Grand Central Pub

Grand Central is a rock/metal pub and music venue at 80 Oxford Street, near Oxford Road railway station and opposite The Principal Manchester hotel in Manchester, England. It is a four storey building (including cellar) which is typical of buildings that were originally houses in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.[1] Wakefield Street on the southside leads to the railway station via a pedestrian stairway.

The pub sign

It was once used as a meeting place for customers on their way to Jilly's Rockworld (originally named Rafters nightclub)[2] which was situated in St James's Buildings at 65a Oxford Street, but since Rockworld's closing in early 2010[3] there is no longer a widely recognised alternative venue in Manchester.

Every Thursday night the pub works in partnership with Rocksector Records[4] to put live music on. There are usually three or four bands and the pub is strictly free entry.[5]

Grand Central has also hosted the annual Battle For Bloodstock competition.[6] The competition runs on Tuesday nights over a few months early on in the year, where 36 local bands compete over six heats, two semi-finals and a Grand Final. The winners win a slot at the Bloodstock Open Air Festival in Derby, a well-respected British metal festival.

It was refurbished in 2004 and has since been host to Carved Photography's[7] exhibition featuring photos by Sabrina Ramdoyal[8] of bands from Manchester's local rock/metal scene as well as more established bands from all over the world. The pub currently offers a pool table, jukebox and two fruit machines. There used to be a club open downstairs called Subway, however this closed before 2002.

History

The name "Grand Central" is relatively new and was adopted because of the nearness of Oxford Road railway station, alluding to New York's Grand Central Station. Until the renaming the pub was the Beef & Barley and included a separate steak bar, having been modernised in the late 1960s. The beer stocked at that time was Watney/Wilsons from Wilsons Newton Heath Brewery.[9] Earlier still the pub was called the Oxford Bar.[10]

1849 Map of Oxford Street: 1) New Concert Inn, 2) Oxford Road Inn, 3) Tulloghgorum Vaults, Outline) Grand Central site (houses)

The oldest records found featuring Grand Central suggest that it was originally eight separate residential properties. This is shown in an 1849 map of Oxford Street.

First-hand accounts recall 80 Oxford Street being known as 'The Oxford Wine Bar' in 1953, and later in 1960 as simply 'The Oxford'. In 1970 it became the 'Beef & Barley',[11] a Steak House, and a year later in 1971 'A Schooner Inn' was added to the 'Beef and Barley' pub sign.[12] Between 1977 and 1978 it was known as the 'Cork & Screw' and it became 'The Shady Lady'[13] in the late 1970s.

The Beer Scare of 1900

Peter Bostock was among several licensees in this area of Manchester who were suspected of unknowingly selling adulterated beer in 1900. The poisoned beer resulted in outbreaks of peripheral neuritis caused by arsenic poisoning that was traced by the Royal Commission[14] to the raw materials found in brewing sugars at a refiners in Liverpool called Bostock & Co. of Garston (not thought to be a relation of the licensee). The company used a process involving sulphuric acid (made from arsenical iron pyrites) to manufacture glucose. Upon these findings, the Royal Commission recommended that 'a legal maximum of not more than one-hundredth of a grain of arsenic per gallon of liquid per pound of solid food be enforced'.[15] By this point the damage had been done and up to four grains of arsenic were being found per pound of brewing sugar. The beer scare of 1900 has been mentioned in various articles on medical science, such as the Journal of the American Medical Association, where it was stated that over 2,000 people received medical treatment for peripheral neuritis.[16] It is widely believed that the scare affected 6,000 people and killed 70.[17]

Ghosts

Most residents of 80 Oxford Street are buried in Manchester's Southern Cemetery. There have only been two deaths recorded at this address; Peter Bostock in 1904 and Hannah Bostock in 1893, and one listed birth; Mabel Lewis in 1910. However, many customers and staff have reported apparent ghost sightings over the years at the pub.

Little Ireland
Main article: Little Ireland

Grand Central exists on the periphery of what was once known as 'Little Ireland'.[18] Containing mainly poorly skilled Irish immigrants it became Manchester's oldest, smallest and most short-lived Irish slum, where people lived in cramped, unhygienic conditions.[19] In the 1820s the first immigrants moved there, and lived in the small streets off the main thoroughfare such as James Leigh Street which is located behind Grand Central.[20] By the mid-1840s they were moved on and the area was demolished to make way for the industrious Victorian capitalists in their attempts to build the Manchester South Junction Railway line, which remains there to this day. In his book titled The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 social scientist Friedrich Engels wrote unfavourably about his experience of Little Ireland in Manchester in his book, claiming it was a 'horrid little slum'.[21] Regardless of this, Little Ireland became world-famous, and the term itself became a generic shorthand for Irish living in slum housing throughout the 19th century industrial world.

Residents and staff
ResidentDescriptionYearSource
William DerbyshireEating Housekeeper18551855 Directory
Benjamin HeapCabinet Maker18581858 Directory
William BlackburnDining Rooms18581858 Directory
Peter BostockLandlord1861–19041861 Census[22]
Hannah BostockLandlady1861–18931861 Census[22]
Ellen SalisburyDomestic Servant18611861 Census
Theodore KummantBoarder18611861 Census
Henry William Herbert RobesonClerk1872St Peter's Church Records[23]
Emily TaylorSpinster1872St Peter's Church Records[23]
James CullenClerk1872St Peter's Church Records[23]
Mary WrigleySpinster1872St Peter's Church Records[23]
Vincent Newton CowburnEngineer1873St Peter's Church Records[23]
John HoyleJoiner1873St Peter's Church Records[23]
Emily LaurieWidow1873St Peter's Church Records[23]
Harry ThompsonEngineer1874St Peter's Church Records[23]
Elizabeth GilmourSpinster1874St Peter's Church Records[23]
Thomas MellorGrocer1875St Peter's Church Records[23]
Julia Ann WoolleySpinster1875St Peter's Church Records[23]
George JonesGardiner1875St Peter's Church Records[23]
William PerkinsPlumber1875St Peter's Church Records[23]
Sarah Ann ThompsonSeamstress1875St Peter's Church Records[23]
William WoodLabourer1876St Peter's Church Records[23]
Esther Hannah BostockServant1876St Peter's Church Records[23]
Samuel JonesPainter1876St Peter's Church Records[23]
Thomas Birks SharplesCashier1876St Peter's Church Records[23]
Elizabeth FawleyServant1876St Peter's Church Records[23]
John InghamJoiner1876St Peter's Church Records[23]
John Crampton HolmesClerk1877St Peter's Church Records[23]
William James HallMilkman1877St Peter's Church Records[23]
Elizabeth Ann SteenDomestic Servant18811881 Census[24]
Hannah JervisDomestic Servant18811881 Censuc[24]
Francis HoltServant18811881 Census[25]
Florrie OliverServant19011901 Census[26]
Ida PatonChild19011901 Census[26]
Fanny StephensonServant19011901 Census[26]
Dafydd LewisWine and Beer Retailer1911–1926
Annie LewisAssistant1911
Arthur LewisChild1911
Mabel LewisChild1911
Margaratta BrowneServant1911
Mrs Margaret BarkerBeer Retailer1929
Thomas O'DonaghueLandlordPresent

References
  1. http://www.mangeogsoc.org.uk/egm/3_1_Little_Ireland.pdf
  2. Rafters (nightclub)
  3. Qureshi, Yakub (April 14, 2010). "Music is over at Jilly's Rockworld". Manchester Evening News. M.E.N. Media. Retrieved April 1, 2012.
  4. Mark Appleton. "Rocksector Records : Homepage". Mwaweb.com. Archived from the original on January 27, 2012. Retrieved February 1, 2012.
  5. http://www.mwaweb.com/gc_home.html
  6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 16, 2013. Retrieved January 6, 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. "Carved Photography". Archived from the original on August 27, 2010. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
  8. http://www.sabrinaramdoyal.co.uk/
  9. Evans, David G. et al. (1975) The Manchester Pub Guide. Manchester: Manchester Pub Surveys; p. 32
  10. Ordnance Survey Plan SJ8497: scale 1:2500 or 25.344 inches to 1 mile; edition of 1955
  11. Beef & Barley
  12. Schooner Inn
  13. The Shady Lady
  14. Clark, Christine. The British Malting Industry Since 1830. The Hambledon Press 1998; p. 77.
  15. Burnet, John. Plenty and Want: a social history of food in England from 1815 to the present day. Methuen & Co. Ltd. 1985; p. 235.
  16. The Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 36. 1901; p. 45.
  17. Blocker, Jack S.; Fahey, David M.; Tyrrell, Ian R. Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: a global encyclopedia. 2 vols. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio, 2003 ISBN 9781849723220
    p. 56.
  18. "A history of the Irish in Manchester". Prideofmanchester.com. Retrieved February 1, 2012.
  19. Great British Railway Journeys#Manchester to Chesterfield
  20. http://www.mangeogsoc.org.uk/egm/3_1_Little_Ireland.pdf
  21. Engels, Friedrich. The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 style="background:rgba(192,192,255,0.6);" data-sort-value="5"| ; p. 73
  22. Source: RG10; Piece: 4039; Folio: 160; Page: 37; GSU roll: 846332.
  23. "Lancashire OnLine Parish Clerk Project - District of Manchester". Lan-opc.org.uk. Retrieved February 1, 2012.
  24. Source: RG11; Piece: 3990; Folio: 158; Page: 19; GSU roll: 1341952.
  25. Source : RG12; Piece: 3238; Folio 10; Page 13; GSU roll: 6098348.
  26. Source: RG13; Piece: 3747; Folio: 8; Page: 7.

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