Soho Tavern, Trinity Street

Crook Street at the junction of Thynne Street and Trinity Street. The Soho Tavern stood on the corner of Trinity Street and Crook Street at a time when Trinity Street curved round by the front of Holy Trinity church in the distance to meet Crook Street.

The Soho Tavern was situated at number 1, Trinity Street. It took its name from the Soho Foundry, built across the road on Crook Street in 1832 and which was, until 2002, the headquarters of Hick, Hargreaves and Co.

The Soho Tavern came much later. It dated from the late-1850s and existed as licensed premises for little more than 50 years. William Edgerley was the licensee in both 1861 1871. Edgerley was a brewer by trade and may well have brewed his own beer at the pub. By 1880 he was gone -living in Union Buildings where the Wellington had its own brewery - and Preston-born Robert Wilcock was in charge of the Soho. He died just two years later.

Competition was tough at that end of town. The British Queen was just a few doors along while the Railway Hotel  across the road where the interchange now stands. The Sweet Green Tavern and the Painters Arms were both just a few yards away and there were numerous beer houses along Crook Street.

In 1910 the Soho Tavern closed. It was used as a hairdressers in the twenties and thirties and was later demolished. John Doherty is listed as the proprietor of a gentleman's hairdressers on the premises in the 1924 Bolton Directory.

Although the pub was situated on Trinity Street, the layout of the roads in the area was somewhat different prior to the construction of the dual carriageway in 1978-79. In those days Trinity Street curved round in front of Holy Trinity church to meet Crook Street. The Soho would have been almost in front of the church near to the slip road leading from what is now the end of Thynne Street onto the extended Trinity Street dual carriageway.