This is a fascinating photo from the archive which shows the last days on one of Bolton’s ‘lost’ pubs.
Taken in 1969 it shows the Good Samaritan on Derby Street which had an interesting history.
A beerhouse since the 1840s, an early landlord was David Magee, part of the family which founded the well-known Bolton brewer Magee’s.
The Good Samaritan remained as Magee’s pub (you can see the sign on the front) the whole time the company remained a family firm. Greenall Whitley bought Magee’s in 1958.
The area around Derby Street was earmarked for redevelopment in the late Sixties and by the time the Good Samaritan closed it wasn’t exactly living up to its name, having gained something of a reputation.
One last hope of redemption for the pub came with the building of the Bolton Institute of Technology. Students protested that they had been promised a union bar and argued the empty pub would be ideal.
But a bar was built in the new college building.
A drive-through KFC now stands on the site of the pub.
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