A fine selection of boozers there Thom !! .. although I’m not so sure about knott, and I’ve no idea where the Sevnoaks is.
A couple of others to add are the Crown and Kettle near the express building (proper beer), and the Crescent in Salford - if it’s still open.
Thanks, I must have been a journalist in a former life...
The Crown and Kettle is actually slap bang next door to my offices, and I regularly get the waft of chip fat and **** from their beer garden. Decent beers and that amazing ceiling draws me in but the general fit out is so crass and insensitive it makes me weep.
They do have a jelly bean machine though.
Have you all heard the apochryful story based around the fact that the pub has a corner site and no less than three entrances (two on Great Ancoats Street and one on Oldham Road)?
The landlord chucks out a drunk who's causing a scene. The guy staggers a little further down the road and comes in through the next door. Again the landlord grabs him and propels him back through the door. The drunk sways on around the corner and comes in the third door. Almost immediately the landlord spins him around and sends him on his way, and as he's forcibly ejected the drunk cries out "How many fucking pubs do you run around here?!".
Made me laugh anyway...
Knott Bar used to be run by the Marble Arch boys and is under the arch at the bottom of Deansgate, adjacent to the old chapel which is becoming the design studios, and facing Atlas bar. Great set of beers, decent filling food and a nice cosmopolitan bar/pub feel. You get a great mixed set of punters - all ages, races, demographics etc, which I really do enjoy as Manchester's scene is a bit full of homogenous one-trick venues.
The Sevenoaks (can't remember if "oaks" has an "e" or not?) is a old school boozer, on the edge of Chinatown facing the side of the Art Gallery, which is thoroughly mediocre and unrefined in every way (cling-film wrapped home made butties behind the bar are a highlight, and the odd decent bitter like Black Sheep) but sometimes I yearn for something which actually has nothing more to recommend it than being a pub.
More importantly it has a massive screen in a dedicated upstairs room (with it's own separate bar) which shows all the big football games and, for some reason, seems to slip under the radar of most. You can term up pre-kick-off and grab yourself a decent seat for most of the big England/European/Premiership games. And get a pint of Black Sheep and a cling-film wrapped butty, obviously.
Your tip of The Crescent is also a good one, and what's that other place out near the courts past Chapel Street? The Union or something? Been taken over by some Manchester restaurant stalwart and is now doing decent beers and good scran (according to the write-ups).
I love pubs.
Cheers
Thom
