The Circus Tavern on Portland Street is one of the best loved pubs in Manchester. It also holds the claim of being the smallest pub in Europe, with patrons sitting cheek-by-jowl inside the tiny, but perfectly formed two-room hostelry.
But its owner Barry Hayes has said that he’s still locked in a row over rent with the pub’s landlords, Star Pubs & Bars, owned by brewing giant Heineken, more than a year after they told him he owes over £90,000, despite being closed and unable to operate during lockdown.
Star Pubs, which Barry calls ‘horrible people, absolute parasites’, are pursuing him for rent in a ‘David and Goliath’ battle that is heading for arbitration, he says. “They want full rent off me for a period of time when I wasn’t open for 14 months, which I think is absolutely diabolical. But they just don’t care about you,” he told the Manchester Evening News.
