Fox and Goose, 160 Deansgate

The Fox and Goose stood at the top end of Deansgate, close to Marsden Road.

It was a beerhouse first mentioned in a marriage listing of 1847 when John Blackley (or Bleakley), a beerseller of Deansgate, married Elizabeth Crowther. Blackley was a widower, but eyebrows must have been raised at the union. The 1851 census return tells us that John Blackley was 62 years old; Elizabeth was only 29 – just four years older than one of John’s sons and 33 years younger than her husband.

By 1861 the Fox and Goose was in the hands of Henry Heyes. The pub brewed its own beer and by the 1870s, Henry was also the owner of the Egerton Arms on Lever Street. 

Henry Heyes was to run the Fox and Goose for over 20 years. His wife Martha died in 1877, aged just 44, and Henry himself died four years later in 1881. That year’s census showed five children living with him just months before he died, though some of them were of adult age.

The Fox and Goose was sold and it was being run by Luke Flaharty by 1891, but the pub’s licence was refused in 1897. Whether or not there were any misdemeanours or specific objections to the licence isn’t known. What is known is that the council were expanding the fire station on Marsden Road and wanted the small row of buildings that lay between Marsden Road and Grime Street (now St Edmunds Street). That included the Fox and Goose.

The pub was demolished before the end of the nineteenth century and the fire station extended into the former pub premises.

The pub was demolished before the end of the nineteenth century and the fire station covered the former pub premises. The old fire station came be seen here in 2000 just before it was demolished.

Below is an image of the area from 2012 (copyright Google Street View).