A Peterloo Massacre campaign group has hit out over plans to build a soaring skyscraper near the Britons Protection pub, calling the proposals 'a tower too far' for Manchester city centre. They argue the planned 26-storey Apex Tower, on the corner of Albion Street and Great Bridgewater Street, threatens the livelihood of the historic Grade II-listed alehouse and would 'ruin' its beer garden.
The development comes after the Manchester Evening News reported the legendary watering hole faces an uncertain future as the building's owners want to add the pub to its 'managed house portfolio' when the lease expires, potentially limiting its celebrated drinks offering.
The Brits is extremely close to the site of the Peterloo Massacre, and is one of the few remaining city centre buildings surviving from 1819. The pub has consistently helped preserve the memory of the atrocity, said the Peterloo Memorial Campaign, which successfully lobbied for a city centre monument to commemorate the massacre, and folklore suggests its name has connotations with Peterloo. A set of murals inside also mark the massacre.
