The Phoenix Tavern was one of two pubs on Phoenix
Street which still links Folds Road with Turton Street. But whereas its
neighbour the Boilermakers Arms was close to the Turton Street end, the Phoenix
Tavern was at number 12 Phoenix Street, not far from the junction with Folds
Road.
The first record of the pub is in 1871 when Joseph
Hopkins was the licensee. It was later bought by Seeds Brewery of Radcliffe but
by 1913 it was owned by William Tong’s of Deane. In April of that year it was
referred by the Bolton licensing magistrates to the town’s compensation
scheme. The scheme was aimed at reducing the number of pubs in the town by
effectively buying licensed houses in over-pubbed areas from their owners, removing their licenses and
either offering them for sale again or renting them out. With another pub in the same small street, the Lord Clyde just a few yards away on Folds Road, and more pubs on Dean Street and the Hulme Street area, the Phoenix was at risk.
The Phoenix Tavern closed later in 1913. By 1924 it had been
converted into two private residences numbered 12 and 12A Phoenix Street. Its
final landlord, Thomas Shacklady, moved to the Robin Hood on Slater Lane.
The building was
demolished in the 1970s and the site is now in industrial use.
This non-descript grey fence represents the site of
the Phoenix Tavern. The entrance to the engineering works next to it was once
Back Phoenix Street, a U-shaped street that ran to the rear of another row houses
of on Phoenix Street situated on the other side of the entrance.
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