Why we choose a terracotta head from a long-gone local for the Your Salford 100 exhibition

Last year we were invited by Salford Museum & Art Gallery to be part of 100 groups and individuals from across Salford to help create an exhibition marking the city’s centenary in 2026. Your Salford 100 showcases 100 objects and artworks from the museum’s collection, selected by the people of Salford.

The exhibition includes an eclectic mix from all areas of the museum’s collection, including art, decorative arts and social history, alongside responses and stories from the participants. The 100 selectors include members of the public, community groups, staff, and local partners, artists and organisations that the museum has worked with.

Your Salford 100is on display from Saturday 14 February 2026 – 10 January 2027 at Salford Museum & Art Gallery, Peel Park, The Crescent, M5 4WU.

We had a brilliant day exploring the archives with the museum staff to select our object – a Terracotta head from the Rose & Crown pub.

The Rose & Crown opened in 1823 at Broad Road and Booth Street. Its ornate Victorian building was decorated with terracotta heads. It later fell into disrepair, and in 1889 brewers Hardy & Sons replaced it and the neighbouring shop, which later became offices for the Salford City Reporter. The Rose & Crown closed in 1971 to make way for flats and the Salford Precinct.

The centre of the community; pubs are part of the cultural fabric of working-class life. A lifeline to locals, pubs provide; space to gather and connect, a pitstop after a hard day’s graft, a familiar face on a difficult day, a place to watch your team or mark life’s milestones.

Historically pubs served as meeting points for political movements and mutual aid associations such as burial clubs and friendly societies who provided financial and social services before the introduction of modern insurance and the welfare state. Local pubs hosted sickness clubs before the introduction of NHS, and many paid men to recite the weekly newspapers for those who couldn’t read.

Pubs are vital community spaces, but they also serve as hubs for creativity and culture. Historically, the pubs of Salford hosted variety acts featuring comedians, travelling performers and musicians. To this day pubs are an important part of the cultural fabric of Salford; Chapel Street watering holes The Old Pint Pot and The New Oxford are festival hubs for the iconic Sounds From the Other City Festival, The Kings Arms on Bloom Street has become a flagship venue of the fringe theatre scene and The Eagle Inn is an intimate mainstay of the indie music scene.

Across the city locals like The Robin Hood in Clifton platform local acts during its annual beer festival, and regular open mic nights and rumour has it that the Union Tavern on Liverpool Road hosts an excellent karaoke and disco night.

Whether you’re screeching your way through your first karaoke session, sharing a new song at an open mic or getting creative during a sip and paint session, pubs are the perfect place to express yourself.

The Campaign for Pubs is the UK grassroots campaign standing up for pubs and the communities they serve, uniting publicans, campaigners and small brewers.

Long Live The Local launched in July 2018 to raise awareness of the high number of pub closures across the UK and to highlight that the UK has one of the highest Beer Duty rates in the world.

Salford Now feature on the Eagle Inn by Kathryn McCormick. From financial crashes to gentrification, Salford’s Eagle Inn has survived it all – and now finds itself in a golden age of gigs.

Trails, Pales and Centenary Tales – Instigate Arts launched a new project in partnership with Result CIC. Five artists will immerse themselves in Salford pubs, speaking to locals and documenting folklore, rumours, and memories. Out of this, they’ll create five original artworks – film, sound, animation, story, paint, all giving voice to a previously unknown archive, a people’s story, which you are invited to explore.

Photo details: The team outside the Staff of Life pub after a performance of our show Declaration at CAST Theatre, Doncaster.