Bernard Manning club 'to become health centre'

A comedy club first opened in 1959 by controversial comic Bernard Manning is set to be demolished to make way for a health centre.

The World Famous Embassy Club, in Harpurhey, will close at the end of March, the Local Democracy Reporting Service understands.

It was most recently owned by the late comedian's son, Bernard Manning Jr, who took on the Rochdale Road venue after his father retired in 1999.

Manning Jr put the club up for sale in 2014, and it had faced an uncertain future since 2017, when a London-based Evangelical Church lodged a planning application to host services at the venue.

At the time, councillor Pat Karney said the town hall would oppose the move.

Ultimately, it never came to fruition.

However, the Embassy's days are numbered as the current operators are due to move out on 31 March.

Manchester City Council has now bought the club and the land around it and plans to knock it down to make way for a new health centre, set to be one of the city's largest.

Town hall chiefs are ready to kick-start a health drive in Harpurhey, which has "one of the worst health profiles in the country", with a week-long festival.

"We have mobilised the community for the biggest health festival that Harpurhey has ever seen," Karney said while announcing the health drive.

A timeline for demolishing the club and building the new health centre has yet to be confirmed, and a planning application has been submitted for the move.

Manning, who died in 2007, was born in Ancoats in 1939 and he became a household name in the 1970s through Granada TV's The Comedians.

But he was known for highly offensive and racially-charged material.

Manning denied racism claims, saying: "I tell jokes. You never take a joke seriously."

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