Two weeks after the John Bull fire: Handbag, T-shirts, festivals and a fundraiser topping £15,000
Two weeks since the devastating fire at the John Bull Chophouse, the campaign to help the pub get back on its feet is getting bigger, busier and, in true John Bull fashion, slightly more bonkers.
More than £15,000 has now been raised through the main fundraiser, two major music events are on the way, the first batch of fundraising T-shirts has sold out and businesses and musicians across Wigan are continuing to find their own ways to help.
And then there’s Handbag.
For anyone who didn’t know, and we didn’t until recently, Handbag is the name of the John Bull’s iconic fez-wearing antelope. A familiar face to generations of Bull regulars, he (along with his ‘cigarette’) survived the fire and has since been taken into the care of Grant at Grant’s Bulldog Forge, where he’s had a shampoo and will be staying until the pub is ready for him to come home.
He’s also become an unlikely star of the fundraising effort. Handbag has now been immortalised in miniature, with Grant’s Furniture, Obscurities & Gifts producing models of him complete with his trademark fez and cigarette. Only 30 are being made, priced at £15 each, with profits going to the John Bull. UPDATE, they all sold out in less than two days, but more will be at Grant’s on Sunday 23 August.
And the models aren’t the only John Bull merchandise appearing around town. Grant’s also produced an initial run of 50 John Bull T-shirts in black and blue, priced at £15. They didn’t last long. Forty-five were sold on the first day and the remaining five have since gone too, meaning the entire first batch has sold out, but more are on the way.
Another T-shirt has also been launched through the Save The Chop House campaign, featuring a design inspired by Handbag. These cost £20, with the money paying for their production and everything left over going towards the John Bull fund.
All of that comes as the main Save the John Bull Chop House GoFundMe continues to grow.
Wigan singer-songwriter Joe Astley originally set it up with a target of just £800. It has now reached £15,358 from 631 donations, with the target increased several times and currently standing at £18,000. But the GoFundMe is now only one part of what has become a much wider effort across Wigan.
Music, such a huge part of the John Bull itself, is playing a pretty big part in that.
Bullstock 2026 will take over Believe Square on Sunday, September 6, for an eight-hour fundraiser dedicated to supporting the staff and future of the pub. Organised by Wigan Council, the event runs from 2pm until 10pm, with tickets priced at £15 and live music across two stages. Marauder, Fakesnake, Band of Gypsies, Shell City, 11th Hour, Chalice and Recoil Punk are among those announced for the main stage, with more acts still to come. The acoustic stage will feature Joe, Calvin Snape, Adam McCan and Sarah Hardman, among others. There are plenty of personal connections to the Bull among those taking part too.
Whitesnake tribute band Fakesnake played at the pub only last month and said they were excited to be able to help. Their regular drummer can’t make the event, so a special guest is stepping in, Steve, who previously played regularly at the Bull with Medusa.
And that’s not the only big music fundraiser coming up.
The John Bull Jukebox Weekender will take over The Monaco in Hindley for three days from September 18 to 20, after John Norcott offered the venue for the entire weekend. All ticket proceeds will go towards the John Bull.
Other pubs have been finding their own ways to raise money too. The Holts Arms (The Foot) raised £528 in a single day after putting a barrel of beer on for the John Bull fundraiser, and sold the lot. At The Pickled Parrot in Wigan, it was the pub’s famous shot bell doing the fundraising. Every time the bell was rung, the pub donated £10 to the appeal, while customers made donations of their own. By the end of it, the bell and donations had raised £310 for the John Bull. The Pickled Parrot described it as proof that “a little bit of Parrot chaos can do a whole lot of good”.
Businesses have also offered practical help, with Grant’s Bulldog Forge, Mayor Roofing and others stepping forward with offers of their time, skills and support when they’re needed.
That gives you £838 raised by those two pubs alone, and more importantly shows that the support isn’t just people clicking on a GoFundMe, other pubs are actually coming up with their own ways to get involved.
Meanwhile, thoughts at the Bull itself are already beginning to turn towards what happens when the doors eventually reopen. And one suggestion in particular has brought back a lot of memories, the possible return of the old pool table.
The John Bull asked its followers whether it might be time to lose the craft beer area and bring back the pool table, and the responses quickly became a trip through decades of Bull history, with memories of wedding receptions, dancing on the table and, in one case, falling asleep underneath it.
And while not everyone wants to see the craft beer go, the idea of bringing back the pool table certainly seems to have plenty of support.
Perhaps the comment which best sums up what people want from the John Bull came from Mike Norris.
He said: “I honestly don’t care as long as I can go to the bar order a pint and put a song on the juke box which will play 3 hours later.”
Anyone familiar with the John Bull’s famous jukebox will know exactly what he means. For a pub which has been run by the same family for almost 50 years, first by Harold and Margaret and now by their daughter Victoria alongside Pete, those memories are a huge part of what makes the place what it is.
And perhaps that’s why, two weeks later, people are still raising money, buying shirts, organising gigs, offering their skills and making tiny replicas of an antelope in a fez.
The John Bull is still closed, but increasingly the conversation isn’t just about what was lost. It’s about what comes back.
The pool table, perhaps. Definitely the jukebox.
And, when his temporary holiday at Grant’s is over, Handbag.
The reason for all of this came in the early hours of Tuesday, August 4, when fire broke out at the historic Coopers Row pub at around 4am. Thankfully, nobody was injured, but the John Bull suffered extensive damage. In the aftermath of the fire, Thwaites, which owns the pub, made its intentions clear.
A spokesperson said: “Whilst it’s very early days, The John Bull Chop House is a much-loved pub in the local community and it’s very much our intention to restore the pub back to its former glory.”
Two weeks later, there certainly seems to be an entire town ready to help them do it.
Long live the John Bull.
