Please note, this is an archived story. Please check the date above.

The first purpose-built railway hotel was the Commercial on Liverpool Road, which got its licence in September 1830, a few days before the opening of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway station across the road. The Brunswick and the Imperial near London Road station were typical of the smaller enterprises opened in older buildings. The Brunswick is still with us as Finnegans Wake, while the Imperial was demolished in 1997 so that the site could be used in the Joshua Hoyle building conversion. Of the big Victorian hotels, there was the Queens on the corner of Piccadilly and Portland Street, which kept going until modern times, while the Adelphi Hotel opposite, on the corner of Newton Street, was an expensive failure and closed in 1845, just five years after it had been built. The building can still be seen and now houses Lloyds Bank.

The railway hotel near Victoria Station was the Palatine at the bottom of Hunts Bank and when it opened in 1844 the licence covered both the hotel bar and the station buffet bar. Unfortunately the hotel bar closed in 1910 when it was discovered that the hotel was being used as a brothel. The manager was disqualified from ever having a licence again. The building was later occupied by a variety of businesses and it is still there, now part of Chetham's School of Music.

Another former hotel which can still be seen is the Exchange Hotel (pictured) on the Fennel Street corner of the Corn Exchange, behind the Cathedral. Three old alehouse licences in the Fennel Street area were surrendered for the new licence, which was eventually given up in 1945.

The biggest railway hotel of the lot, the Midland, opened across Windmill Street from Central Station (now G-Mex) in the early 1900s. The adjacent Royal Central Hotel opened some fifty years before, part of the Theatre Royal development on Peter Street. It was first called the Theatre Royal Hotel and the name was changed when the station opened in 1880.

Although the licensing of new public houses were strictly controlled, 1830 was the year the Beerhouse Act came into effect and since beersellers' licences were obtained from the excise department, local licensing authorities had no control over them. A small number of beerhouses opened in central Manchester in 1830, but twenty years later there were around three hundred, twice as many as there were fully licensed houses. A high proportion were in old house and shop property in the poorer areas, such as around Deansgate and Shudehill, and many of them went in the building developments of the late Victorian period.

There were hundreds of beerhouses in districts such as Ancoats and Hulme. Slum clearances in the 1930s saw off many and redevelopment in the 1960s and 1970s resulted in the closure of most of the rest. The Jolly Angler is a survivor in Ancoats, as is the Pot of Beer (formerly the Harp & Shamrock) on New Mount Street on the edge of the Angel Meadow district.

Fewer than ten of the three hundred beerhouses in central Manchester are still in business and all are now fully licensed. The Grey Horse and the Circus on Portland Street opened in the 1840s and in 1961 they were among the last to be given public house licences. At the Princess Street end of Portland Street is the Old Monkey, opened by Holts about five years ago. Remember the nondescript building which stood on the corner before the new pub was built? It was originally a private house, but by 1831 it was one of Manchester's first beerhouses and was known as the Queens Arms (pictured) when it shut in 1925.

Despite all the demolition and rebuilding, a number of former beerhouses which lost their licences long ago can still be seen in the city centre. The buildings are not as obvious as the old hotels, but can you spot the British Standard in Back Piccadilly, the black Boy in Tib Street and the Comet and the Albion on Albion Street, Gaythorn?