Mutual Inn (Town Centre, OLDHAM)

1882 map showing the Mutual Inn.

The Mutual Inn was situated on the corner of Boardman Street and Smethurst Street. It started life as the Hopwood Arms dating back to at least 1823. In the early 1830s it had changed its name to the Foresters Arms and when bricklayer Absalom Wrigley became landlord in 1836 he changed the name again to the Bricklayers Arms. It finally became the Mutual Inn in the 1850s (although it was named the Gardeners Arms briefly around 1860). By the 1870s the inn had managed to gain a reputation for being the resort of undesirables in the area and it fell into decline. By the 1920s the neighbouring properties were in decline also and it was decided to build new houses along Smethurst Street. The Mutual Inn closed on Christmas Eve 1930 and demolished the following year. The area became waste ground some of which was used as a car park. The site of the former Mutual Inn is now roughly where the car park for the Queen Elizabeth Hall is.