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.
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Bill,
And Humphrey knows it’d be all the more “rammed” if he put cask OBB on in there.
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But he’d immediately close it because of a lack of some medieval dessert of some kind.
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Holt would take it on.
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“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.
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Amazed to hear recently about plans to reopen the Crescent.
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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
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Manchester’s first permanent outlet for the mighty Snow beer.
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The world’s best-selling beer (bigger than Lost & Grounded Apophenia), and I’d never heard of it.
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What was torn down next to the Abel Heywood? I don’t remember it being that open there.
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It was a statue to mark the visit of some Americans a couple of years ago that was torn down in The Riots.
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Our riots or yours? We seem to be rioting more than you these days.
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Did you riot when you came over ? I know you got cross when I made you go to the craft beer bar.
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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.
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I love that museum.
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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…
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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…
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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.
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Chicken and steak*
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Chicken and sticky chips, I think. Sticky, anyway.
Wasn’t there one in peanut butter or something ?
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Remember going on the Oldham Brewery closure protest march. And on to The Boltmakers afterwards .
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John,
And is that you photographed alongside t’other Mudgie in an old Good Beer Guide ?
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