New members welcome!

About Us

Established in 1873 by a group of local butchers and merchants, Old Trafford Bowling Club and crown green were formally laid out in 1877 to designs by noted Manchester architect and Surveyor John Bowden, whose eclectic works include, amongst others, the nearby former Trafford Technical Institute on Stretford Road (now a Buddhist monastery) and another Bowling Club pavilion and crown green at Alderley Edge.

The pavilion is two stories built from polychromatic brick with stone dressings to the ground floor, and half timbering with elaborate barge boards above. The clubhouse looks out directly over the green.


The Clubhouse and green are carefully laid out to meet the practical and aesthetic needs of an ambitious Bowling Club. The orientation or the green is important for us to have sun, (when it is out) all afternoon and into the evening.

Despite constant use for nearly 145 years, the clubhouse survives relatively unaltered internally and we retain numerous original features.


The ground floor of the main pavilion retains the members room and bar, which opens out on to a covered terrace, where it is understood that the original butchers used to have hog roasts looking out on to the green.


An unusual clock gifted to the the club by former Chairman of the Manchester Ship Canal Sir William Bailey hangs in the members lounge commemorating the coronation of King Edward VII and his wife Alexandra as King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions on August 9th 1902.