Shambles Square

Shambles Square stands in Manchester city centre, close to the cathedral. It is a small open space created in 1999 when two historic pubs were moved seventy metres from their original site. The square is framed by three buildings: The Old Wellington Inn, Sinclair’s Oyster Bar and The Mitre Hotel. The Mitre was once the Old Church Tavern, built in 1815 on the corner where Prince Charles Edward Stuart reviewed his troops in 1745. The square’s name recalls the medieval meat market that once filled the street called the Shambles. The square is worth the journey because it preserves Manchester’s oldest pub and one of its few surviving Tudor buildings. The Old Wellington Inn dates from 1552 and was home to the Byrom family, linen merchants who added a third floor in the 17th century. John Byrom, the poet, was born there in 1692. Sinclair’s Oyster Bar began as part of the same complex and took its present name in 1845 when oysters were added to the menu. Both pubs survived the 1996 IRA bomb and the Manchester Blitz of 1940. Visitors find a quiet square lined with stone buildings and a cobbled surface. The Old Wellington Inn still shows its timber-framed front, while Sinclair’s Oyster Bar serves seafood beside a modern stone extension. The Mitre Hotel closes the third side of the square, its name recalling the mitre-shaped roof of the original tavern. The square offers a view of Manchester Cathedral across the street and a sense of the city’s layered past.