Star date: 20th January 2020

FORMER LANDMARK SALFORD PUB TO BE PULLED DOWN THIS WEEK

The Woolpack pub on Belvedere Road in Pendleton, which shut in 2008 but was earmarked for other various hubs, is to be demolished this week.

"The existing building is in a poor state of repair and is surplus to requirements" states a Salford City Council report "Due to its age the building is not attractive to potential tenants due to its high maintenance and running costs..."

Full details here...

The Woolpack pub shut in the summer of 2008 after more than thirty years, with regulars saddened and speaking out in the Salford Star print edition of that year...

"It's not only sad for us it affects everyone, I mean look at the place, it's packed and it's the same every week" said compere/singer Chris Heywood and multi-talented keyboard player, Roman Mondryk, who had been running live events at the Woolpack for decades "People come from miles and really let themselves go. It's like one big family, a real shame."

Tommy Bolger, who had been going to the pub since the day it opened added: "Whole families used to come here, the women would go in the room and the lads would go in the vault. It was a real friendly family place, never any trouble."

Since it shut, the Woolpack has stayed empty, although plans for it be a community centre, backed by Hazel Blears and put forward six years ago, fell by the wayside. Meanwhile, a scheme for Coffee4Craig to take over the building as a hub for the homeless was mooted, supported, then scuppered, but not before Happy Mondays star Bez had planted what he believed would be the start of a forest garden giving free fruit to the community (see previous Salford Star article – click here)

As everything fell through, plans for a 'bus gate' and bus lane on Belvedere Road were revealed this summer (see here) and now a notice has been posted on the old pub that it will be demolished this week...

"The existing building is in a poor state of repair and is surplus to requirements" states a Salford City Council report "Due to its age the building is not attractive to potential tenants due to its high maintenance and running costs...

"The site will be graded over with top soil and seed to the footprint of the building" the report adds "A new timber knee rail would be erected around the site to prevent unauthorised parking and fly tipping."

And, with that, another piece of Salford's cultural past bites the dust...

Photos by Louise Garman