I really love walking with Matt. He’s fast, chatty and unlike Stafford Paul sometimes stops when the red man shows at the crossing.
But I sometimes forget he’s only nnnnnn19, and doesn’t remember the 2 events that define modern Manchester. By which I mean the closure of Tommy Ducks and the 1996 bomb which forced two ancient pubs to be relocated brick-by-brick from the back of the Arndale, where we’d headed on our quest for lunch after admiring the Abel and the Unicorn.
You’re not allowed to eat inside at the moment because, y’now, Covid.
“Meet you outside the Shambles” I said, decisively.
“What’s the Shambles ?“
“You must know the Shambles. OK, Cathedral Gardens then“
“Where ?“
“The football museum !”
“Oh“
Why can’t young people protest about the lack of real ale in Sinclairs like they did in the ’70s ?
Have you ever seen the Shambles so empty ?
But it all looked rather beautiful, and hearteningly spotless.
We pressed on towards Salford, clearly finding a rare hill near the Irwell.
I tried to do justice to “Proper Salford”, taking in the Egerton Arms and the New Oxford, but I fear my efforts were wasted. Back across the river for a last hurrah then.
I don’t know Manchester at all well but was there a couple of years ago and was well impressed with the Shambles. Tried to get into Sinclair’s but it was rammed and went to a Holt’s pub up the road instead. Had no idea the buildings had been moved around to that extent.
LikeLike
Bill,
And Humphrey knows it’d be all the more “rammed” if he put cask OBB on in there.
LikeLiked by 3 people
But he’d immediately close it because of a lack of some medieval dessert of some kind.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Holt would take it on.
LikeLike
“and the 1996 bomb which forced two ancient pubs to be relocated brick-by-brick from the back of the Arndale”,
As I remember it, firstly, two ancient pubs wouldn’t have been relocated brick-by-brick if ‘the planners’ hadn’t had the daft idea that anyone wanted another Arndale Centre and, secondly, Mancunians didn’t too much mind such an abomination being bombed and welcomed the jobs that came with rebuilding work.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Amazed to hear recently about plans to reopen the Crescent.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I didn’t believe you. And as I read the article about the Chinese owners turning it into a commemoration of Communism to reflect its Marx & Engels history I feared it was 1 April. But no.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/salfords-historic-crescent-pub-karl-20229580
LikeLiked by 1 person
Manchester’s first permanent outlet for the mighty Snow beer.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The world’s best-selling beer (bigger than Lost & Grounded Apophenia), and I’d never heard of it.
LikeLike
What was torn down next to the Abel Heywood? I don’t remember it being that open there.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was a statue to mark the visit of some Americans a couple of years ago that was torn down in The Riots.
LikeLike
Our riots or yours? We seem to be rioting more than you these days.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Did you riot when you came over ? I know you got cross when I made you go to the craft beer bar.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Craft beer can make me very angry. So pretentious. You’d laugh RM. We are moving downtown and you would think we were moving to a DMZ. Riots have an effect on perceptions. The closest I came to rioting in Manchester was when the People’s Museum worked its magic.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love that museum.
LikeLike
Laughed at the line “people protesting about the lack of real ale.” I like the idea of CAMRA mobilizing its members for real ale protests back in the 70s, and maybe three or four people showing up. “Just you wait. In the future CAMRA will be massive, and people will be laughing at us to a noticeably smaller degree!” 😉
Me, I just want to get a taste of the pulled pork and stick chips from the Viet Shack menu…
LikeLiked by 1 person
First let me say how much joy it gives me when I get a comment from you that starts “Laughed at the line…”.
Stafford Paul will correct me, but I understand that dozens of CAMRA members in their 20s and 30s used to turn up at obscure places like Wem and Leeds to complain about brewery closures in the ’70s and ’80s, even though they’d been on the CAMRA website the week before comparing their beer to “dishwater”.
We have some tremendous Vietnamese food in Manchester, not seen much in Sheffield yet but there’s time…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dozens ?
No, hundreds on the Joules marches down Stone’s high Street in 1973 and 1974.
I was also in Barnsley 1975 and Wem 1988 which were similarly well attended.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Chicken and steak*
LikeLike
Chicken and sticky chips, I think. Sticky, anyway.
Wasn’t there one in peanut butter or something ?
LikeLike
Remember going on the Oldham Brewery closure protest march. And on to The Boltmakers afterwards .
LikeLike
John,
And is that you photographed alongside t’other Mudgie in an old Good Beer Guide ?
LikeLike