualty, the HERMON. For many years this small one-room local was a keg-only Whitbread house. There was none in 1989 when the branch produced a Preston Real Ale Guide, but by 1992 it was recorded as selling real ale in the form of Boddingtons Bitter and Theakston Best Bitter. The pub was named after an Edward Hermon who was M.P. for Preston from 1868 to 1881 – although the pub sign for some reason depicts what appears to

be a slightly inebriated landlord. It closed in 2000 and is still standing today, albeit with no external clue as to how it is being used.

A short walk away across the A6 and we come to our next pub, the LOVAT ROAD, which stood on the corner of Lovat Road and Muncaster Road. This was a Matthew Brown pub, and looked decidedly uncared for in our photo – taken in the late 1980s. It is not recorded as selling real ale over the course of the next 20 or so years, but the pub soldiered on until 2004, when it closed and was converted into housing.

Our final two pubs were close together on Kent Street, which is again only a short walk away. The DUKE OF KENT was a Matthew Brown pub that stood on the corner of Frank Street, and like a number of the city’s pubs owned by that brewery, is not recorded as selling real ale in the last 30 or so years. Rather tucked away in the back streets, the pub was trading as early as 1850, and apart from one recorded incident where a 12-year-old boy has a piece of his ear bitten off by the landlord’s dog (Preston Chronicle November 1872), little of note appears to have happened here. The pub closed in 2002 and is still standing today, derelict and shuttered but still quite clearly a former pub.

Our final pub was on the opposite side of the road and just a little bit further along towards the City Centre. The DUKE OF SUSSEX was a Greenalls pub that stood on the corner of Sussex Street. Much of the housing in this area was demolished in the latter part of the last century and it is perhaps not surprising that the pubs struggled to survive. The 1992 guild guide notes that the pub had recently reopened and was selling Greenalls Bitter, although it notes that it was dispensed by an electric pump activated by a dummy handpump. The pub soldiered on until 1998, and is notable as being the only one of this issue’s pubs to have been demolished. It is indeed difficult to tell exactly where it was as Sussex Street has also disappeared!

ADRIAN SMITH

All the excellent photographs used to illustrate this series of articles come from the Jim Holderness collection, and we gratefully acknowledge this and being able to use them. In part 11 we will be looking at the Fylde Road area and would welcome any contributions from readers who frequented any of the closed pubs in this area.