A now abandoned North Manchester building was once home to a bizarre club adorned with upturned crucifixes and decapitated heads.
Manchester's Hellfire Club opened in 2007, near Queens Park, in a curiously curved building that used to house the Junction Hotel and later the Junction Inn. It's earlier names were apt, considering the building stands on the Collyhurst, Harpurhey, Smedley and Cheetham border.
Close to Manchester Cemetery, the building, which dates back to at least 1870, is said to been a hotspot for paranormal activity. A fitting venue then for the Hellfire Club, which resembled the set of a horror movie.
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The name itself was a throwback to historic Hellfire Clubs that established themselves in Britain and Ireland in the 18th century. They were exclusive establishments where rakish 'persons of quality' would gather to behave in a way conventional society would frown upon.
The first official Hellfire Club was founded in London in 1718, by the first Duke of Wharton and a handful of high-society friends, with other groups using the name 'Hellfire Club' set up throughout the 18th century. The Duke's club was set up more as a satirical joke to shock society, rather than as a serious affront to religion or morality.
However, the supposed president of the club was Satan, with members calling themselves devils. But, unlike other clubs at the time, the Hellfire Club had progressive policy of admitting both men and women as equals.
A more modern reference to the Hellfire Club can be found in the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game club of the same name in the hit Netflix show, Stranger Things.
In 2007, the M.E.N. reviewed Manchester's modern-day Hellfire Club - then a newly open horror-themed club-cum-restaurant, noting the "masks, talking skulls and upside-down crucifixes" that adorned its walls.
With ghoulish figures and decapitated heads hanging from the windows, customers ordered cocktails such as Dead Man Walking, which they happily slurped from blood-smattered goblets. The venue also boasted Manchester's deepest cellar, branded the 'dungeon', where bodies were believed to have been buried in the past.
A 2008 review of the club from listing site Yelp described the venue as something akin to the set of a horror movie. It read: "Walking into The Hellfire Club is much like walking into Dracula's castle.
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"I honestly kept expecting to see the ghosts of Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price around each new corner. There are stone dungeon walls covered with bleeding monster heads, elaborately carved beams and cabinets, barred Victorian-style windows, randomly-placed coffin lids, glass jars filled with fingers and eyeballs, and lurking skeletons in every nook and cranny."
And the horror theme didn't stop with the décor. The review continued: "The entire staff is decked out in enough corsets, old-fashioned British waistcoats, and undead accessories to make both Jack The Ripper and George Romero very proud. Overall, the ambience is akin to a well-planned Halloween party with more than a few fun cinematic scares thrown in for good measure.
"And in that vein, I would strongly suggest that you do at least a little goth or horror movie dressing up when you go. Jeans aren't forbidden, but most patrons really live it up at the dining graveyard, so don't be afraid to join in."
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Thespooky atmosphere of the venue wasn't just down to a creative collection of horror props. The building itself is notoriously said to be haunted.
In 2010, the club's owner David Butler, told the M.E.N. that during the club's renovation, a cigarette packet dated 1886 was discovered under the floorboards. He added: "We've had various paranormal teams here and they all come up with pretty much the same impression of a young girl and an older man that haunts the place."
In a later interview in 2014, having spent more time in the building, the sceptical owner said he'd had his eyes opened by some of the things he'd witnessed there, adding: "One morning it was footsteps on the roof, and when I went to check there was nobody there.
"We had the sound of dripping taps, but no sign of water coming out of any of them anywhere." And he said a girl claimed she saw a group of horses in the basement, despite not knowing there had been a stables attached to the building centuries ago.
Time was called on the venue in 2014, with the owner saying he had 'had his fun' with the place and the Hellfire Club closed its doors. The venue remained shut for two years before a new club called Cirque Manchester took over the building.
Cirque Manchester was the city's first dedicated Burlesque bar. The new venture promised a sleeker and kinkier option for an alternative 30-plus crowd. Cheryl Smith, best known for organising the North's biggest sex festival Sexhibition, took on the job of reinvigorating the club.
The novelty Halloween ghouls and Blackadder-esque fixtures were ditched in favour of sleek black Chesterfields, cosy open fires, craft beers and champagne. The basement dungeon also received a make-over as the setting for regular fetish and kink nights.
The burlesque club wasn't long-lived and soon the historic venue was empty once more. In 2019, a blaze broke out at the abandoned building which had to be extinguished by firefighters.
The striking building still stands at the junction on Queens Road, now boarded up. In the last couple of years, urban explorers have posted videos after gaining access showing the dilapidated interior of the property.
In February 2022, the property appeared on property auction website www.pugh-auctions.com with a guide price of £350,000. Having been a hotel, pub, Hellfire Club and burlesque bar in its time, it'll be interesting to see what the future holds for this unique building.
Does the Hellfire Club awaken any memories for you? Let us know in the comments section below.
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