Julie Maguire worked in the pub industry in the 80s and 90s and has nothing but fond memories of her time working in boozers. Julie, now aged 62, has long since left the industry, but there's one establishment that still has heart.
The Gamecock, in Hulme Manchester, closed in the late 90s and the building stands derelict and boarded up. Julie took over the pub when she was 29 and ran it from 1989 to 1995.
She still passes the building when she goes back to the area to visit family and says it's 'sad to see' it empty and run down. She first started working at the pub as a weekend job, it was across the road from her home and all the locals living in the nearby tower blocks frequented it.
But when the blocks were demolished, and new housing estates replaced them, the area changed - and it wasn't good news for Julie's pub. Hulme became more popular and desirable with a greater mix of council and privately owned homes.
On the pub's heyday, Julie told the Manchester Evening News: "We had plenty of characters that came in. One who used to work for me was called Jackie Wacky, and he was called Wacky because he liked his 'special' tobacco.
"I gave him the keys to the pub, that's how much I trusted him. So he would go in first thing in the morning and do all the cellar work and the tidying up.
"When I come in I'd see £1.15 on the till and he'd say he'd had a pint. I knew damn well he'd had two or three.
"Customers would say to me he'd had two or three and I'd say he's not getting paid. Wacky would say he needed a couple of beers to 'stop the spiders coming for him'."
Julie can recall many characters who came through the doors but says the business began struggling to make money after the tower blocks were demolished. "When the area was demolished, most of the pubs that were still there had to survive by doing late ones [lock ins]," she said.
"I was hauled to the police station many-a-time. They said 'we'd had to bang the door Julie because you couldn't hear us'. I said the music was on. I once told them that I'd gotten engaged - I hadn't - but I had to use some cock-and-bull story as to why the music was playing at that time.
"But like I said to the inspector, I'd like nothing more than to shut my doors at 11.30 and have made my money. But come Monday morning I've got six bills and I'll only have enough [money] to pay three.
"I said we're not doing it for greed, we're doing it because we need to keep the doors open. Some would go on to five o'clock [in the morning]".
Despite the rough-and-ready reputation of the pub, Julie said there was rarely any trouble. "Everybody all looked after each other," she said.
"That was the community. Christmas always used to be good. It would take me two days to put the decorations up. We used to call it the adults grotto.
"We had Halloween parties and fun days in the car park. We'd put a big bouncy castle and have a barbecue. We'd do a lot of charity nights."
Julie went on to sell the pub in 1995. The housing estate that replaced the tower blocks failed to bring a new generation of local pub drinkers, and like many others, The Gamecock closed its doors for good soon after.
