130-year-old pub in ‘dingy’ alleyway bulldozed to make way for ‘vibrant’ town entrance

A council project to beautify the entrance into Oldham has made progress after a month of delays.

The passage between Oldham bus station and the town’s high street once consisted of a ‘dingy alleyway’ next to the Snipe Inn pub on Henshaw Street. 

But now the pub has been demolished to make way for a ‘vibrant’ garden in the city centre, which will act as a community space and a new entrance to the town. 

Demolition works on the 130-year-old pub, which closed down in 2022, have now been mostly completed and paving and landscaping works are due to start in the coming weeks. 

Council boss Arooj Shah said: “This is another exciting milestone in transforming the town centre and making it an even better place to visit, work, study and live. 

“We are creating a town centre that is clean, green and easier to get around.

"The demolition of the Snipe Inn is the next major phase of these works and will create a welcoming public space and entrance to the town centre from the bus station. 

“With new trees, plants and places to take a break, it will create a vibrant link to our new town centre park, new homes and the new Eton Star Sixth Form.”

She added that the council has already completed a number of other ‘improvements’ at Hilton Square and Rock Street.

A number of residents have commented on the beautifying changes in Oldham town centres.

But others have mourned the loss of Snipe Inn, calling its demolition “the end of an era”. 

On a community post on Facebook, Oldham resident David Gannon said he’d started visiting Snipe Inn in 1972 and had ‘brilliant memories’ at the pub, which was ‘frequented by some colourful characters’. 

Lesley Ashton, who worked at the pub in the late 80s and early 90s, said she was ‘sad to see’ the pub go and had ‘happy memories of working there’. 

Greene King brewing company sold the pub to the council in November 2022.

Just a few weeks later, pub landlord Keith Israel announced the pub would have to close down and all staff were made redundant, reportedly because the brewing company withdrew. 

The site, which has been a part of the high street since the mid 19th century, then sat vacant for more than a year.

A visit by surveyors had found the structure to be in a slightly ‘deteriorated’ but salvageable condition. 

At the time, council officers noted that though the pub ‘could be retained as a viable business’ with ‘costly’ renovation works, the decision had to be ‘weighed alongside the wider community benefits’ of the project. 

Once completed, councillors plan to call the green space ‘Snipe Garden’ in honour of the pub.

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