Victoria, 238 Bridgeman Street

The former Victoria on Bridgeman Street pictured on 21 April 2014. The building is now used as a Hindu mission centre.

The Victoria stood on Bridgeman Street, just a bit further down from Rothwell Street on the left-hand side as you head to town.

The building still stands – as can be seen in the image above – but at one time it was in the middle of a row of shops, including a branch of Boydell’s toy store. Walmsley’s Atlas Forge was just a couple of hundred yards away, while the Derby Iron Works of

W. Crumblehulme & Sons Ltd was situated behind the pub in Rothwell Street. [Images here ]. [1]

The Victoria dated back to the latter part of the nineteenth century. At one stage it had its own brewery but it fell into the hands of local brewers J Halliwell & Son of the Alexandra Brewery on Mount Street. Halliwell’s sold out to Magee, Marshall in December 1910 [2] which meant that supplies came from a brewery just half a mile away. Magee’s sold out to Greenall Whitley in 1958 and the brewery closed down in 1970.

The Victoria had a classic pub layout with two entrances on Bridgeman Street, a central bar and two rooms:  lounge to the left, public bar on the right. By early 1990 the local beer drinkers magazine were suggesting a little crawl of Bridgeman Street as the three remaining pubs, the Victoria, the Lodge Bank Tavern and the Park, all sold real ale.

The Victoria didn’t last for too many years longer. It closed in the 1990s and the building was sold off to become the UK centre of the  Ramakrishna Vivekananda Mission.

[1] St Mark's website. Retrieved 21 April 2014.

[2] Pubs Of Bolton 1800-2000, by Gordon Readyhough, published by Neil Richardson (2000).