A grand Grand Final day out in Manchester – drinking in the heritage and honouring my East Yorkshire roots.

 A grand Grand Final day out in Manchester – drinking in the heritage and honouring my East Yorkshire roots.

Always good place to start a day in Manchester and handily only a 10-minute walk from Piccadilly. O Sheas never fails with a great pint of Guinness and a full fat Irish breakfast (it’s also handily a very short walk from both the Peveril of the Peak and the Britons Protection, two of Manchester’s drinking gems). We had intended to call in the Pev as we headed back into the centre and duly arrived at 12.05 as their website said a 12 o’clock start on Saturdays, but unfortunately found locked doors and little sign of lie.

Theres nothing particularly special about O’ Sheas – it’s quite a large bar with a small stage at the rear – there are some nice oval open booths in the front windows, you can’t miss the Oirshness – wall to wall Guinness adverts and Gaelic titled toilets, its normally git a mix of folk in there though it does seem to attract the ‘real’ Irish expats, perhaps more than Mancs other Irish pub of renown, Mulligans – whenever I’ve visited it has been a lot less manic than Mulligans and I would say the better pint despite all the accolades that Mulligan’s gets.

Apparently according the TripAdvisor it's one of the only bars in Manchester where you can see Liverpool FC playing on their screens. The pub’s menus give a short history of the pub stating that  O’Shea’s first opened in 1994, with then Republic of Ireland football manager Jack Charlton pouring the first pint of Guinness.

Fuelled for the day 

The menu goes on to state that since its opening, an estimated two million pints of Guinness have been served at the venue, which sits in a historic former warehouse building in the middle of what was once Manchester’s ‘Little Ireland’.

Missed opportunity - the Pev all locked up at 12 

Having found little life in the Pev, we headed back across town to and on to what has become one of my Manchester rituals, a beer in the Arndale micro bar. I am always amazed that so few people, even beer nerds, don't know about this great little bar. There's always a warm welcome and a good range of beers. I’ll admit that I always get lost trying to remember, once in the Arndale, how to get to the market bit, which is basically in the north east corner of the centre near to the Shudehill bus station. 

The cream is back in Manchester - The Arndale Market micro

The bar is tucked next to the food quarter of the market, you are  usually able to get a seat, indeed the seating areas seem to be have expanded since I was last here. I had hoped of finding cask Boddingtons on my visit and there on the bar of the Arndale was the ‘cream of Manchester’ now brewed under license by Salford’s J W Lees.

The newish Victoria Tap (opened in October 2023) but sitting in a much older shell, though Victoria’s new Eden Project like bubbly new roof does slightly warp its former Victorean splendour. Apparently this was previously an MnS Express store – though I’m sure I spotted an original Gentleman’s toilet sign on the outside.

A sister pub to the Piccadilly Tap and the fair better of the two drinking venues in the refurbished station – more on the Beer Hall below – it comprises a long thin bar and then outside drinking area where you are literally brushed by the trams whisking in and out of the new Metro link in the station.

It's opened with a promise of 7 cask lines to showcase local independent breweries and on my visit its was fairly true to its vision, though my choice of independent beers from Bakewell and Leeds perhaps stretched the ‘local’ bit a little.

This station vibe is strong with an information screen giving trading information and lots of train related photos around the bar which apparently is made out of old railway track many of the Saturday afternoon clientele we're getting stuck in to the Bitburger pilsner which apparently the bar has a bit of a reputation for but that was a good range of both cask and keg beers and a great place of sample in halves and thirds it being grand final day it was pretty full of rugby fans and also folk coming and going to their trains it's also a good place for a drink before attending gigs at the very nearby me an arena or whatever its current places

We managed to get seats at the far end of the bar and enjoy the unenjoyable here from Kirkstall and from Thornbridge this will definitely be a stop in future on word strongly recommend calling in if you are in this part of Manchester. For balance, we decided to have a quick look at the other bar in Victoria station which is the Beer House on the opposite the concourse and clearly identified by its rather impressive dome.

Enroute to Victoria's Beer House - look for the dome 

The Beer House also has a former life as it was previously the pumpkin café and opened as a bar in June 2015. It's in the grade 2 listed station buildings and stands out with an art nouveau style it's quite a large Spacey hall inside with a good a great range of seating there looked to be some nice Spence sheets by a wind by the windows why is it boss of 2 cask ales available I didn't know that the camera guide suggest this is usually one on our visit unfortunately there were no cash scales available so we decided to leave the station and try another new bar the Saddlers cat which is only a couple of minutes’ walk away in the middle of the Co-op quarter this is a mix of modern and old red brick headquarters four different arms of the cooperative movement

The Saddlers Cat is owned on run by nearby Cloudwater brewery but does offer a range of other independent breweries beers and on our visit only one of the three was a cloud water this area is known as Noma which apparently stands for north of Manchester and there's an award-winning regeneration area of office residential an entertainment space the bard's look out over a rather nice square and on a sunny afternoon how's on our visit sitting outside on their extensive beer garden was a very nice experience with the impressive Co-op Bank glass tower reaching out above us and a range of older and rather more attractive red bricked buildings completing the square.

Previously called the pilcrow the bar was developed in true collaborative style initially it was purpose built by the Co-op group Pub when an older pub had to be demolished to make room for the new headquarters the Noma website report that this was a bar built by the people of Manchester through a series of workshops run by master Craftsman locals designed and made the tiles bar pumps tables and even hanging baskets only certainly did a good job it was ticking over well on a Saturday afternoon with a mix of rugby fans locals on people obviously on a crawl around the area a little more pricey Than some of the more traditional pubs around that was a good choice of free cask beers and something like 10 keg offers.

Handily the tram station at Victoria links to Old Trafford (though the actual Old Trafford tram stop is by the Cricket ground and requires a bit of a yomp to get the Football stadium – having visited few times previously was aware that the area around the ground is  a bit of a beer desert unless you want to drink macro lager in the Premier Inn and pay some exorbitant price to have  beer in the Football hotel – luckily for us the Cricket Ground had been set up as a FanZone and had opened a couple of their outdoor bars – serving a rather surprising blast from the past – John Smiths Smooth at a fiver a pint – still it was all very orderly and we did comment that it was so great the supporters of both Grand Final teams and fans ins shirts of all colours (and sizes) were drinking and getting on particularly well -it is a rather strange social conundrum that followers of the oval ball forms of rugby can enjoy and drink copious amounts of alcohol – including in their sesta and its all fine – but often the same folk can’t watch a round ball game with the same freedoms – I do bet that stadiums like Old Trafford love their rugby days and the amount they can make on beer sales.

Fanzone at the home of Lancashire Cricket 

It was a similar experience in the stadium – whilst there was an allocation of ends at Old Trafford – Hull to the Eats and Wigan to the west where we were in the North stand fans of both teams sat, watched and drank side by side. A fairly basic offer in the stadium itself draft John Smiths, Heineken, Madri and Bulmers and bottles of Carlsberg and fairly reasonable at around £6 a pint.

Beer with a view 

My East Yorkshire roots and time in St Helens meant that we were shouting for Hull KR, who on a bit of high ride this year were comfortable winners – having a text to say our train had been cancelled we did dip out just before ethe final whistle to tram our way back to Piccadilly and home south.  

So all in all a grand day out – the sun shone all day, a couple of new place ticked off and a couple of nice pints in the old faithful’s – defiantly be worth doing another sorties around Victoria - |I note there are a couple of other newish taps and micros that have popped up.