The Crescent pub sits at the corner of Massey Street and the Crescent in Salford.  The pub was originally named The Red Dragon but apparently was renamed The Crescent in 1986.  I have seen a photograph on Flickr of the pub in the 1950s with the name Red Dragon clearly visible.  The pub's website says that it is, " ... one of the most Historic Pubs of Salford. A Grade II Listed Building built in the 1860's where Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels once drank and discussed revolution and the theory of Communism."  The Listed Buildings website describes it as, " Terrace of 3 dwellings, now in use as public house. Early C19. Roughcast render over brick with Welsh slate roof." 

It is certainly the case that Karl Marx traveled to Manchester from his home in London to meet with Engels and discuss their political views.  There is an alcove at Chetham's Library with two bench window seats facing each other across a rectangular table that they used while trolling through the library's collection.  However, the meetings at Chetham's took place in the 1840s and if the pub's information is correct they had a 20 year wait for opening time if indeed it wasn't built until the 1860s.  I have failed to find a reference to a Red Dragon pub/hotel in any of the Manchester & Salford Directories of the period but the OS map of the site circa 1844 shows a terrace of houses of very similar configuration which suggests that the building was there in the 1840s and may well have become a pub during the time that the dynamic-duo were meeting in Manchester/Salford.

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