Preston Pub Sign Photo Study Ole In The Wall

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A closed pub on the Fylde Road leading out of the city and a sign bearing just the words now. Hole In The Wall pubs were common once, with a name that can have a variety of origins. When beer was brewed by housewives in private houses but still sold to tourists, travellers and army personnel it was often served through a hatch-like hole in the wall as the houses were usually too small to accommodate guests. Post-industrial revolution, pubs could often be approached by short cut footpaths through ginnels and even tunnels leading up from canal towpaths or railway tracks, with the entrance/exit coming out in a hole cut between buildings so people could be seen emerging from or vanishing into holes in the walls. The name makes me think of Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid as the famous Western outlaws led an outfit calling itself The Hole In The Wall Gang. They never came to Preston though. Nowadays ATM bank-cash dispensing machines are sometimes called holes in the wall but the ‘Ole In The Wall pub is almost certainly one once approached by a shortcut path through from the nearby canal-area. Arthur Chappell