Two nights in Manchester, and an excursion into Bradford for three new GBG winners.
It feels a bit like sacrilege not to actually stay in the Eternal City and wobble back to a budget hotel after a Dhansak and gallon of Mango Lassi, but frankly I needed to get Bradford ticked. The suspense was killing me.
You can bank on Bradford to deliver the goods, though the last few years has seen an escalation in new entries, not all of them in crafty North Parade.
The city looked as good as ever, buoyed by the new shopping centre and the Sunbridge tunnels. Even Ivegate shines.
Outside The Queen (top) you find the smokers and mobility scooters; I must pop in sometime.
In contrast, the Old Bank mops up the lunchtime dining market, particularly since Spoons closed the Sir Titus. You could be in Glasgow.
The Bank (was it once a Mansfield house ?) could equally be a Goose or a Smith & Jones or whatever. So what sets it apart from the pack and puts it in the Guide ?
Ah, those.
The Naylors, which I’d long forgotten whether it’s any good, is served with a Northern head even Richard would approve of.
The “Chicken In A Basket” was attracting more interest than the Coach House, astonishingly.
The downstairs is worn-in but a bit “high table” for me, so I pop upstairs to admire the ceiling.
Really impressive, could have been a bank. Is that what we call stucco ?
Impressive, spacious but with plenty of discrete corners, decent ’60s soundtrack (Sam Cooke, Supremes), decent but unexceptional beer (NBSS 2.5/3).
An adequate start, but better awaited.
retiredmartin 
“Hat and tie. Good to see” but when I were a lad I NEVER saw gentlemen wearing hats indoors.
Maybe it’s a Yorkshire tradition.
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It’s Yorkshire, probably has a ferret under there.
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“Gentleman”. “Yorkshireman”. Discuss.
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No city surprised me more than Bradford. What a beauty.
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Chicken in a basket – now there’s a blast from the past 🐓
But isn’t it supposed to be a quarter or half chicken, not chicken strips?
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Craft for ya.
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Inflation…
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That’s regional variations for you.
I remember it as Chicken in THE Basket but up t’north it was Chicken in A Basket.
Wherever, the worst venues had microwaved chicken in a plastic ‘basket’.
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Looks nicer than I thought -hardly been to Bradford even though Mr Tyke played for Bradford Northern (Rugby League -a mainly Northern pastime ) for a short time back in the day.Leeds folk simply do not cross the border ! Love the pic of the old boy in the shirt & tie
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Ooh, married a footballer.
Mr Coldwell will have something to say about Leeds folk not crossing the border at Farsley, but I suspect you’re right Pauline. Bradford has smartened itself up (literally) in last couple of years. You’d be amazed.
I like that pic a lot, and like the fact a pub has such social diversity.
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Yes, and a picture all the better for having that proper doorway in the background.
When I was young I read “If you want to get ahead, get a hat” and that’s what that gentleman has done, but heads are important to Yorkshiremen hence all the Autovacs.
“Such social diversity” indeed reminds me of that partially dressed young lady you recently encountered in Sheffield.
For me in Bradford last May the highlight of the day was the New Beehive Inn, and all the better with me having booked my accommodation there. You might not have had time for that classic pub though.
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Yes, TSM. Many’s the time that I’ve seen a disgusted Yorkshireman return to the bar, with what seems to me to be a properly-pulled, nay, perfectly-pulled pint, and demand that some of the beer is tipped away and replaced with froth. Who’d have thought it?
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The old boy by the high table & stools suggests to me that perhaps these terrible things are popular because if you’re at an age where your knees are wearing out they’re easier to get down from than a low chair/table is to get up from.
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AP,
As one who is plagued by chronic osteoarthritis and was offered a partial knee replacement several months ago I always go for the proper seating to be seen to the right of that gentleman, his left, as high stools are a struggle to climb onto and sofas are a struggle to climb out of.
I understand though that for the youngsters it’s all about what beers are on not what the seating is like.
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If you’re in England and the menu says something is “Southern fried,” do they mean “fried as they do in Brighton?” 😉
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Yes, Mark. Anywhere below the Lynd Cross in Horsham is “South”.
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Pint looks nice. I have been in there, but for reasons covered by the Official Secrets act I have stayed well away from it for a good while. It looks like a Spoon’s in disguise, never mind, keep taking the Ointment.
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No ;
– the area where hatted man is sat is NOT carpeted,
– there are NO mothers and toddlers in there, which is why hatted man is,
– the tables look clean,
– the mobility scooter is OUTside
– they’ve got little Kilner jars in front of the handpumps, and
– they’ve NOT got Doom Bar, Ruddles, Abbot or any other well known beer 85% of ordinary drinkers would hope to find,
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Never done Bradford but have a pal who waxes lyrical about it
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