CAMPAIGN FOR REAL ALE

GREATER MANCHESTER - Manchester City Centre, Hare & Hounds

National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors Part One

46 Shudehill, Manchester, M4 4AA

Tel: 0161 832 4737

Opening Hours: 11 to 11

Draught Beer & Cider: Holts Bitter

Public Transport: Railway Station: Manchester Victoria; Metro Shudehill

Pub Food: No food

Live Music: Has live music from 4 to 7 on Wed and Thu when the organ is played (also karaoke Sundays from 5pm.)

Listed Status: Grade II

View this pub on a local map

The building itself dates back to about 1800. What makes this pub distinctive is a remodelling that took place about 1925 when the bluey-brown ceramic front on the ground floor was put on. The interior is exceptionally complete - such a complete survival of this period is rare nationally and all the more so in a city centre location. On the left the entrance leads to a through-corridor which expands in the middle of the pub to form a drinking lobby in front of the servery. There are two public rooms, one at the front and one at the rear. All the woodwork is of c.1925. The corridor running from the front door in Shudehill to the rear entrance in Salmon Street is faced to half height with dark brown mottled and plain brown tiling from the inter-war period (of the same style of tiles appears at the Britons Protection, Manchester) where the remodelling was clearly done at much the same time.

The interior porches serving the front and rear entrances at either end of the corridor are lined with grey-green and cream coloured tiling. The front entrance lobby has half-glazed double doors leading to the corridor. The front bar ('Vaults') has a figure '1' on the door with a glazed upper panel and there is dark brown mottled and plain brown tiling on the partition wall that backs on to the drinking lobby and another section of tiling on the opposite wall. It has a bar counter with a plain panelled front and supports a glazed superstructure modelled to resemble sash windows with c.1925 decorative leaded glazing; and also fixed seating from that date.

The central drinking lobby has a plain counter with hatches above it and leaded glazed panels above, all from c.1925. The only things missing are the lower screens, but you can still see the pulleys that used to operate them. The c.1925 mirrored bar back-fitting remains intact. The rear room with the figure '3' on the door with a glazed upper panel retains its original fixed seating, bell pushes, a good tiled, cast and wood surround fireplace from c.1925 and a bar counter with a plain panelled front, hatches and leaded glazed panels above.