Saturday 11 October 2014

Globe, Bridgeman Street

We dealt recently with the Globe Inn on Higher Bridge Street, but there was another pub by that name over on Bridgeman Street.

Nobody will remember the Globe on Bridgeman Street as it closed in 1869 and the licensing records don’t even report where on the street it actually was.

The Globe was a beerhouse, one of many that sprang up in the town as a result of the 1830 Beer House Act. Anyone could convert part of their home into a beer house on payment of £2. That was still a decent wedge of money in the middle of the 19th century, but it wasn’t enough to deter many people. By 1854 there were 208 beer houses in Bolton along with 118 fully-licensed pubs. In the following 15 years a further 121 beer houses opened up and it seems the Globe on Bridgeman Street was one of those. [1]

However, a change in the law in 1869 made it much easier for local magistrates to close down beer houses. They certainly went at it. A total of 69 beer houses were immediately closed and the Globe was one of the pubs that came to an end.

Magistrates used any pretext to refuse licenses and pubs such as the Unicorn on Deansgate, the Railway Bridge Inn on Dawes Street and the Pen Street Arms on Pen Street disappeared almost at a whim. On the other hand, the Music Hall Tavern on Gaskell’s Court – a short thoroughfare off Churchgate the entrance to which can still be seen next to the Brass Cat – saw its licence refused because four ‘loose girls’ lived there, according to the police.

But if the magistrates were looking for a reason to close the Globe on Bridgeman Street then they didn’t have to look far. The magistrates threw the book at the pub. The landlord allowed gambling on the premises, the clientele included prostitutes and there was a ‘low singing room and dancing class’ frequented by thieves and what are described as ‘loose characters’.  To add to all that there was what was described as a ‘minor public health objection’ in that the landlord kept pigs at the back of the pub.

The pub shut in 1869. 

[1] Shut Up About Barclay Perkins blog post dated 24 July 2011 and entitled Bolton In 1854. Retrieved 11 October 2014. 

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

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