“I have never been in any place where pouring tequila in someone’s mouth was considered acceptable”
An Instagram post shown to the licencing committee on Monday(Image: Eagle Bar/Instagram)
‘Every’ police officer on-duty in Manchester city centre was scrambled to an ‘outrageous’ fight at a bar which ‘promoted’ customers ‘pouring tequila down each other’s necks’, it’s been revealed.
Deansgate was rocked by two large brawls on April 28 and May 4, both of which started inside Eagle Bar and resulted in patrons crowding on the thoroughfare, blocking traffic.
Eagle’s licence was suspended after the two incidents, and reviewed by Manchester council on Monday (June 2).
Some 200 people spilled out onto Deansgate in the early hours of May 4.
A licencing hearing was told by PC Stuart Hammersley how Greater Manchester Police required ‘every’ officer on its night-time economy team to disperse the crowds.
A fight a week earlier, which started in the bar and filled Tonman Street, saw armed police arrive because a neighbour 999 ‘they thought one of the members of security shouted the word “gun”’ amid the fracas.
Eagle bar on Deansgate(Image: LDRS)
But ‘a significant police response’ then ‘spoke to all staff present and people in the area, and none said they had heard it other than the one person who mentioned it on the phone call’, PC Hammersley added at the review.
“For all 30 [police officers] to attend is unusual. It’s not a weekly occurrence,” he added.
“All those officers not engaged means they are not across the city centre and other busy areas. It’s not something we can promote week in and week out.”
Eagle’s neighbours also told the hearing the chaos was part of a what they described as a wider trend of antisocial behaviour stemming from the bar. This included incidents of public urination and loud music being played from cars parked outside the venue.
Deansgate ward councillors Joan Davies and Anthony McCaul reported similar worries, with the latter adding he believed Eagle had ignored a condition of its licence to ‘promote is responsible drinking’.
He produced a series of images taken from Eagle’s social media and website pages which appeared to show bottles of liquor being poured into women’s mouths.
The bar owner admitted he ‘can see’ it promoted irresponsible behaviour(Image: Eagle Bar/Instagram)
He said: “One of the [conditions] was to not allow patrons to pour alcohol down each other’s necks. I am concerned this is driving some of the behaviours at the bar.
“I have never been in any place where pouring tequila in someone’s mouth was considered acceptable.”
Eagle’s licensee, Ugochukwu Inyama, said the images taken showed ‘bottle shows’, and no alcohol was poured into customers’ mouths by staff.
But he admitted he ‘can see’ it promoted irresponsible behaviour.
He added: “But it’s not what we represent. When people do this, it’s to put it on Instagram for likes. Now we will not allow it.”
Mr Inyama, a 25-year veteran of Manchester’s hospitality scene, said the fights were ‘regrettable’ and apologised.
“April 28 was very regrettable. GMP have looked at the whole thing and they have made recommendations which we fully agree with,” he told the committee.
“Those two nights we slipped up and we are sorry about it.”
Progress was already being made on implementing police recommendations, such as hiring a new security firm, adding more CCTV, and requiring staff to wear bodyworn video cameras.
The bar had been subjected to 40 complaints in a little over 18 months, council officers said, but after investigations, they found no noise nuisance attributable to Eagle directly. That led Mr Inyama to say he felt ‘ganged up on’.
He went on: “What I have found in this particular location is disturbing. I feel ganged up on.
“On May 26, 2025, we were closed and a resident reported an incident that we had music playing and cars parked all over the place. We had the licensing team visit and look at CCTV and they could see we were closed. Because Deansgate was busy and it was packed and it’s a one way street… the assumption is it’s Eagle. That’s what we are going through.”
“Those two nights we slipped up and we are sorry about it”(Image: LDRS)
Only four crimes were recorded at Eagle in the previous 12 months — including two phone thefts and two assaults, one of which was between two staff members, which PC Hammersley said was ‘below average’ for a bar in town.
Ultimately, councillors decided to allow Eagle to stay open, but restricted its operations. Chair Coun John Flanagan, who called the disorder ‘outrageous’, said: “We have decided to modify the license.
“We accept in full the recommendations from GMP and Licensing Out Of Hours, which include removing the designated premises supervisor and looking at the door company, and changing conditions on cameras
“We have also looked at a variation on the recommendation regarding outside promoters. Only events are permitted and held by the premises themselves. There’s no excuse that it’s an outside promoter now.
“We are insisting the website removes all the issues about unsafe drinking. We will put in detail about that and drinking out of the bottle.
“All bottles of alcohol, other than wine with a meal, cannot be sold. We do not believe it promotes safe drinking. We believe it’s a danger having glass bottles handed out.
“We have noted both incidents happened at a weekend where there is variation to increased hours. We are going to remove the time variation [so closing is] on Friday down to 2am and the same on Saturday, and on Sunday it is at 1am.
“The provision of alcohol and late night refreshment will stop half an hour before. Same for live music, we feel it would be unfair to leave a suspension in place but the conditions will be modified [in the interim so they apply immediately].”