With its bold green tile-clad exterior and stained glass windows, the Peveril of the Peak is one of Manchester’s most beautiful pubs. It’s also a famous institution in its own right.
Run by one of Britain’s oldest and longest-serving landlords for five decades now, the ‘Pev’ is a great survivor just like its landlady Nancy Swanick.
Aged 93, she celebrated 50 years at the helm tin 2021 and has seen all sorts in her time here: from glasses levitating behind the bar to brewery bosses who wanted to turn the ‘Pev’ into a themed pub with plastic palm trees. Both equally horrifying, we’re sure you’ll agree.
Thankfully, the brewery never got their way and today The Pev is now a respectable institution with a mellow atmosphere and friendly clientele.
No-nonsense County Donegal woman Nancy’s done a lot to turn its reputation around – not least talking the brewery out of the tacky refurb and into a proper refurbishment and restoration of the pub’s historic features.
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Suffice to say, it hasn’t always been the charming, friendly little watering hole we know and love today – in fact, it once had quite a rough reputation.
During the Second World War, the pub was frequently used as a brothel by GI’s, and when Nancy and her late husband first took it over in the 70’s she initially said she didn’t want anything to do with it.
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“You’d get lads coming in straight from work and not leaving until they’d spent their wages and had a punch up,” remembers Nancy’s son Maurice. “Mum told dad she wouldn’t do it.”
Reportedly, in its early years, some of the pub’s biggest customers were factory blokes on their lunch who’d “knock back three pints and a pie without blinking” then head straight back to it.
Today, there’s none of that, really. Locals and students drink happily side by side and there’s a whole host of regulars for whom the pub is more than just a drinking hole, it’s become a home from home.
The last man standing in a row of terraces, it’s now shorn of its original surrounding buildings and stands alone on a small triangular island, surrounded by much taller (and newer) office and apartment blocks.
Visit and you’ll notice various keepsakes nodding to Nancy’s long tenure here, like in the smoke room turned snug where a heavy etched mirror hangs commemorating forty years of Nancy’s proprietorship.
Other treasures hidden inside include an antique “table football” machine and the original bell pushes that customers once used for summoning staff and ordering drinks.
Nancy remains the key decision-maker at the pub and has pulled thousands of pints over the years for punters – including for a whole host of famous customers, most recently football legend Eric Cantona.
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But whilst much has been made of her celebrity clientele (and rest assured, there have been a lot of them) for Nancy and her son Maurice (who helps her run the pub today) the non-famous regulars are much more important.
Stories like that of the Manchester taxi driver who waived Nancy’s fare because of all the happy hours he’d spent in her pub, or the nurse who recently administered her COVID jab waxing lyrical on the Pev after spotting Nancy’s address, mean the most.
“You never get tired of hearing that,” adds Maurice.
The historic Manchester pub is also said to be home to another regular – their very own resident ghost. Over the years, many punters have reportedly seen spooky activity in spades: like pint glasses rising into the air and dropping into the wash of their own accord.
As well as doing a spot of cleaning, the spectre is also known for giving the odd guest a jolly good kick in the back when they’ve had enough to drink, just to help the management out, of course.
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It’s a friendly ghost, as long as you’re not annoying the pub’s proprietors, anyway.
The origins of The Pev itself can be traced back to 1830, when it was first registered as a public house.
Regarding its name, there’s a bit of a dispute with some saying it commemorates a horse-drawn stagecoach that departed from the nearby Peacock Coach Office on Market Street when the pub opened in 1830.
Others say it references the 1823 Sir Walter Scott novel of the same name, which references Peveril Castle near Castleton in Derbyshire.
According to Salford University graduate Erik Merriman, who won an award for his research into the matter, there aren’t any obvious geographical links between the pub name and the novel, but it’s clear that the stagecoach was in operation before the pub opened.
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Of course, that’s not to say that the stagecoach wasn’t named after Walter Scott’s novel.
The only detached pub in the whole of the city centre, it used to only open on Saturdays when Manchester United was playing at home but is now open to drinkers every weekend.
Awarded Grade II-listed status in 1988, the pub continues to resist pressure to close its doors for good and become another victim of city centre ‘regeneration’. It’s truly one of the most iconic pubs in town.
Find it at 127 Great Bridgewater St, Manchester M1 5JQ and rest assured, it’s even more beautiful on the inside.
The tiny Lake District village that’s home to FOUR Michelin Stars – one of which is surprisingly affordable
Daisy Jackson
Cartmel has long made a place for itself on the map with its food scene, which spans everything from its world-famous Sticky Toffee Pudding shop, all the way up to its three-Michelin star restaurant L’Enclume, widely considered to be the best restaurant in the UK.
For such a tiny dot on the map, just on the edges of the Lake District, they cram in an awful lot of gastronomy, and boast four Michelin Stars on a single street.
This is the home of some of the best produce – whether that’s a mallard or a marrow – on the planet, and a lot of that reputation is thanks to chef Simon Rogan’s enterprise.
The Cartmel Valley is the home of Our Farm, where produce for his group of restaurants is carefully grown and harvested before being prepared and served to diners. The level of care that is taken at every single step of the process is outstanding.
And while L’Enclume is many people’s first thought when they hear ‘Michelin’, especially here up north, there’s a more modest and accessible little sister restaurant just next door, which acts as an incubator for all those shiny accolades.
Rogan & Co has a Michelin star of its own making, and chefs who have passed through its doors include Tom Barnes, who is now chef patron of Skof, his very own Michelin star restaurant in Manchester city centre.
The village of Cartmel. Credit: The Manc Group
One of the best things about Rogan & Co is that it acts as a gateway introduction for the magic of L’Enclume (which is a big treat for most people at £265 per person for the tasting menu).
You’re still eating the same great produce, and experiencing the same level of service, just in a more laid-back, neighbourhood restaurant setting.
And you don’t have to go the whole hog – there’s a set lunch menu where you can get three courses for just £49.
The restaurants that fall within Simon Rogan’s group are always proudly local, and never shy of shouting out their suppliers.
But this hits its stride in a really special way twice a year, when Rogan & Co celebrates Local Heroes week and crafts special menus to show off local artisans, craftspeople, growers and suppliers.
Inside Rogan & CoThe Local Heroes menuThe cheddar scone snacksCredit: The Manc Group
Dining here during Local Heroes Week means that your menu will highlight where everything is sourced, and I don’t just mean the veggies on your plate. I also mean the plate.
Each menu lists the people who have been integral in its creation – Northern Wine filling your glass, Lake District Farmers supplying the beef, Winter Tarn on the butter.
Rogan & Co also shouts out its chefs and floor staff, even crediting Beth and Kayleigh for ‘the tunes’ (and the music is local – they were playing a playlist inspired by Kendal Calling headliners through the years).
So onto that menu – it begins with a dinky cheddar scone made with cheese from Torpenhow Cheese Company just down the road, sliced in half then sandwiched back together with a pickled allium cream.
It’s like no scone I’ve ever tasted before, and yet the ritual of eating it (pulling apart the two halves, spreading the cream evenly, admiring the little shower of crumbs that falls down) feels so familiar and comforting.
Then comes a tangle of brassicas offset by some tangy preserves made by ‘The Pickle Prince’ (that’s Liam, the head chef at Our Farm).
BrassicasCartmel Valley Game mallardParkerhouse rolls
I always find bread to be one of the highlights of any tasting menu – will it be a tiny sourdough loaf, or a fluffy brioche roll?
Here, it’s a neat row of glossy buns inspired by a Parkerhouse roll, made fresh in the village bakery and glazed in Our Farm honey. They’re springy and sticky to the touch and are quickly demolished via a few pats of butter.
I expected a reduced set lunch menu to be on the simpler side, but the main course still consists of an impressive number of elements.
Romney’s mint cakeDamsons and caramelised rice pudding
There’s the leg of a Cartmel Valley Game mallard, its skin audibly crispy, a tiny copper saucepan of shepherd’s pie on the side, along with a snarl of leeks and a wedge of soft celeriac. I’m absolutely delighted with all of it.
And for pudding, damsons sourced from nearby Witherslack are cooked all the way down to a tangy jam, layered into a caramelised rice pudding and then topped with ice cream and homemade toffee popcorn.
To cap things off, there’s a Romney’s mint cake – imagine if an After Eight and a fudge took a tumble in the sheets and produced a top-class after-dinner treat. That.
Pound for pound, Rogan & Co has to be one of the best-value Michelin experiences in the country. So get in the car immediately and head up to Cartmel.
This year’s Local Heroes Week is taking place between 4 and 8 November, but it’ll be back again twice next year.
Marco Pierre White praises Manchester restaurant serving ‘the best pizza’ he’s EVER had
Danny Jones
Legendary chef Marco Pierre White has given his verdict on where he thinks does THE best pizza not just in the UK but perhaps in the entire world, and it’s right here in Manchester
Rudy’s, Nell’s, Double Zero and now this – we really are spoilt for slices in 0161, aren’t we?
Pierre White, who was not only the first Brit to ever win three Michelin stars but the youngest person to achieve the feat in history, recently visited the restaurant in question and was more than happy to share his bold claims, dubbing it “the very best I’ve ever had in my life”.
That’s saying quite something, not only from one of the most famous chefs in the world, but given his own family heritage. He even saw fit to sign the menu and write the man in the kitchen a thank-you note.
A recent London export, which only just launched in spring 2025, the 63-year-old chef, entrepreneur and TV personality says that Forbici is now his number one, stating simply: “Let the pizzas do the talking.”
Noting that he’s been all over the world and eaten at some of the most highly-rated venues in the world (especially given the fact that he is of Italian heritage on his mother’s side), including some of the most authentic you’ll find in the likes of Naples, Rome, and so on, he still seemed confident in his declaration.
Citing other famous names in the world of cooking, like Nancy Silverton of Pizzeria Mozza fame, as well as fellow TV chef and restaurateur Mario Batali, he says that the creative takes on Neapolitan ‘pies’ that master baker Davide Argentino is currently cooking up are nothing short of “delicious.”
Having first become famous down in the capital for its name, which simply translates as ‘scissors’ – also the chosen utensil given to diners for cutting up their pizzas – it proved a smash hit when it made its way up North, garnering massive opening day queues outside its restaurant on the corner of Cross Street.
Better still, you can now order it to take away, too… Game-changer.
Now, it goes without saying that we’re lucky enough to have many restaurants serving some of the authentic food from various regions all over Italy, not to mention a plethora of incredible pizza spots in the city centre and the wider boroughs.
It’s no exaggeration, therefore, to say that we struggle picking our absolute favourite from week to week at this point.
What we will say is that we bloody love Forbici, too, and are glad to see them getting so much recognition since arriving in the region.
Georgina Pellant -
24th February 2023 
