Railway Inn, Irlam, Salford

Beautiful pub to be demolished for 10 flats:

A quiet month in Yorkshire on the demolition front has allowed me to explore the other side of the Pennines this month, beginning in Salford; a Local Authority that seems to have a penchant for erasing its history, whilst being beguiled by a vague notion of regeneration.

This lovely High Street pub has been closed since 2016, and was due to be converted into a daycare center, preserving the building.

Sold via auction for £200k in 2019, the new owner sought a higher return and put in an application for a three-story building, which was rightly refused.

The new application shows a similar-sized building albeit with a pitched roof, but equally dominant in the otherwise domestic scale street.

The building has been described as derelict and vandalised, which is seemingly how all buildings are described after being momentarily vacant in developer rhetoric.

The pub offers an important contribution to this street, which is one of the few remaining high streets of the towns in Greater Manchester that remains entirely Victorian/Edwardian.

As the building has recently been shown to be viable for business use, Salford should recognise the value in its retention. This is a high street, and a commercial use should be favoured over residential flats.