Manchester

Old Wellington Inn/ Sinclair’s Oyster Bar

4 / 2 Cathedral Gates

It’s impossible to separate these two icons of the Mancunian spirit, joined as they are at the hip. Having survived all that was thrown at them by the Luftwaffe, they were then threatened by the wrecking ball in the late 1970s before inspired engineering intervened to allow both pubs to be raised several feet and various concrete monstrosities to be built around them. Ironically, it was this concrete that saved the pubs from another bomb, this time of the IRA variety in 1996. In the aftermath, the pubs were dismantled and moved some 300 metres to their current position, an upheaval which has only served to enhance their crooked, wonky appearances. The Wellington is a free house dating back to the early 1500s, while Sinclair’s is a couple of hundred years younger. Now a no smoking pub owned by Samuel Smiths, it boasts an excellent downstairs seafood bar, although one lacking in oysters, despite the name. The pubs share a huge outdoor drinking area.

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