I was asked tonight if I knew when Tommy Ducks  was demolished, I thought it
was around 1997/8  but I think now after further investigation it might be
1992/3.
Does anybody know for sure? Also this has puzzled me since it was demolished
what was its original name??

Peter

"Peter"  wrote in message
news:42dc3ff8$1_3@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com...

> I was asked tonight if I knew when Tommy Ducks  was demolished, I thought
it
> was around 1997/8  but I think now after further investigation it might be
> 1992/3.
> Does anybody know for sure? Also this has puzzled me since it was
demolished
> what was its original name??
>
> Peter
>

Greenalls illegally demolished Tommy Ducks in the early hours of 21st
February 1993.

It was demolished overnight in 1990.
The "developers" got a small wrist slap.
Never heard it called anything other tan Tommy Ducks or "that pub with the 
knickers on the ceiling"
er...
That's it.


"Peter"  wrote in message 
news:42dc3ff8$1_3@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com...

>I was asked tonight if I knew when Tommy Ducks  was demolished, I thought 
>it
> was around 1997/8  but I think now after further investigation it might be
> 1992/3.
> Does anybody know for sure? Also this has puzzled me since it was 
> demolished
> what was its original name??
>
> Peter
>
> 

wrote in message 
news:42dcc644$1_3@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com...

> It was demolished overnight in 1990.
> The "developers" got a small wrist slap.
> Never heard it called anything other tan Tommy Ducks or "that pub with the 
> knickers on the ceiling"
> er...
> That's it.
>
>
> "Peter"  wrote in message 
> news:42dc3ff8$1_3@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com...
>>I was asked tonight if I knew when Tommy Ducks  was demolished, I thought 
>>it
>> was around 1997/8  but I think now after further investigation it might 
>> be
>> 1992/3.
>> Does anybody know for sure? Also this has puzzled me since it was 
>> demolished
>> what was its original name??


It was intended to be called "Tommy Duckworth's" but the signwriter 
miscalculated and ran out of space!

And yes it was demolished in 1993.

Brian

wrote in message
news:42dcc644$1_3@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com...

> It was demolished overnight in 1990.
> The "developers" got a small wrist slap.
> Never heard it called anything other tan Tommy Ducks or "that pub with the
> knickers on the ceiling"
> er...
> That's it.
>

Fined the princely sum of 1500 according to my information.

Peter wrote:


> I was asked tonight if I knew when Tommy Ducks  was demolished,


Used to go there as a student - good jazz night if I recall correctly.

M.

The history that I heard a long time ago was that a former landlord was
called Thomas Duckworth, and because people used to say I'm going for a pint
in Tommy Ducks that name stuck but it must hace been called something before
then so does anybody know please?

Peter

> The history that I heard a long time ago was that a former landlord
> was called Thomas Duckworth, and because people used to say I'm going
> for a pint in Tommy Ducks that name stuck but it must hace been called
> something before then so does anybody know please?
> 
> Peter



Email Riggy@thetaps.com  - his dad used to run the Ducks apparently (see 
http://www.thetaps.com)

m.

Peter wrote:

> 
> The history that I heard a long time ago was that a former landlord was
> called Thomas Duckworth, and because people used to say I'm going for a pint
> in Tommy Ducks that name stuck but it must hace been called something before
> then so does anybody know please?


"Prince of Wales" is the consensus among my CAMRA chums in Manchester
(but we can't lay hands on a contemporary pub guide to prove it). 
-- 
Neil Worthington, Urmston, UK
=============================

Neil Worthington wrote:

> 
> "Prince of Wales" is the consensus among my CAMRA chums in Manchester


Following up my earlier post: another CAMRA chum claims that "it was
originally called the Princess Tavern until as legend goes in the
1870s the then landlord Thomas Duckworth had the exterior of the pub
re-painted and the signwriter ran out of space".

Hmm. I see I shall have to do a little more digging. 
-- 
Neil Worthington, Urmston, UK
=============================

Neil Worthington wrote:

> 
> > "Prince of Wales" is the consensus among my CAMRA chums in Manchester
> Following up my earlier post: another CAMRA chum claims that "it was
> originally called the Princess Tavern


This gets more and more mysterious. I'm now being told it was actually
the "Prince's Tavern" - one S - and named after a nearby theatre which
was pulled down when they built Central Station. But the name was
definitely changed to "Tommy Duck's" many years ago.

I am trying to source an early picture, which I will stick on t'Internet
if possible. Meanwhile, a trawl through "What's Doing", the local CAMRA
magazine, has proved helpful.

The pub was featured on the front page of  in October 1991, when it was
selling Coachman Bitter, "the new brew from former Greenall Whitley
employees", at GBP 1.22 a pint. A photo accompanied the article, clearly
showing the pub sign as "Greenall Whitley  TOMMY DUCKS".

The December 1992 edition of WD was headlined "GREENALLS DUCK OUT", with
a story about Greenalls wanting to knock it down for an office block. A
different picture this time, but again the name was very definitely
"TOMMY DUCKS".

But, as reported in the March 1993 edition, "Tommy Ducks was pulled down
in the early hours of Sunday 21st February" (1993).

The February 1994 edition reported that a wake would be held "to
commemorate the first anniversary of the demise of what was Manchester
city centre's most famous public house. The wake will be held on the
brick croft car park on the site of Tommy Ducks. Greenalls' chairman,
Peter Greenall (pictured), will be presented with a special award for
pub demolition, to wit, a bulldozer". (A toy one, from memory.)

My most outstanding memory of TDs was seeing Windsor Davies, the noted
thespian, propping up the bar there, between scenes of a play he was in
at the Palace Theatre. He looked as miserable as sin. Must have been
playing in a tragedy.
-- 
Neil Worthington, Urmston, UK
=============================

Also while most people remember the knickers on the ceiling, does anyone
remember the coffin in the glass case??

Peter

Peter wrote:


> Also while most people remember the knickers on the ceiling, does anyone
> remember the coffin in the glass case??
>
> Peter


yes - now you mention it. Also found this page about the Panama Jazz Band
that used to play there - i presume it was them i saw in the 70s,

http://www.jazzworld.btinternet.co.uk/panamamc.htm

M.

Neil Worthington wrote:

> 
> Hmm. I see I shall have to do a little more digging.


I have dug, or rather, I have asked a chum to dig on my behalf.

Neil Richardson is my source for the following. He is the Editor of
"What's Doing" (the Manchester Beer Drinker's Monthly Magazine) and also
a publisher of local history books, many of them relating to pubs and
breweries. And he has a fantastic archive of old photos. He writes:

"Some notes on Tommy Duck's, aka Princes Tavern, 8 East Street.

"East Street was built in early 1800s, certainly before 1830. The first
record I have of a beerseller at No. 8 is John Whittle in 1843. There is
no record of a name for the beerhouse.

"The building was put to other uses in the 1850s and early 1860s. At
that time there were textile mills on Oxford Street and the 1863
directory describers 8 East Street as a 'Makers-Up Room'. Then there was
a beerseller called James Robinson there in 1865, and Thomas Duckworth a
few years later.

"The Prince's Theatre was built at the top of Oxford Street in 1864,
which probably accounts for the reopening of the beerhouse and its name,
the Princes Tavern. See map (at
<http://freespace.virgin.net/neil.worthington/tdux2.jpg>) - the
beerhouse isn't far from the back door of the theatre.

"Tommy Duckworth was from Salford and before he moved to the Princes he
may have been at a beerhouse called the Globe Tavern on Barrow Street,
off Oldfield Road. He was at the Princes Tavern until the 1880s.

"The beerhouse was acquired by brewers Groves and Whitnall of Salford
about 1903.

"The photo (at <http://freespace.virgin.net/neil.worthington/tdux1.jpg>)
shows Tommy Duck's as a G+W house in the 1920s or 1930s, by which time
the nickname had been adopted on the sign. Jack Oliver, the licensee
named on the lamp over the door, was there from the 1920s to the 1940s.
Mrs Frances Oliver took over and was still there in the 1950s. She
obtained a full licence for the pub in March 1957." (I presume from this
last remark that it was previously just an alehouse.)

In addition to the map and photo already mentioned, I have also scanned
in a photo of the pub in the 1980s, as used on the cover of "What's
Doing". It's at
<http://freespace.virgin.net/neil.worthington/tdux3.jpg>.
-- 
Neil Worthington, Urmston, UK
=============================

Neil Worthington wrote:


> Neil Worthington wrote:
> >
> > Hmm. I see I shall have to do a little more digging.
>
> I have dug, or rather, I have asked a chum to dig on my behalf.
>
> Neil Richardson is my source for the following. He is the Editor of
> "What's Doing" (the Manchester Beer Drinker's Monthly Magazine) and also
> a publisher of local history books, many of them relating to pubs and
> breweries. And he has a fantastic archive of old photos. He writes:
>
> "Some notes on Tommy Duck's, aka Princes Tavern, 8 East Street.
>
> "East Street was built in early 1800s, certainly before 1830. The first
> record I have of a beerseller at No. 8 is John Whittle in 1843. There is
> no record of a name for the beerhouse.
>
> "The building was put to other uses in the 1850s and early 1860s. At
> that time there were textile mills on Oxford Street and the 1863
> directory describers 8 East Street as a 'Makers-Up Room'. Then there was
> a beerseller called James Robinson there in 1865, and Thomas Duckworth a
> few years later.
>
> "The Prince's Theatre was built at the top of Oxford Street in 1864,
> which probably accounts for the reopening of the beerhouse and its name,
> the Princes Tavern. See map (at
> <http://freespace.virgin.net/neil.worthington/tdux2.jpg>) - the
> beerhouse isn't far from the back door of the theatre.
>
> "Tommy Duckworth was from Salford and before he moved to the Princes he
> may have been at a beerhouse called the Globe Tavern on Barrow Street,
> off Oldfield Road. He was at the Princes Tavern until the 1880s.
>
> "The beerhouse was acquired by brewers Groves and Whitnall of Salford
> about 1903.
>
> "The photo (at <http://freespace.virgin.net/neil.worthington/tdux1.jpg>)
> shows Tommy Duck's as a G+W house in the 1920s or 1930s, by which time
> the nickname had been adopted on the sign. Jack Oliver, the licensee
> named on the lamp over the door, was there from the 1920s to the 1940s.
> Mrs Frances Oliver took over and was still there in the 1950s. She
> obtained a full licence for the pub in March 1957." (I presume from this
> last remark that it was previously just an alehouse.)
>
> In addition to the map and photo already mentioned, I have also scanned
> in a photo of the pub in the 1980s, as used on the cover of "What's
> Doing". It's at
> <http://freespace.virgin.net/neil.worthington/tdux3.jpg>.
> --
> Neil Worthington, Urmston, UK
> =============================


Thanks for the info - love the pics.

M.

marcb wrote:

> Neil Worthington wrote:
> > In addition to the map and photo already mentioned, I have also scanned
> > in a photo of the pub in the 1980s, as used on the cover of "What's
> > Doing". It's at
> > <http://freespace.virgin.net/neil.worthington/tdux3.jpg>.
> 
> Thanks for the info - love the pics.


My good chum, Neil Richardson, has very helpfully pointed me towards an
even better source of old photos of Tommy Ducks, and indeed of many
buildings in olde Manchester and Salford. This is Manchester Library's
Local Image Collection at <http://www.images.manchester.gov.uk/>.

There is a search facility - type in "Tommy Ducks" and you'll get 26
results, mostly pictures from the 1970s and 1980s but also some from
1960, including some interior shots.

Type in "Princes Tavern" and you get some shots from the 1890s and
1900s, but confusingly, they're of a place on the corner of Cross Street
and John Dalton Street, which is not where Tommy Ducks used to be. This
makes me doubt the idea that TD was originally the Prince's Tavern.

There are no results for "Princess Tavern". There are several for
"Princes Theatre" but none that show a pub in the same shot. No results
either for a "Prince of Wales", apart from pubs in Collyhurst, Gorton
and Miles Platting.

Anyway, a fascinating site which I commend to you!
-- 
Neil Worthington, Urmston, UK
=============================

"N. J. Worthington" wrote:


>
> Anyway, a fascinating site which I commend to you!
>


It certainly is.

thx

marc