old Manchester pub at the centre of a notorious unsolved murder which will soon be no more

A 200-year-old pub at the centre of a notorious unsolved murder is collapsing. The Bank of England in Ancoats , which has stood empty since around 2012, is set to be demolished due to safety fears. Once owned by the late Jimmy 'The Weed' Donnelly , a member of Manchester's notorious Quality Street Gang, in 2016 the pub became the focus of a high-profile murder investigation as police searched for the body of missing Martin Joyce . Mr Joyce, then 29, of Gorton , was last seen at the Pollard Street pub in September 1999. Seventeen years later, police dug up the cellar of the Bank of England after being tipped off that Mr Joyce's body was buried there. Click here to get the biggest stories straight to your inbox in our Daily Newsletter It came after GMP received 'credible' information he had been killed during a fight. But, the Manchester Evening News revealed, the force had been informed three years earlier about the possibility that Mr Joyce's body was in the pub - and not acted. Nothing was found during the two week police excavation at the property. The dad-of-one's disappearance remains unsolved and the case is with GMP's cold case unit. After the police dig in 2016, a fresh police appeal with the family was made in 2017, and another in 2018 when in an appeal led by Det Chief Insp Stuart Wilkinson, a reward of £20,000 was offered. In 2018, Mr Wilkinson, told the M.E.N how police had made exhaustive 'proof of life' inquiries, including checks with health authorities, HMRC, passport control, even retail loyalty cards, without discovering anything to indicate Mr Joyce was still alive. They also chased down several possible sightings - as far away as Scotland - that turned out to be false. In 2018 a suspect was interviewed under caution about Mr Joyce's' disappearance, although that ultimately did not provide police with any further lines of inquiry. Speaking to the M.E.N. in 2016, Mr Joyce's sister Helen McDonagh recalled him visiting her in Wythenshawe a week before he disappeared. “I gave him a drink in a steel cup and a roll-up cigarette, and he made a comment saying he was better off in Strangeways," she said. "We were all having a laugh and I remember it as a great time. He was fine. He had no intention of disappearing." Speaking in 2016 Jimmy Donnelly, who was licensee of the Bank of England pub when Mr Joyce's disappeared, said there were 'violent' but short-lived problems with the traveller community around that time. "When Martin Joyce came in he always seemed to be on his own," said Mr Donnelly, who died in August last year aged 84. "I do not recall seeing him with any other people. “He was one of many members of the travelling community that came into the pub and I knew them very well. In 1999 there was lots of trouble at the pub involving the travelling community but it was all sorted out. "There were also massive problems within the travelling community at that time too. I just want to clear the air before anything is said. It has nothing to do with me." Standing on the corner of Carruthers and Pollard Street, when it opened in 1830 the Bank of England was one of Ancoats' first beer houses. Over the decades was used by mill workers and after Manchester City moved to the Etihad football fans on their way to the match. Today the pub is a shadow of its former self. Boarded up and covered in graffiti with trees growing from the masonry, concerns about the safety of the building were reported to the council when parts of it began collapsing. In a video posted on Facebook local councillor last week local councillor Chris Northwood said the pub's interior structure had 'started collapsing' and questioned whether barriers put in place were 'safe enough' to protect passing pedestrians and motorists. She added: "It's a real shame to see these old buildings in Ancoats, part of its history, fall into wrack and ruin and now the whole building is going to be demolished. There is a developer who owns this land, they have planning permission to build some flats here. "In the meantime I've been asked if these plastic barriers are really safe enough if this building's at risk of collapsing." In 2022 planning permission was sought to demolish the pub and a number of surrounding industrial units to make way for 193 new flats in a pair of eight and four storey blocks. The application is still under consideration. A Manchester council spokesperson said: "Manchester council's building control team responded to reports in May that the former public house property presented a threat to public safety due to falling debris. The site owner has cordoned off the adjacent footpath to limit risk to the public. "Building control officers have since met with owners to undertake a structural report and a section 78 order was issued requiring them to demolish the remaining structure in line with the council's responsibility for public safety." GMP and the developers Kamani Property have been approached for comment.