Images unseen for 50 years capture a night out at the landmark Manchester pub which was demolished last week.
Michael Kay was a 21-year-old photography student when he decided to take his camera into Birch Villa, the pub which stood at the junction of Wilmslow Road and Dickenson Road in Rusholme.
Last week the pub, which dated back to 1837 and later became known as Hardy's Well, was demolished after a fire. It's imposing position on one of Europe's busiest bus routes and proximity to MCFC's old Maine Road stadium made it a Manchester landmark.
But it was the verse written by Greater Manchester poet Lemn Sissay on its gable wall that fixed it in the minds of many. Sissay moved to Manchester from Wigan when he was 18 and often drank and played pool in the pub.
During a conversation with a pal and the then landlord in 1994, in which he said poetry should be more widely seen, Sissay was challenged to write a piece for the side of the building. The result was a tongue twister of a mural that was one of the first of its type in the country.
- Read More: The huge, lost 'super pubs' we loved to drink in long before Wetherspoons
- Read More: Shirley Baker captured a lost way of life. She never got the credit she was due
But the poem, along with the building, came crashing down last week - following a fire that tore through the derelict building, leaving the structure unsafe.
Now, the M.E.N can reveal brilliant, time capsule images from inside the lost pub, captured by former Manchester Polytechnic student Michael Kay back in 1971.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News earlier this week, the now 73-year old photographer said: "We used to live on one of the roads off Dickenson Road, so it was fairly close to that pub. I only ever went there that once to take those photographs because I thought it looked like an interesting old pub.
"I put my head inside and I saw the ornate bar and things, and I thought that might be quite interesting to do some shots."
"I just liked going round and taking photographs," Michael added.
"Little did I know, with the benefit of hindsight looking back, how things change so quickly. And they [photos] look like a completely different era now don't they?
Join our Greater Manchester history, memories and people Facebook group here.
"I think it helped that there were definitely a lot of characters in the pub. It was that sort of place.
"I was aware there was a limited number of shots I could take because it was expensive to get it processed.
"I remember going in with my camera - I don't remember asking if I could take any photographs but I probably did.
"I was there about an hour-and-a-half and I think people just, once they saw me taking photographs of other people, they just sort of accepted it. There's one of a guy shaking his finger at me but I think it was more in jest.
"I think some of them might have been showing off a bit."
Despite his young age and relative inexperience, Michael managed to take an incredibly confident set of photographs that expose the charm of the pub's locals. From long shots of staff working behind the ornate bar to the playful relationship between its regulars, he captured the pub's characters.
Love Greater Manchester's past? Sign up to our new nostalgia newsletter and never miss a thing.
"I think I went in there for an hour and then I came out for a breather. I went back in again and did a few more and then left them to it," Michael said.
"You have a bit of nerves doing something like this because you don't quite know what's going to happen, especially somewhere where people are drinking. You don't quite know if somebody is going to have had a bit too much.
Click below to see the photographs Michael took in the Birch Villa over 50-years ago.
"But I didn't feel threatened, and I think I came out thinking 'hopefully I've got a few nice shots'...It was slightly rowdy but I survived."
Remarkably, it wasn't until lockdown in 2020 that the photographic negatives of his night in the Birch Villa were rediscovered. Until then, the negatives had sat undeveloped for nearly 50 years in a folder.
After graduating, Michael moved back down south and worked as an advertising photographer in London. Now living in Surrey, he still works part-time, mostly as a food photographer.
Do these photographs awaken any memories for you? Let us know in the comments section below.
Read Next:
- Lost bars, cafes and attractions from when the Trafford Centre first opened from the original McDonald's to the Festival Village
- Lost Pontins where generations of Greater Manchester families loved to spend their summer holiday
- "These are the names of the places you will pronounce wrong": What it was like to DJ on Manchester's lost Piccadilly Radio
- 22 Manc words and phrases that regularly baffle visitors
- Eerie images of derelict pub lying abandoned just off M56 motorway being reclaimed by nature
