Fountain Street, The Shakespeare

Introduction

The photograph on this page of Fountain Street, The Shakespeare by David Dixon as part of the Geograph project.

The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.

There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk

Fountain Street, The Shakespeare

Image: © David Dixon Taken: 7 Feb 2013

This Tudor-styled public house is on Fountain Street, just off Market Street. The area, which used to house an oatmeal market, has been a prominent venue for eating and drinking over the centuries and there has been a tavern on this site since 1771, but it is believed that the present building started its life in 1656 as "The Shambles" public house in Chester. It was dismantled, transported to Manchester and re-erected here in 1928. It is suggested that the Shakespeare is haunted by the ghost of a girl who died there over 100 years ago, There are two versions of the story. One is that the girl was responsible for lighting the candles in the inn and accidentally set fire to herself; the other version says that the chef attacked and raped her and that he was hanged from a beam in the pub. The latter version also suggests that his ghost also haunts the pub.

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