Former Royal Veteran Tavern, Stanley Street, Salford

Image: © Matt Harrop Taken: 12 Dec 2017

A poster for the new Morrissey album adorns the former Royal Veteran Tavern. This building on the corner of Stanley Street and Irwell Street in Salford is clearly empty and in a poor state of repair. It occupies a site that was, in 1821 (according to Pigot & Dean's New Directory of Manchester & Salford), home to the Royal Veterans Tavern. That tavern was still there twenty years later when the OS map of 1844-48 was published. At that time the tavern stood in the shadow of the Old Bailey Prison. The Slaters Directory continued to list the Royal Veteran at 11 Stanley Street & Irwell Street in 1895, when Mrs. Jane Perry was the landlady. By the time the 1909 directory was published the management of the tavern was in the hands of Walter Litherland. At this time the address had changed slightly to 11 & 13 Stanley Street & Irwell Street. Whether this represented an improved accuracy in the reporting or an expansion of the pub along Stanley Street isn't known. So it appears that there has been a pub on this corner since at least 1841.

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