Manchester Venues 206 to 208

Affleck’s Palace (now simply Affleck’s) is indelibly ingrained into Manchester culture. It first opened in 1982 with the utterly commendable ethos of providing low cost rentals and valuable week by week licences to support local entrepreneurs to take their first precarious steps into business ownership. Affleck’s is embedded in the Northern Quarter and has a unique maze like design set over several floors.

It evolved into a haven for alternative culture and survived two fires and had a golden period in the 1990’s ‘Madchester’ period where you could purchase your latest set of baggy flared jeans for Happy Monday gigs! It nearly closed in 2008, but it is now thriving again and remains busy to this day with all 73 units occupied but has perhaps now fallen into the touristy price trap. I once also had the novelty of watching a noisy garage rock band called Bright Young People in a coffee shop on the top floor as part of the 2016 Dot to Dot festival.

Afflecks Palace. Image Credit hotels.com

In the mid-19th century, a drapery business opened on Oldham Street called Affleck & Brown and was so successful it grew into a full department store and was dubbed ‘the Harrods of the North’. It suffered a downturn in the 1950’s and was bought out by Debenhams before finally closing in 1973. Hilary Mantel, the author of the Wolf Hall trilogy drafted a short story ‘The Third Rising’ which was based on a mother and daughter who were employed at the store.

In 2015, a bar naturally called Manchester Affleck & Brown was opened on Hilton Street in the Smithfield building and located on the original site. I am not a regular visitor but when passing at one point last year, I could hear live tuneage so obviously had to go ‘beyond the threshold’ as Husker Du once stated. Upon entry I discovered they had a little acoustic stage right next to the door and a chap called Johnny was performing.   

In 1989, the Dry Bar nightclub opened and was located next to Night and Day on Oldham Street. The owners were Factory Records and Tony Wilson placed it under the auspices of the Project name FAC 201, and it was a smaller sister to their other most renowned establishment, the Hacienda.

Affleck & Brown. Image Credit useyourlocal.com

The surrounding area was a tad disreputable at that stage but the two door to door venues resulted in sparking the regeneration of the suburb. During its lifetime, it famously barred two lesser known musicians called Shaun Ryder and Liam Gallagher. I recall decamping there in a huff after we had got stung by missing the first portion of an astonishingly early set from Mogwai at nearby Planet K in 2001.   

In 2017, it was sold with planning permission for a boutique hotel which never happened. Then in March 2025, after an eight-year fallow period it morphed into Manchester New Freemount. I have inserted the ‘new’ to distinguish it from the other Freemount branches that exist further down Oldham Street. It contains all the traditional hallmarks of the brand with a large inviting space, open brick interiors and a bonny old fashioned wood panelled bar. They have live music 7 nights a week followed by DJs at the weekends.

After having an excellent meal at the Home Chinese restaurant for Gill’s birthday we gravitated over to the new bar for a couple of drinks. We grabbed some seats and whilst we were in attendance we saw sets from two local musicians, Steph and Gordon. It transpired the timing of our visit was apposite as it got very busy as the evening progressed, even though it was a Sunday and there are regularly queues out of the door on other evenings.  

Nearby Manchester Stevenson Square dates originally back to the 18th century and at that stage it was a waste land with numerous daub holes, which are apparently boggy clay pits. In the latter half of the 19th century, it was hugely popular for open air speakers with its high point being in 1877 when 50,000 people gathered to celebrate the opening of the Town Hall.

Stevenson Square. Image Credit manchesterwire.co.uk

The residential properties surrounding the square were converted to busy commercial units, but that period ended when the city’s main shopping area moved to reside around the new Arndale Centre, which was opened in 1975.  

Nowadays the area contains a plethora of bars and food outlets, many with pedestrianised outdoor al fresco spaces. One night last year I was traversing through there and this is the only time I have witnessed it, but a pop up stage had been erected in one corner and a lass called Vancouver Val was performing.  

Preston Venues 63 to 65

I am returning this week to the town of Chorley, which was one of the key lynchpin locations during the Second World War as its sister village Euxton was the home to the Royal Ordnance Factory which provided vast numbers of munitions which greatly assisted the war effort. When I used to sporadically play golf very poorly, we made a few visits to nearby Duxbury Park.  I recall on the 10th hole they had a lake in situ on a very steeply inclining fairway that I could never clear and lost a plethora of golf balls in that pesky water hazard.   

This is now the continuing tale of the evening of my debut attendance at the ‘Deadwood Dog’ Foxtails bar. Prior to attending there we made a visit to the nearby Chorley Last Orders at the Lamplighter on Market Street, which adopted that name in 2015.

Lamplighters. Image Credit proper-pubs.com

The town is intrinsically linked to the market, and this goes all the way back to them initially receiving an official market charter from King Henry VII in 1498. This authorised for a weekly market to be instigated which has continued for over six centuries and takes place every Tuesday. The street like many other provinces contained a Woolworths, this time in an art deco building prior to its untimely demise in the 1990’s.     

The Lamplighter is one of the oldest remaining hostelries in the town and dates back to around 1793. The current name pertains to the role of lighting streetlamps in the evenings which was phased out in the 1930’s when they began to be automatically controlled, before electricity was introduced in the 1950’s.  

Its original moniker was the Joiner’s Arms, and this was exemplified by the initial landlord Thomas Green who was listed as a joiner and cabinet maker alongside his innkeeper status. As in keeping with the many pubs of that era, they were listed as one of the lodges of the Freemasons and many such ‘dubious handshake’ meetings took place there. It was in later years called Dicey Riley’s and then The Entertainer.  

It was a renowned local music pub in the 1960’s with singers Julie Jones, The Golden Girl and Ozzy Williams performing there. Ozzy was reportedly very well respected to the stage that at his funeral in 1970 he apparently stopped the traffic on Market Street. It is a traditional large room establishment, and they stage music at the weekends and on our foray, we saw a singer called Desmond playing.

Market Street back in the day. Image Credit wwwpinterest.com

Post-gig we also had a quick visit into Chorley White Bull’s Head which is a large double-fronted terrace pub.This is another one from bygones times and records indicate that it is the oldest public house in the town residing in its original building and still bearing its primary name. It was in its early days a meeting point for traders after their day at the nearby market.

Apparently, members of Boyzone and Westlife were spotted in there after their surprising purchase of the local football team in 2023. Thankfully, there are no reports of them performing any tunes whilst there! When I attended, there was a local performer called Tommy playing on a stage in the corner.   

A couple of years earlier on a previous skelp over we darkened the door of Chorley Nelipott Bar on Chapel Street nearer to the railway station. It has an affiliation back to the ‘dark satanic mills’ by being housed in what was previously a weaver’s cottage.

White Bull. Image Credit beerintheevening.com

It opened originally in 2016 as Speakeasy Bar, one of the first small micro bars to appear but since then many have followed suit, and I think Chorley is up to double figures now in this regard. It briefly changed to Warp & Welt, another reference to earlier times, then in June 2019 to its current name. It is independently run and has two lounge rooms downstairs and stairs that take you up to a function room. It also has a small outdoor space at the rear for the ‘days of summer’ and on my particular visit I saw a singer called Eamonn.