The Arden Arms

The Arden Arms, which includes No 23 Millgate, is a public house built around 1815 and altered in the mid-19th century and early 20th century. It features red brick in Flemish bond and a Welsh slate roof. The building stands three storeys tall with cellars and is located on a corner site, having four bays facing Corporation Street and one bay forming No 23 on Millgate.

The third bay has a six-panel door with a fanlight that includes curved glazing bars, set in a square-headed opening with a reeded wooden architrave. The other bays have early 20th-century casements with etched glass, positioned under arch-braced transoms in their original openings, which feature projecting sills and cambered brick arches. On the first floor, there are mid to late 19th-century four-pane sash windows in their original openings, with the third bay window being narrower and blind. The second floor has shorter four-pane sashes in each bay, and there is a wooden eaves cornice. The roof is hipped at the left end and has an altered stack in front of the ridge, with end stacks on each slope of the right gable.

At the rear, there is a tall stair-window with a 24-pane sash under a cambered arch. The left return has a doorway to the left of a window, matching the front. Inside, the ground floor and first floor contain several early 19th-century six-panel doors in architraves with corner bosses. The early to mid-19th-century bar servery has a curved end, a panelled dado, and pilasters between four- and eight-pane sashes, topped with an entablature. An early 19th-century staircase leads to the second floor, featuring turned newels, stick balusters, and a swept handrail. The ground-floor rooms are numbered, with the front-right room (No 6) showcasing a blue and red quarry-tile floor and early mid-19th-century fixed benches. The kitchen at the rear has fielded-panel cupboards with H-hinges. The front-left room (No 2) includes later bench seating.

The Arden Arms has been owned by the Raffald family since around 1815, with George Raffald as the first landlord; he was the nephew of Elizabeth Raffald, who authored "The Experienced Housekeeper" and compiled Manchester's first trade directory. Since 1889, it has been owned by Robinsons Brewery. Further history can be found in the Stockport Sites Record at the Local Studies Library.