The Peveril of the Peak is one of the most photographed pubs in Manchester, and for once the reality lives up to the image. The exterior is covered in green and white glazed tiles – a style known as Minton tiling – that make it impossible to walk past without noticing. Inside it’s a Victorian pub that hasn’t been significantly altered in decades: small rooms, low ceilings, wooden fittings, no music loud enough to make conversation impossible. Grade II listed and long may it stay that way.
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The beer is straightforward – rotating cask ales, the usual lagers on draught, nothing experimental. That’s not what you go for. You go because it’s a proper Manchester pub with a proper Manchester atmosphere, and because the alternative – a chain bar with exposed lightbulbs and a cocktail list – is everywhere. It draws a mixed crowd of after-work drinkers, regulars, tourists who’ve done their research, and people who’ve ducked in out of the rain and decided to stay. On Great Bridgewater Street near the Britons Protection, making it one of the better pub crawl streets in the city.
