18 July 2011

Sir Walter Scott and Peveril of the Peak, Manchester

The Peveril of the Peak is a Grade II listed building in Great Bridgewater Street, Manchester, which was rebuilt in about 1900: the previous pub was built in 1829. A number of places on the internet state that its name comes from the Manchester to London stagecoach of the same name, although this is at odds with the inn sign.

I'm no costume historian, but this, I'm sure, isn't Sir Walter Scott's Sir Geoffrey Peveril from the 17th century, aka Peveril of the Peak from his 1823 novel of the same name. In fact, the more I look at it, the more it seems easily a few centuries before that. Anyway, this guy wouldn't know a stagecoach from a jetplane, and the building to our right, judging from a reconstruction I've seen, is almost certainly Peveril Castle in Derbyshire. So maybe William Peveril, the original owner, who of course wasn't Scott's Peveril of the Peak, but...

And the tilework is lovely.

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