New future for pub with a grisly past?
A HISTORIC pub with a dark past could reopen under a new name and ownership.
For almost 35 years, the Mother Mac’s pub, on Back Piccadilly in the Northern Quarter, became a Manchester institution, known as a traditional, no-frills pub.
But having closed towards the end of 2022, the building – which has served as a public house since as far back as the 1870s – has remained vacant and up for sale, until now.
An alcohol licence application has been filed with Manchester Council to allow it to be taken over by new management and renamed the Rat & Pigeon.
The building is currently undergoing renovation works that will transform it with a new, modern look. But it also has a dark past. Known as The Wellington before changing names to Mother Mac’s in 1969, it was the scene of a massacre just a few years later in 1976.
Then-landlord Arthur Bradbury killed his wife, her three children and a cleaner before starting a fire that would claim his own life.
The murders are even commemorated with a plaque outside the pub, which reads: “In 1976 the pub manager Arthur Bradbury was given notice to quit, so he revenged himself the coward’s way by killing all around him. His wife Maureen, his six-year-old daughter Alison and his step-sons James and Andrew aged 11 and 13 respectively.
“The cleaner walked in on the carnage so he killed her too and then set the pub on fire to hide the evidence. But justice caught up with him and he ended up killing himself too. Six deaths on 18th June 1976.”
Mother Mac’s also had newspaper cuttings of the incident hung up on the wall.
An advertisement for the sale of the pub venue at the start of 2023 described it as being in a ‘perfect city location’ and ‘traditionally decorated throughout and full of character with a homely and pleasant atmosphere.’
The alcohol licence application for the Rat & Pigeon has been filed by M1 1HP Ltd, which lists Alex Daw, who is behind Ancoats pub the Crown & Kettle and arts venue Sidney & Matilda in Sheffield, as company director.
If approved, the three-floor pub would be open from 10am until midnight or 1am through the week, and until 3am on Thursday to Saturday.