Marble Arch Public House - Rochdale Road



The Marble Arch Public House occupies the corner of Rochdale Road and Gould Street.  As the image below shows, a date plaque indicates that it was built in 1888.  The pub was designed by Darbyshire and Smith.  Pevsner says of it that it has, "... an unusual jack-arch ceiling with exposed cast iron-beams supported by tile-clad brackets."



The Adshead map of 1851, below, shows that a public house stood on this corner but it was called the "Wellington Inn".  The 1863 Slater's Directory of Manchester & Salford lists ten Wellington pubs in the twin cities. 



However the date plaque on today's building says 1888, so if that is correct, the present building must  be a replacement for the original Wellington Inn.  However, the name seems to have lived on because the link below shows the pub in 1971 when it was called the Wellington Vaults.  At that time it was a Wilsons house

Wellington Vaults 1971

Apparently it was bought in 1984 by a member of CAMRA (The Campaign for Real Ale) and turned into a free house.  Since then ownership has changed on a number of occasions and in more recent times the building has been altered to accommodate a micro-brewery.  In 2011 the Marble Brewery occupies a portion of the site.  Apparently, the brewery consists of a five barrel plant, designed and installed by Brendan Dobbin, former proprietor of the West Coast Brewing Company, Manchester.