Junction Inn, Howell Croft

This photograph comes from the Bolton Museum collection and is copyright Bolton Council. It  was taken in 1910 and is practically the only record we have of the Junction Inn, a beerhouse that stood on the corner of Howell Croft and Spring Gardens.

Howell Croft still exists, though it is cut in two by the Town Hall. Spring Gardens no long exists, though its back street,  Back Spring Gardens is still there running in between Lever Chambers and the former Odeon Cinema.

The Junction Inn, which was owned by William Tong’s, had closed in 1908, two years before the photo was taken. It doesn’t appear to have been a pub for too  long. There is no beerhouse at its address - 21-23 Howell Croft - in the 1871 Bolton Directory, so it was only licensed premises for around 30 years or so. 

The empty pub has posters on the front advertising forthcoming shows at the Hippodrome, a theatre just a few yards from Howell Croft which was demolished in 1968. A car park now stands on the site of the Hippodrome.

The Junction, along with all the buildings in the forefront of this photograph, was later demolished. The Civic Centre and Bolton Central police station was later built on the site.

Note the chimneys of the Queens Foundry in the background to the picture.

Howell Croft North, as it now is, seen from the junction with Deansgate in May 2012 (copyright Google Street View). The Central Police station stood for many years on the site of the Junction Inn.