Brooklyn Hotel, Green Lane, Bolton

 

By The Brooklyn, Green Lane, Bolton by Stephen Richards, CC BY-SA 2.0, 

Brooklyn was built as a residential property in 1859. The architect was George Woodhouse who later collaborated with William Hill on the design of Bolton Town Hall.

For many years the house was occupied by members of two local industrial families, the Walmsleys and the Walkers. Thomas Walmsley started the Atlas Foundry in 1867 at the junction of Bridgeman Street and Fletcher Street. Brooklyn was sold in 1897 following the death of Thomas Walmsley's unmarried daughter Sophia, the final member of the family to live there. It was bought for £4000 by Charles Ernest Walker, a member of the family that owned Walkers Tannery at Rose Hill. His father, Thomas Walker, lived further up Green Lane at Southfields. Charles Walker and his family lived at Brooklyn until 1904 and his brother, Thomas Stanley Walker, was there until 1912. From then until its sale in 1926 the property was rented out.

Local brewery Magee Marshall bought Brooklyn and opened it as a pub in July 1926. Initially it operated as a hotel as well as a pub, but a Bolton Evening News article in February 1928 suggested that much of the layout hadn't changed since it was a residential property: “One gets the impression of luxury from softly-carpeted landings and corridors, and well-furnished rooms for both dining and sleeping.” The article claimed the rooms were equal to those in some of the top London hotels while the public area downstairs was “fitted and furnished on the most up-to-date lines with comfort as the keynote.”

In May 1929 the paper returned to report on the Brooklyn's bowling green which had just been opened in the pub's gardens. “It would be difficult to imagine a more ideal location of such a healthy, recreational pursuit, and a happy feature of the innovation is that it has been accomplished without interfering with the old-time attractions of the beautiful gardens and shrubberies,” the paper said. By the 1950s those gardens had been replaced by a putting green. There was a football ground behind the pub that was owned by Magee's and was used extensively by amateur football teams.

The introduction of a bus route to Townleys Hospital, just a short distance away from the Brooklyn, meant that the pub was accessible by public transport and could be reached from the town centre in just ten minutes. 

Ad from 1937

The Brooklyn was a popular meeting place for local groups. Examples in 1972 included the Catholic Women's League, Bolton Townswomen's Guild and the Bolton Welsh Society.

In January 1972 the Brooklyn was one of ten properties that were added to Bolton council's list of buildings of architectural or historical interest. Amongst the other nine were Little Bolton Town Hall, Holy Trinity Church and Park Cottage on Radcliffe Road, a house that was later occupied by Fred Dibnah. Its presence on a local authority register didn't mean the Brooklyn was classed as a 'listed building' in the strictest sense, but it did achieve Grade II listed status in April 1974 and remains so to this day.

By the mid-seventies folk concerts were taking place at the Brooklyn with local four-some Cottonsong taking up a residency on the last Sunday of each month.

In 1982 the pub received a refurbishment that cost £60,000 and which, it was claimed, would take it into the 21^st century. The interior had been restyled to give more room to the lounge where a new bar and food servery had been installed. The licensees were Derek Davenport and Margery Davenport.

Ad from April 1983 including an incorrect spelling of 'Greenall'

Although the pub had been opened by local brewery Magee, Marshall in 1926 it became a Greenall Whitley house after they took over Magees and closed the Derby Street brewery in 1970. But in the nineties Greenall's began to sell some of its tied estate and in 1996 the Brooklyn was bought by the Manchester brewery of Joseph Holt's. A refurbishment took place in 1998 and on 15 April the pub reopened following an eight-week closure. The refurbishment included the construction of a porched main entrance and creating a vault inside the main drinking area. The licensees were Helen Birch and Stuart Birch.

April 1998

By 2000 the Brooklyn was one of many in the area with a weekly quiz night and there was live entertainment every Sunday. The quality of Holt's beer was good enough for the pub to be included in the Good Beer Guides for 2007 and 2008. 

In 2018 the Brooklyn was put up for sale by Holts and it was sold the following year to a Wigan-based property company, KYK Holdings Ltd. It was then offered on lease at a rental of £30,000 a year which was taken up by Lords Independent School. Begun at 12 Silverwell Street in 1906 as Bolton Commercial Training Institute the school took its eventual name from founder Walter Lord. After moving to 132 Bradshawgate in 1916 it moved again in 1940 to premises over Parkers auto-dealership further down Bradshawgate. By this time it was styled as Bolton Commercial Institute (“Lords's”). It moved again to 53 Manchester Road in 1944. The school took the decision to close following the death of Walter Lord in 1964 but continued following discussions with parents. It changed its name to Lord College in 1965 and moved to Commerce House on Bridgeman Place in 2015 before heading to the former Brooklyn Hotel in 2019.