Wigan borough bar’s beer garden destroyed by fire in suspected arson… but they will STAY OPEN

Fire crews were called to The Cabinet on Church Street, Atherton, in the early hours of Wednesday September 6 to a what is believed to be an arson attack.

The outside bar and beer garden, which had recently been renovated, have been ravaged by fire but inside the premises has been left unharmed.

“The bar itself will still be open as usual,” Patrick McLoughlin, one of the owners said. “Obviously this weekend was going to be great with the sun for the first time in a while but now we won’t have the beer garden – which means we will lose out financially.

“One of the neighbours phoned me at about 3am to tell me about the fire. Everything was just ablaze when I got here.

“It was a shock to see and I didn’t really know what had happened. I was just hoping it hadn’t spread to the main building or to the neighbouring houses.”

Mr McLoughlin described CCTV footage showing a man "messing about” behind the bar in a skip in the early hours before “deliberately starting a fire”.

“After going through Covid and then a cost of living crisis, this is like taking a backwards step,” he continued. “It is just one thing after another.”

The owner of the bar-restaurant, known for its Saturday bottomless brunches, is still determined to carry on though, saying it is “business as usual”. The bar which offers a wide range of food, drink and live music will still remain open, but the outside section will be closed until further notice.

Currently staff are cleaning up the devastation left behind by the fire and investigations are ongoing from police.

A spokesperson from Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) said: “Just after 2.45am on Wednesday September 6, three fire engines from Atherton, Hindley, and Leigh attended an incident on Tellers Close, Atherton. The fire involved a skip, fencing, and the roof of an exterior beer garden.

Two firefighters wearing breathing apparatus used two hose reels and other specialist equipment to extinguish the fire. Crews were in attendance for approximately two hours fifty minutes.”