The Old Wellington

4 Cathedral Gates, Manchester M3 1SW

Grade B · Building datedTrading · checked Sept 2026

The Old Wellington claims 1552. No earlier record has been found.

Claimed: 1552
First record: none found
Building: c.1552

The building. 1552 timber-framed; dismantled and moved c. 100 m in the late 1990s redevelopment.

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How old is it, really?

How to read this ribbon

Hatched: 474 years claimed with no document found yet. Diamond: the standing building, dated from its fabric to about 1552.

The claim

Nicholson's calls it Manchester's oldest building of its type: a black-and-white timber-framed house built in 1552, which now pours cask ale beside the cathedral in Shambles Square. It was a draper's shop and family home, including to the shorthand pioneer John Byrom, long before it was a pub. During late-1990s redevelopment it was dismantled and rebuilt about 100 metres away.

What the records show

The timber-framed building is dated 1552 and was a draper's shop from 1554, per operator Nicholson's. It was a house and shop for centuries; the date it first became licensed was not verified here. It has been relocated, so the fabric is old but not on its original site.

Dated evidence for The Old Wellington, earliest first
Year	What	Source
1552	Claimed founding	The pub
c.1552	Present building	Building fabric

What to look for inside

Built 1552; Nicholson's calls it Manchester's oldest of its kind
Home of the Byrom family; John Byrom devised an early shorthand
Moved about 100 metres from its original Market Street position

Visiting

The Old Wellington is in Manchester, England, at 4 Cathedral Gates, Manchester M3 1SW. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.

nicholsonspubs.co.uk Directions in your maps app

Sources

The Old Wellington in 1977, standing on a brick podium among the concrete of a 1970s shopping precinct — Then and now
Photographed about 1977, and today. In 1977 the inn stood on a raised podium in the Shambles; it was moved to its present site in 1999.
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Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026

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How to use it, and how to change what it says — if you have a document we have not seen, we would like to read it.

Above: the record · Below: what readers rememberThe record ends here

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The snug

What people remember about the Old Wellington

Nobody has written about this pub yet. These are readers’ own recollections, not our records — we check documents, not memories, and a memory never moves a date or a grade.

Were you a regular here?

We are after the things a record cannot hold: the landlord’s name, what was behind the bar, the room that is not there any more, the year the fire was moved. One paragraph is plenty.

The snug opens shortly. Until it does, send it to hello@oldpubs.com and we will put it on this page with your name on it.