Friargate

 Friargate is the second main shopping road in Preston. Its south end joins Market Street at the Flag Market, just north of Fishergate, the biggest shopping street. It heads northwest, to meet Fylde Road at the university. Apparently Friargate was home to Preston's first catholic church and first Indian restaurant, and at one time was the main commercial road.

The name relates to a Franciscan monastery founded in 1221, and apparently the exact location of the friary is unknown. Franciscan monks dressed in grey robes, and hence there is a Wetherspoons called  The Grey Friar.

In 1991 the street was bifurcated by the Ring Road, which did it no favours. The shorter section south of the Ring Road is still busy - though a lot of shops are empty - but the north section not so much. There is work in progress to pedestrianise the north section, which may improve it, and its proximity to the university certainly helps.

We will start from the end of Flyde Road, where this page finished, and head southeast, into the centre of Preston.

The first pub, on the right, was the Lamb and Packet. It closed in 2017, apparently sold to the university, who seem intent on buying every property in the area. So far they have done nothing with it.

There are several fast-food places at this end, I guess catering to students. This includes the Spice of Bengal, Preston's first India; sadly that too closed in 2017, citing family circumstances.

A little further up on the right in the Northern Way, which I know as O'Neills, when it was an Irish pub. It was Sheanigans for a while too. I have not been inside it in its later incarnation.

The Duke of York was just before the Northern Way.

A bit further along on the left in the Sun Hotel and next door is Roper Hall.

 Roper Hall is quite an impressive building, the Sun hotel not so much.

I do not recall ever going in the Sun, but the Roper Hall is a good pub. It used to be a Catholic school, set up in the memory of Miss Elizabeth Roper in 1872-75.

Next to Rope Hall is the Dark Room, which is connected to it in some way, and is used for events. Next to that is the Plau, a gin gastropub, I think, that has not been open long. One of these used to be a pub called the Plough; I guess the latter, but I am not sure.

A bit beyond is the "Humane Building", built in the thirties by "'Preston Humane Assurance Collecting Society" on the site of a pub called the Roast Beef.

Across the road is the Friargate Tap Room, which has also only been there a few years. The one time I went inside they were giving away vodka jelly! This is almost on the corner of Marsh Lane, discussed here.

There is a bit of a gap in the pubs, but there are two alley ways a bit further down, just before the crossing. On the left is Clayton's Gate.

Heading up it, and across a carpark is the Foresters' Hall. These was a plan to build student flats here, and later a 30-storey hotel, but nothing looks to have come of either.

There is also an alley on the other side of Friargate; not sure if it has a name. Aa flight of steps leads up to where St Mary's RC Church used to stand until 1990, and is now a car park. 

A small shrine at the top of the step, and the name of the car park are the only reminders of what used to be here.

There is a lengthy article on the Catholic chapels on Friargate here.

A bit further along, and a short step down Heatley Street is the New Britannia. Only been in it once, and it was so long ago I cannot remember much about it.

There was also an Old Britannia, dating from 1818, on Friargate, but demolished, possibly for the ring road in the sixties.

Further along Heatley Street, on the corner of Corporation Street, was the Globe or maybe Tom's Tavern. In fact it seems to have had numerous names; Globe Tavern, Nonno's, Pips, The Corner Club, Mercury Flux, and Method. Now selling Chinese food. You can see the Old Britannia in the background in this image.

A photo of it from 1980 here.

Further down Friargate is the Dog and Partridge. This used to be a biker pub, I think, but was very different when I visited about a year ago. I see it is up for lease, so may not be around much longer.

A bit further along is Halewoods, a book seller, the shop being notable for the inscription, "The Temple of the Muses", and I think is the oldest book shop in Preston.

There is another bookshop on Friargate  - just before the Friargate Taproom, and this is Halewood and Sons, book dealers since 1867. I have a feeling it is the same family, but rival brothers. 

Next door to "The Temple of the Muses" is the Old Black Bull, a great pub with a mock tudor frontage. Clearly it was extended into the adjacent building at some point. It is mentioned in a document from 1776 as the Black Bull, and seems to have become the Old Black Bull some time before 1900.

The left wall dates from the later sixties when the Ring Road was built, and all the building on that side demolished. There is a photo here of it supposedly from 1968, before the extension and the Ring Road, and one supposedly from the year before, with the Ring Road under construction here.

Opposite the Old Black Bull is The Grey Friar, a modern Wetherspoons building.

Crossing the Ring Road, we reach the south section of Friargate.

On the left is Wilko, in what used to be C&A. This was originally the Royal Hippodrome, built in 1905, and demolished in 1959. The photo here, from ca. 1950, is taken from about the same place.

Before the hippodrome, there was a pub called the Hoop and Crown on the site.

Just visible beyond Wilko is the Black Horse. It is Grade II listed, and features a very old-fashioned interior, with a curved bar. And it is CAMRA Central Lancashire's pub of the year for 2023!

It claims to be unique in have entrances on three streets; I am not convinced that it is the only such pub!

The Black Horse is on the corner of Orchard Street, and just behind it is this shop, which used to sell umbrellas. Although painted over, you can still see "We shall have rain" above the new shop sign.

At the top of Orchard Street, this used to be the Farmers Arms, and later the Jolly Farmer. The façade remains, but the interior has been completely rebuilt.

And just round the corner, the Market Tavern. This is a great pub that is easy to miss; the street it is on got truncated for the Ring Road.

A building on the right, back on Friargate, now Ladbrokes, used to be the Boar's Head.

As Friargate meets Market Street, there is what used to be the George Hotel, and in the nineteenth century the George Inn.

And across the road from there is this delightful little shop - claiming to be the oldest in Preston.

And that brings us to - and possibly slightly beyond - the end of Friargate.