HISTORIC PRESTON PUBS
PART 11 FYLDE ROAD
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n the latest instalment of our look back at the closed pubs of Preston, we focus on the area in the vicinity of Fylde Road. We will start our tour on Brook Street, to the north of Aqueduct Street and the COTTAGE. This was a former Tetley’s house that carried the name the NEW CATTLE MARKET until about 1992 when it was renamed. There had been a pub on this site since the mid 1800s, but the original structure had been demolished and replaced (probably in the 1960s). In later years the pub sold Burtonwood beers prior to closure in 2002. Heading west from here, our next pub is towards the bottom of Parker Street. The BROOKHOUSE was a former Matthew Brown pub that closed in 2000 and was subsequently converted into student flats. The current picture on Google Streetview from 2018 shows the building looking rather scruffy and unloved, but the framework for the hanging sign above the entrance is still visible. A short walk down Old Lancaster Road brings us to the LIME KILN which stood on the corner with Aqueduct Street. The pub was originally surrounded by houses, but these are long gone and this imposing building now stands alone. A one time Matthew Brown house, it had been taken over by Banks’s when it closed in 2008 and was converted into a Chinese restaurant. With red and white tiles and bright green paintwork, the colour scheme was quite striking. The name can be traced to a number of lime kilns that were situated on land opposite the pub, that owed their existence to the Preston – Kendal canal which used to run nearby. Sadly for those of us interested in industrial archaeology, the lime kilns and canal are long gone, and the pub exists only in memory. Continuing our tour we head down onto Fylde Road and head back towards the city centre. On the corner of Carlton Street stood the curiously named DOCTOR SYNTAX. This pub opened around 1840 and prior to this another pub carried the name – situated on Molyneux Square, which is now Lancaster Road close to the Guild Hall. The pub was named, not after the fictional character but
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Ale Cry
ISSUE 129 SUMMER 2022
after a famous racehorse that won seven consecutive Preston Gold Cups between 1815 and 1821, the race being held on the town moor – now Moor Park. Details of brewery
ownership are non existent, but during the 1980s and 90s the pub was selling Matthew Brown beers. It closed in 2009 and is now a Chinese Restaurant.
