Shambles Square, Pedestrian square in Manchester, United Kingdom
Shambles Square is a small pedestrian square in central Manchester, located next to Manchester Cathedral. It is made up of two old timber-framed buildings, the Old Wellington Inn and Sinclair's Oyster Bar, surrounded by stone extensions that together form a compact courtyard open to foot traffic.
The area takes its name from a medieval meat market called the Shambles, where butchers sold meat along a narrow street close to the city's marketplace. After the 1996 IRA bombing damaged the buildings, they were taken apart piece by piece and reassembled a few hundred meters north at their current location in 1999.
The Old Wellington Inn and Sinclair's Oyster Bar draw people looking to have a drink or a meal in an old setting, and on sunny days the outdoor tables fill up quickly. From time to time, craft markets take place in the square, giving it a social rhythm that goes beyond the pub visits.
The square is an easy walk from Manchester Victoria station and sits entirely within a pedestrian area, so there is no traffic to deal with. It can be visited at any time of day, though the area tends to be busiest during the day when the pubs and surrounding streets are in full use.
The Old Wellington Inn, which dates to the mid-1500s, was not originally a pub but a shop selling cloth and later optical goods, and it is also known as the birthplace of the poet John Byrom, who invented an early form of shorthand writing. Sinclair's Oyster Bar, built in the 1700s, was one of the first oyster bars in England, and when the buildings were reassembled in 1999 they were rotated from their original orientation to better fit the new layout of the square.
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