Pub Sign Photo Study The Mitre Manchester City Centre

Tweet

Its proximity to Manchester Cathedral gives The Mitre an obvious name origin. It started life as The Old Church Tavern, before becoming a hotel offering accommodation. It stands on a spot that was notoriously Jacobite, and it is claimed that Bonnie Prince Charles Edward Stuart mustered troops in that location in 1745 though the pub itself only opened in 1815. One landlord, John Whitehead, licensed in 1817, had worked as a circus acrobat and often performed his act to entertain customers in the bar. The pub escaped with minor damage during the Blitz though the Cathedral was severely damaged by the Luftwaffe raids. The pub also narrowly escaped destruction in the IRA attack of 1996 that trashed many of the surrounding bars and shops. The pub’s Gothic interior, dark lighting, and carpet free floorboards has made it appealing to the city’s Goths, and a vampire society which I was a member of myself, met here in the early 2,000’s. This original sign, since replaced, depicts a nicely ornate carved steel bishop’s mitre decorated in crosses. Arthur Chappell