A boarded-up boozer in Salford that was once a favourite haunt of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels is set to reopen after six years of closure.
The Grade-II listed building – a place where The Communist Manifesto co-authors regularly supped as they dreamt up the now-infamous 19th-century text – is now set for a new lease of life, with its faded green facade and boarded-up windows set to be restored once more.
Most recently known as The Crescent pub, the boozer closed in 2017 and has been left to decay in that time. Its exterior is covered in graffiti, and its roof is thought to be in a poor state.
Two years ago its Chinese owners revealed plans to bring the boozer back to life, and now appear to be making slow progress after new scaffolding was spotted going up outside the derelict public house last week.
As part of the refurb, owners plan to construct a new building at the pub’s rear and return it to its original name: The Red Dragon. Further plans for the site will also see it make the most of its fabled role in the creation of the legendary academic text.
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A spokesman for the owners told the Manchester Evening News: “We have been in discussion with Salford council for a while. We are now getting close to submitting a formal planning application. We have a further meeting with them in two weeks time
“In the meantime we are to carry out essential repairs on the building, which do not need listed building consent, so it is watertight, including a new roof. The scaffolding will be up for 18 months. The intention is to return to pub to a traditional style – it had become a 1990s-style student pub.
“The pub will be filled with memorablia linked to Marx and Engels who are thought to have used it, and the history of Salford. There will be no new-build extensions to the pub – it will be a refurbishment of the existing building, and we aim to retain some existing features. We are pleased to be able to say that real progress is being made.”
“There is a possibility that the new building could be an apart hotel and we have held talks with the Vice Chancellor of the University of Salford. If a lecturer, for example required accommodation for a short period, they might use it. “
One of Manchester’s grandest restaurants has finally reopened TWO YEARS after fire
Daisy Jackson
One of the most historic restaurants in Manchester has reopened at last, two years after a fire forced its closure.
Mount Street Dining Room & Bar – which many of us may remember as Mr Cooper’s – stands within the Grade II-listed Midland Hotel.
The grand dining room dates all the way back to 1903, when it opened with the hotel as the Grill Room.
The restaurant was at the epicentre of the Industrial Revolution and was frequented by railway travellers, perhaps best-known for hosting a lunch between Charles Rolls and Henry Royce in 1904, who went on to form the world-famous Rolls-Royce brand.
The Midland’s restaurants has gone through several changes in the decades since, undergoing a major £14 million refurb in 2020 to relaunch as Mount Street Dining Room & Bar.
Its interiors are inspired by the hotel’s early 1900s art deco and railway heritage, with a menu that focuses on locally-sourced British produce.
But the restaurant has been shut since early 2024, when a fire damaged the entrance and trellising around its main entrance on Mount Street.
The beautiful bar areaA glimpse of the menu at Mount StreetCocktails and British food
The Midland has finally managed to get the restaurant back open again this month, with a new food and cocktail menus, which aims to offer refined but simple British dining.
Expect dishes like pork and black pudding bonbons, white onion soup with crispy potatoes, smoked British salmon with lemon gel and dill mascarpone, and slow cooked beef daube with confit garlic mash.
Plus desserts such as rice pudding with Anise glazed pearsand Bakewell pudding with cherry syrup.
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen inside this beautiful, storied dining room – and it looks just as beautiful as we remember.
Georgina Pellant -
27th March 2023 
