Looking Down Shambles Square...

The Old Wellington Inn and Sinclair's Oyster Bar in Shambles Square stand together to make this a popular drinking spot in Manchester's city centre. All is not what it seems here and the story behind the two buildings is a tale of both a varied and charmed existence.

The Old Wellington Inn is one of Manchester's oldest buildings dating back 1552. The writer John Byrom was born there in 1692. Sinclairs was first built around 1720. The buildings were originally sited in the Shambles (an old word meaning butchers market) on what is now Market Street. Despite extensive damage during a World War II air raid the buildings survived virtually intact. In 1952 both were listed as Grade II.

In the 1970s, due to intense lobbying, the buildings were 'floated' on a concrete raft, raised 4 feet 9 inches and actually moved to a new location to make way for the development of the Arndale Shopping Centre. This remarkable story however doesn't end there, as in 1996 the area that they stood was devastatingly damaged by an IRA bomb. Remarkably the buildings survived due to being surrounded by concrete structures that took the brunt of the blast. In 1998, the buildings were again moved to their current location, some 300 metres north of where they had stood. This time they were dismantled and painstakingly re-built brick-by-brick in the new Shambles Square.