Owner of iconic Tommy’s House of Fires in Old Trafford, Tommy Dolan, passes away at 72

Tommy Dolan, a Manchester businessman and owner of the iconic Tommy’s House of Fires in Old Trafford, has passed away at age 72, his family have said.

Paying tribute to his dad, his youngest son TJ Dolan, 36, shared with us the incredible story of a man he described as ‘a very well loved, known and respected character’, adding: “They simply don’t make people like these anymore.”

Born to Irish immigrant parents in 1951, Tommy started his early life living in Eccles before moving to Hulme where he grew up, considering himself a ‘Hulme lad’ — long before the concrete estates were built.

A keen businessman in the making, he would run errands for a local gentlemen’s club getting cigarettes and was also Sir Matt Busby’s paperboy.

Tommy never took any exams and left school at 16 to begin working at the prestigious Piccadilly Hotel, where he worked his way up while living in-house at the hotel, in the heart of Piccadilly Gardens during the ’60s.

Still at the hotel but in a new found career path, he became an Olympia (London) prestigious award winning chef – where he got to shake hands with stars including Muhammad Ali and even cooked for David Bowie’s 21st Birthday.

After spending time as a chef he decided to start-up what became the well known Manchester chip shop chain ‘Ye Olde English Chippy’, which eventually had 13 stores in total located all over Manchester — including Moss Side, Salford, Chorlton and Burnage.

He also opened a two-storey 24-hour chip shop in Piccadilly Gardens below the hotel where he had lived and worked at as a teenager. 

Fancying a change of direction and leaving the chippies behind he thought, ‘Why sell potatoes when I could sell marble?’ — setting up the iconic Manchester institution that is ‘Tommy’s House Of Fires’ in Old Trafford.

Tommy sold fireplaces to almost everyone in the North West including the rich and famous (and infamous), as well as various footballers – being so close to Old Trafford. 

It was at his Old Trafford shop where he once sold a fire to ‘Firestarter’ the late Keith Flint from The Prodigy, before going on a three-day bender with him where he was spiked with LSD. 

TJ told us: “He would drive Cruella de Vil’s car from 101 Dalmatians to work as his daily car.”

Tommy’s bizarre, huge and well known advertising campaigns over the years attracted the national press in the ’90s: ‘FREE SEX (with every 100 fires sold)’ and ‘TOMMY’S GETTING A DIVORCE – (come get it before she gets half)’.

In real life, he was never actually getting a divorce but the displays landed him in all the major newspapers. 

TJ recalls: “I remember my mum taking me to school and loads of camera men flashing and asking her what did she think of her husband advertising their divorce… which she replied, ‘I’m not f*****g getting a divorce, I’m going to school’, and off we went.

“His iconic and ridiculous ‘YUL save plenty’ signs of his face superimposed on Yul Brynner in ‘the king and I ‘ were lost on anyone born after the ’70s but are hilarious nonetheless.”

About his childhood and growing up around his dad, TJ fondly remembers: “Nothing was ever normal. There was never a dull day, you know? I mean, it was always fun. There was always something going on. It was chaos.”

On other links to the stars, TJ told us his dad ‘drank with George Best in Phil Lynott from Thin Lizzy’s mum’s shebeen’.

Looking back at his life, it is clear to see Tommy was known and loved by many locally for his humour and sociable nature. 

They had ‘nothing but good stuff to say about him’, TJ said. He added: “Everybody thought he had a twin brother because he’d be seen in like three or four different places in one day.”

On losing his beloved dad, TJ continued: “Nothing is ever going to be the same. He loved life and he added joy, you just can’t replicate that. I still keep thinking I’m going to see his car with his music blasting at 100. He just gave zero f***s.”

TJ shared some of his dad’s favourite quotes, that he often repeated, including ‘It’s all b***ocks’, ‘There’s nothing fair in life other than the fairground’, and ‘Life is funny – but it’s funnier being Tommy.’

Tommy passed away unexpectedly in his sleep last month. He leaves behind his wife of over 50 years Judy and his four adult children, Emma, Anna, Danny and TJ.

For anyone wishing to pay their respects to Tommy, his funeral will be held on Tuesday August 22nd at St John’s in Chorlton at 12pm. The wake will be held at The Woodstock in Didsbury at 2pm.

As TJ says: “A remarkable story of a man that started with nothing, no education and lived truly to the max.”

RIP Tommy, Yul be missed.

TOMMY DOLAN: 23.2.51 – 9.7.23