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NEW: Proper Pub For Piccadilly
Bloomsbury Leisure set to open the Piccadilly Tap - a specialist beer pub on the station approach
HUNTING down a decent boozer around Piccadilly Station ain't easy.
According the their website blurb, the Tap's 'have no affiliation with any breweries and are therefore free to focus on the selecting the best beers possible'. Sounds good to us.
There's the 'ole Bulls Head on London Road of course, the Star and Garter only seems to open when there's a full moon, and then... well.. you're pretty shafted 'til you reach Northern Quarter or The Village.
So when we got wind a few weeks back that Bloomsbury Leisure - the group behind fantastic station pubs The Sheffield Tap and The Euston Tap (pictured above) - were eyeing up a site near Piccadilly, we fetched the pewter tankards down from the loft and gave 'em a spit shine.
Now the licence application for the new propa' station pub - to be called The Piccadilly Tap - has been submitted to the council's licensing committee. A decision should be made before 2015.
Gateway House OR the 'Lazy S' building
Should the licence be granted, The Piccadilly Tap will occupy 8 Gateway House on the Piccadilly Station approach. Yep, that 'orrible dingy grey drag populated by E-cigarette and pasty shops on the trudge up to Piccadilly Station.
The Euston Tap's Grade II-listed Portland Stone Lodge it certainly ain't, and with HS2 on the doorstop you do wonder how long Gateway House has before coming down - even if LaSalle did purchase the building this summer for £26m (there's murmurs of a 180-bed StayCity aparthotel for the building).
Euston Tap and obligatory beardy flatcap fella
Still, it's whats on the inside that counts, and if the Piccadilly Tap matches up with Euston's handsome fit-out and beer offering - with twenty on keg, eight more rotating cask ales plus 150 bottled beers - the pub's veneer matters not.
According the their website blurb, the Tap's 'have no affiliation with any breweries and are therefore free to focus on the selecting the best beers possible'.
Sounds good to us.
And with licensed hours running from 10.30am to midnight, we imagine travelling by train is about to become that bit more expensive. Why? We expect to be missing a train or two...
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36 comments so far, continue the conversation, write a comment.
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looking forward to it
I thought it was going to be at Piccadilly Station itself? www.manchesterconfidential.co.uk/…/SLEUTH-Manchester-Tap-Mealworm-Hotdogs-Waxis-Again-Dirty-Russians… or within the station 'complex' www.manchesterconfidential.co.uk/…/IMBC-Black-Cats-And-Looking-On-The-Brightside… I wouldn't say Gateway House is the same, but at least the building is de-grotting shop by shop. Now all this [bizarrely] listed building needs is a complete refurb and facade demolition and to turn it into a glass surrounded hotel/office/apartment block and then ban all of those f***ing smokers that stand outside it just before you enter the station front doors.
Since the Station approach belongs to the railways as well and so private land,they could ban smokers from outside the station building and force them to go totally of the station land if they want to smoke.
If they ban people with the 'I only drink specialist beers' look then I'm in...eg that bloke with a cap and beard. It'll be out of fashion by next year pal.
Bore off
Ahhh I thought it was you in the photo, David.
Great news, I love the Taps in Huddersfield, York, Sheffield and Euston. Waitrose opening on that strip was a good step forward, this should really cement it as somewhere useful to the city.
Agreed, will be interesting to see if they have anybody else lined up, will really change the perception coming out of Piccadilly.
Exactly, coz the first thing you see on the right when you step outside is what looks like and abandoned building entrance, litter and smokers.
Its listed because its beautiful.
It's got some curve in it. Fancy back in the sixties I'm sure. Check the 'beauty' of the rear of the building. You'll soon change your mind then. The building is grey and dull like the predicatble Manchester sky. You can only appreciate the real shape of the building from outside the Malmaison.
It is beautiful like the MacDonald hotel round the corner.
Both buildings are around the bend. Like most Mancon posters.
*it's
It's not listed. But should be.
I much prefer the top photo TBH ickleweb.com/… Looks like the approach was scooped out to match the building's curve.
I love the sweep of the Lazy-S - if it were properly looked after and smartened up it could be a fantastic asset for Manchester.
It's a great building, but needs a few million spent on it.
I disagree with describing it as great. I worked there. It was dated and grotty inside. Neglected in parts and the rear of the building is a complete eyesore. The only redeeming feature were the corridors because they had the quirky bends along them. The building needs a complete overhaul both inside and out. I'm not sure how they will manage that as the retail units are still open for business.
Gateway House is one of the best examples of Modernism/a commercial office building in Manchester. Seems like the self-aggrandising arbiters of taste on ManCon are now forming opinions based on the aesthetics of the rear of buildings. Good luck with that.
'One of the best examples of modernism'? Pahh...who is this man? He is an insult to me! This very dated [and beyond tired and grey] building needs a complete refurb both inside and out. The front is fugly by today's standards of glass, steel and concrete and yes...the rear of the building is a complete f***ing eyesore. A view seen by many travelling to and from the station.
It is not the building that is the problem but the ghastly shops underneath it,with the exception of the model shop. Waitrose opened their second city centre outlet there bizarrely so maybe there is a massive overhaul planned. The footfall for businesses there is huge so we could do with it having a bit more class. It is not a good advertisement for people entering the city.
Why would waitrose open their Birmingham outlet on Piccadilly Approach?
What train do you get Anonymous to see the rear of the building - or are you just a have a rant at the intellectual type and swear to support the weight of your argument.
Oh my! You don't know the area do you Steve? Let me explain. If you work down the NQ, Dale Street and Ducie Street areas the quickest way to get there is by leaving the station next to the Virgin travel desk. Also, if you work at Piccadilly Gate, lots of people walk through or alongside the station to get to work. You can also drive behind Gateway house if you'e picking someone up or dropping them off. I hope that adds weight to my post [not an argument]. Get yourself out more, son.
Gateway House is an awful "Welcome to Manchester" for those who arrive in the City for the first time on the train from Manchester Airport.
+ 1
+2 (in its current guise)
To be fair, a lot of major European cities are horrible around the main train station, Paris, Brussels, Hamburg - off the top of my head. Obviously there's room for improvement around Piccadilly, but Manchester isn't the only city that is like this.
Maybe horrible is the wrong word. I should have said not indicative of the rest of the city.
Euston's depressing.
Be nice if Euston got a total rebuild as part of HS2, including the short towers plonked in front of it.
Sheffield Tap is great so I'm looking forward to having this on my doorstep! With the exception of Waitrose and the bookshop that drag up the Approach is really depressing. Glad we're getting more quality occupants and I hope the long-promised plans to turn the miserable building above into a decent hotel are realised soon!
I love sheffield Tap and hope this is as good , Sheffield Tap is only bettered by Stalybridge for good boozers at train stops-peeps go to Sheffield Tap when they arent even getting a train..
If the powers that be would also open the road again and get rid of the stupid barrier, the approach might get some life back with a few new tenants after the Tap.
More cars and taxis will use Aytoun Street again and the lights at the bottom of the approach will be much busier than it already is. Taxis and cars use the Fairfield Street entrance which is fine although taxis do tend to drop people off immediately after the pedestrian crossing which blocks traffic entering Fairfield Street. But that's taxi drivers for you.