Manchester Pub Sign – The Circus Tavern

THE CIRCUS TAVERN *****

Circus Tavern, 86 Portland Street, Manchester, M1 4GX

The city’s smallest pub, with a sign promising that it is somehow bigger within than without (TARDIS-like) – the sign suggests that there is a three ring circus within, as the pub is often lively and crowded with lots of photographic art on its inner walls.

Early drinkers were from the Chatham Street Circus, which was set up nearby in the late 1790’s by a man from London, called Mr. Handy.

Despite the happiness and entertainment reflected in the sign, the circus troupe met a tragic and terrible end. They only visited the Manchester theatre by the pub three times, 1795, 1796, and 1797. They played other towns too, and they were sailing to perform in Dublin when their ship, the Viceroy, sank in a storm, killing everyone on board, not to mention all the Circus elephants, tigers and horses.

An attempt to revive the circus itself took place in the years 1802 to 1810, but it failed to set the public imaginations alight.

The pub seats about 40 people at capacity.

It was once a butcher’s shop.

Source – L. D. Bradshaw – ORIGINS OF STREET NAMES IN THE CITY CENTRE OF MANCHESTER 1985 Neil Richardson.

Arthur Chappell