Campaign for Real Pubs: The Peveril of the Peak

The Peveril of the Peak, Manchester M1 5JQ

An early Victorian pub with an impressive tiled exterior, situated in the angle of two streets and now overshadowed by more modern office buildings. The name comes from a stage coach rather than directly from the Walter Scott novel. The landlady is the longest serving in Manchester.

It has a largely unchanged interior meriting a full entry on CAMRA’s National Inventory. There are three rooms around the central bar, including a public bar with an antique table football game, a comfortable lounge (originally smoke room) and a further rear room with a pool table. The cask beer range is sensibly limited to four, including on recent visits Taylor’s Landlord, Millstone Tiger Rut and a couple of guests.

WHAT ARE REAL PUBS?

Real pubs are pubs whose primary function is still the original core purpose of pubs – for people to meet and socialise over a few drinks.

They may serve food, and very good food at that, but they don’t allow it to dominate to the exclusion of all else. They’ll probably have a strong core of regular customers, but still make casual drinkers welcome. They may well serve a good drop of real ale, but won’t be full of beer bores droning on about hop varieties and IBUs.

In many parts of the country they’re getting very hard to find. In recent years, the smoking ban, beer duty hikes, the demonisation of “one-drink driving” and the general anti-alcohol climate have all had their effect, but such pubs do still survive if you know where to look and deserve to be celebrated.

Although in many ways they are a laudable organisation, this blog is not connected with and does not in any way represent the Campaign for Real Ale.

The inclusion of a pub does not necessarily reflect a recent visit by myself, although often it does.

Campaign for Real Pubs

The Peveril of the Peak

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