It’s been closed for nearly a decade – but now this historic Stockport pub is getting a £400k refurb

A historic Stockport pub is due to get a huge £400k refurb, Robinsons Brewery has announced.

The Bulls Head, which is the oldest in Stockport’s Marketplace, has been closed for nearly eight years. But now it is set to have new life breathed into it again.

The refurb will start in June 2020 and is expected to take around three months, making the relaunch date September.

With room for 84 covers inside and 36 outside, plans for the revamp include relocating its toilets and adding new facilities to make it fully accessible for all.

The refurb will look to celebrate Stockport’s history and the Marketplace pub’s impressive heritage, which dates all the way back to before the Peterloo Massacre.

In the early 19th century, it was a popular meeting place for radicals Henry ‘Orator’ Hunt, Fergus O’Connor and reformer Richard Cobden.

All three famously gave speeches from its balcony, addressing huge crowds below on the subjects such as universal suffrage and annual parliaments.

Henry ‘Orator’ Hunt, in particular, is noted for presiding over the demonstration for parliamentary reform at St Peter’s Field now known as the Peterloo Massacre.

Attempts to arrest him and the other leaders, who became known as The Blanketeers, led to 11 deaths and 500 injuries – but the protest did ultimately lead to improving parliamentary representation for the people of Greater Manchester.

A blue plaque on the exterior of the pub attests to this history, reading: “Grade II listed building. The scene of radical political agitation. In the early 19th century radicals Henry ‘Orator’ Hunt, Fergus O’Connor and reformer Richard Cobden.”

The pub’s reopening is expected to create approximately 15-20 new jobs in the area.

Robinsons Brewery is now on the hunt for anyone interested in running the newly refurbished Marketplace pub when it reopens in September 2020.