One of Manchester’s oldest pubs has closed its doors ‘for the foreseeable future’, but will re-open once it’s undergone a massive refurbishment. Rumours that The City pub on Oldham Street was under threat of closure began to circulate last weekend.
But after a meeting with licensing officers yesterday, it’s been confirmed that The City won’t be closing down, but will instead need the issues affecting the building rectifying before it can reopen. However, the extent of the work means that it could remain closed for several months.
Workmen at the pub have begun tearing out the toilets, as well as dealing with issues surrounding leaking from the building’s roof, and other problems in the basement. Originally two buildings, one on Oldham Street and one on Tib Street, it was stitched together many years ago.
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Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, landlord Phil Entwistle said: “I had a good meeting with the licensing officer, and they’re being very sympathetic and understanding with us, but they have said that there are several improvements that have to be made, some obvious, some not so obvious.
“We are going to reopen. There’s nothing structurally wrong with the building, the plan is to improve and update. Toilets are a priority and the outside will need a good tidy up. Initially, the building team that’s gone in thought it could take a month, but having now dug into it, it’s going to take longer than that.
“We don’t quite know the extent of what needs doing until we start ripping things out. We need gutters, roof, windows, rejigging of the interior, and such tradesmen can pick and choose at the moment, and there aren’t enough good tradesmen going around for all the work that needs doing.”
Phil, a former marine, runs the pub under his company Special Ale Services, and owns the building, which dates back to around 1660, outright. But he says that the pub’s position makes getting work done difficult.
“I don’t exactly appeal to [tradesmen] once I tell them I’m on Oldham Street or Tib Street,” he goes on. “If they’ve experienced it, or heard of the difficulties of working on Oldham Street or Tib Street, or anywhere in the epicentre of Manchester, there are the parking restrictions, the access restrictions, restrictions on the building work by the city council.
“There are licenses needed for scaffolding and skips, and they’re just obstacles that some building teams don’t need, and they’ve got plenty of work elsewhere.”
As for when The City, a free house which boasted some of the cheapest pints in the city centre, might reopen, Phil added: “Realistically, I’d like to be open around November to get everything established for Christmas, but I’m not placing any timeframe on it yet. I’m just keen to make sure it’s done right.
“We’ll open as and when we’re ready. We have the same problems financially that are facing others. I have to do it on a certain budget because the banks are 100% against lending to this sector. I can’t even begin to judge what the expense might be. But luckily we open the building outright, and that’s possibly why the long term security of the building is going to be guaranteed, because it’s a free house.
“I can’t see how a lot of the tenanted businesses are going to survive. I’m confident that we will reopen, but I’m also acutely aware of what will be facing us when we do.”
As Special Ale Services, Phil has owned The City for 14 years, and owns six other pubs including The Egerton Arms in Salford, The Red Lion in Chorley and The Spinners Arms in Adlington.
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