Pubs of Manchester

All pubs within the city centre and beyond.
A history of Manchester's hundreds of lost pubs.

Wednesday, 3 February 2010

Ring O'Bells, Victoria Street

Ring O'Bells, Victoria Street. (c) northmanchester.net [1].

Where Victoria Street passes the Cathedral nowadays used to be just a footpath.  Between the path and the River Irwell on the left was the Ring O'Bells, a popular venue for wedding parties heading out of the Cathedral - it's mentioned in The Manchester Man as being filled to repletion with wedding guests [2].

Apparently there was a long room upstairs and from the window you could look down onto the boats on the river.  This room was described as "old, worm-eaten and dilapidated" with "step-dancing in perfection, and the beat of a Lancashire clog seems an excellent accompaniment to the violins".

The Ring O'Bells was shut in 1833 as the place had been "most infrequently conducted for a long time" [2].  This drawing shows the Ring O'Bells Tavern at the bottom of Hanging Ditch on the corner of Half Street.

2. The Manchester Man, G. Linneaus Banks (1896).

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