A Salford resident has been creating YouTube videos covering the forgotten history of the city and providing nostalgia for viewers.
Anthony Mulligan, 35, who is otherwise known as ‘Daft Monkey’ online, grew up in the heart of Salford on Whit Lane.
The channel started four years ago, originally as an ‘Urbexer’ (urban explorer), exploring abandoned buildings in Salford, before delving into the stories behind them.
From documenting history such as the Salford Prince and The Scuttlers gangs, Anthony also covers current derelict sites like Brydon Close and the recently knocked down pubs The Church Inn and The B’Hive Inn.
Speaking about the closure of old-school pubs, Anthony said: “It’s really heart-breaking to see because the communities are the ones that suffer because these are the functions for people’s birthdays, christenings, weddings, funerals, wakes, and it’s just so sad.
“When something like that goes you feel like it’s a bit more of the community that has died.”
All of Anthony’s family still live in Salford and The B’Hive Inn was the local on their estate. He said: “It’s sad because of what it means to my grandparents and my family members and the older side of the community where they might have just popped out for a drink, they have to travel a bit further afield.
“It gets me a bit more emotional because I feel like you’re taking it from them.”
The Church Inn dates back to the 1800s and used to be stables for horses before it was a pub.
He said: “I don’t live in a fantasy world, certain things do need to be pulled down. But the landmark buildings should be saved.
“I think the best thing what they could do is at least change them rather than destroy them. Putting back into use again for whatever they may be. That would be the moral thing to do.”
Despite having just over 4000 subscribers, Daft Monkey’s most popular video has more than 200,000 views.
However, Anthony does not create content for the subscriber or view count, it is solely done out of the love for uncovering the history of the city.
He said: “I do get more of a great reception from Salford. I think it is the nostalgia factor and the reminder of where we come from.
“I like to unearth things that have been forgotten. I think people could live somewhere and I have highlighted something that they never even knew was there or something that took place.”
Anthony still works full time as a paint manufacturer, so only has time on the weekends to do research for his videos, which involves going through newspaper archives and even sometimes interviewing people.
He said: “In an ideal world, I would love to do it full time and rather than it taking a month, it could maybe take a week or two. But it’s finding the balance with work as well.”
Daft Monkey is currently working on his next project, which will be a follow up video to his piece about The Scuttlers gangs posted two years ago.
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