Sunday Nostalgia: Tommy Ducks - Then & Now
Welcome to Then and Now, where each week we compare images of Manchester streets, landmarks, buildings and events from bygone days with today.
Photo: Tommy Ducks public house, Manchester © Mirrorpix
Our main image this week shows the familiar frontage of the Tommy Ducks pub that used to stand on East Street, running parallel to Lower Mosley Street, Manchester. The date is November 1975.
Demolished in 1993, the pub is thought to derive its name from one-time landlord Thomas Ducksworth.
The story is that the sign-writer ran out of room and settled for Tommy Ducks over the door!
The pub’s origins are uncertain, although records show it was open in the 1880s.
It consisted of four terraced cottages knocked together on East Street with a shipping warehouse next door.
Glass-topped coffins were said to be used as tables inside the pub which served Greenall Whitley beers as the exterior sign proclaims.
During the late 1980s and 1990s, the Tommy Ducks found itself standing almost alone as buildings were demolished around it to make way for planned new development. Its nearest neighbour ended up being the Midland Hotel.
A campaign to save the pub building ran out of time on February 12, 1993, when a preservation order expired. Demolition crews moved in the next day.
As our modern image shows, the former Tommy Ducks’ site over the road from the Midland is now occupied by a Premier Inn.
Built by the Midland Railway, the Midland Hotel itself was opened in September 1903 to serve Manchester Central railway station.
Now a major city venue and exhibition centre, the station was once the terminus for trains from London St Pancras.
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