Shakespeare Public House

The Shakespeare Public House is a public house built around 1870, with some minor alterations made in the late 20th century. It features rendered and painted brickwork and has a ribbed clay tiled roof with end stacks. The layout includes a central corridor that leads to three bars, with two bars on the left and one on the right.

The building is two storeys high and has three bays, with the right-hand bay being a lower extension. On the ground floor, there are two canted bay windows with a doorway between them. The doorway has a four-panel door, with the upper two panels being glazed. The right-hand end bay has no openings. Above, there is a shallow canopy supported by brackets, which holds a painted fascia sign. The first floor contains three horned sash windows under flat labels with console brackets; between the two left-hand windows, there is a blind window beneath a slightly pedimented head. The side elevation facing Southalls Lane has three sash windows on the ground floor and one window on the first floor.

Inside, a quarry-tiled corridor leads to a small main bar on the left side. This bar features a bar counter with a simple pilastered front and shallow brackets supporting the counter. There is fixed seating with a baffle next to the plank door, and a hearth on the side wall with metal plates surrounding it. A hatch from the servery opens into the corridor, set into a vertically boarded and framed partition. The bar on the right side of the corridor has fixed seating and baffles flanking a six-panel door. There is also a large rear bar with a door leading into the servery and fixed seating, along with a contemporary fire surround.

The public house was first recorded in the 1820s and was one of 13 public houses on Stafford Street around 1900. It is an increasingly rare example of a once-common public house type, serving the needs of the local industrial working-class community. Many of the fittings remain as they were at the turn of the century.