CAMPAIGN FOR REAL ALE

GREATER MANCHESTER - Manchester City Centre, Circus Tavern

National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors Part One

86 Portland Street, Manchester, M1 4GX

Tel: 0161 236 5818

Public Transport: Railway Station: Manchester Piccadilly/Oxford Road; Metro:St Pe

Listed Status: Grade II

View this pub on a local map

This is one of the Top Ten Real Heritage Pubs in Britain which, despite its narrow internal dimensions, retains its room divisions and its modest fittings. An utterly unspoilt pub which is a tremendous survival in bustling central Manchester. Such survivals are rare nationally, and are especially uncommon in metropolitan surroundings. This early nineteenth-century stuccoed building is just one bay wide and was originally a house converted to a public house. It has a corridor on the left leading to two simply-fitted public rooms, one behind the other, on the right, which are separated by a vertically-boarded partition, the rear section which has a glazed upper section. It is packed if there are 40 customers so don't be surprised if, occasionally, you find the front door closed to avoid a crush!

In the corridor the tiny servery is placed under the stairs and is only large enough for one person to perform the noble act of serving the beer. The details of the servery with its glazed superstructure suggest it dates from c. 1930 date. A doorway leads to the very small room at the front which retains fixed bench seating, a pair of baffle screens but the fireplace is a replacement.

The rear tiny room, also created by a partition wall to the corridor, retains its original fixed seating with bell pushes all around the room, a baffle by the door, rear etched window, just two tables, but the a tiled and cast iron fireplace is a modern replacement. The Gents has a 1930s 'Gents' glass panel on the door - the ladies was outside but is now covered over. Our photographs are now out of date as the walls of the whole pub / rooms are covered in framed photographs. There is no food, no piped music, no fruit machine and certainly no pool table - a TV is switched on for sport. No lager or wine as no space!