Manchester Pub Sign – Lord Nelson

A pub with a history almost as colourful as the hero it commemorates

LORD NELSON ****

88, Newton St, Manchester M1 1EE

A fine portrait of the man himself.

The pub has always had a connection to Horatio,  The current sign depicts him as he looked before the loss of eye and arm.

The Lord Nelson sometimes gets confused with a long since closed pub that was once nearby and known as Nelson Of The Nile and later as The Death Of Nelson.

That pub’s history was not a happy one. A customer called Marsham was beaten to death there in 1830 for singing anti-Catholic ballads in the bar.His killer, Traynor, was arrested and executed for the offence.

The Lord Nelson pub once had its own brewhouse, as did many pubs before transportation improved to allow breweries to move ale in larger quantities. The Nelson brewhouse lost its roof one night in a dramatic hailstorm, in 1854. Three workers who were only just missed by the debris survived unscathed, though one was found nearby weeping hysterically and praying to his God for forgiveness over his various sins.

A popular bar with post office staff from the big sorting centre on Newton Street, and reporters from the nearby Daily Express offices, both now closed.

Source – L. D. Bradshaw – ORIGINS OF STREET NAMES IN THE CITY CENTRE OF MANCHESTER 1985 Neil Richardson.

Arthur Chappell