SINCLAIRS GETS ITS CASK BACK

June 2023. Manchester.

The last day of June, in fact, which means I’ve almost caught up on the blog, worryingly.

Last Friday I joined Kentish Paul for a few pubs in Manchester before getting an overdue cut from Matt, whose Helvete studio is about to move into Chinatown behind the Portland Street pub trio.

Here’s the proof that Manchester is blue;

We start at a true Manc classic, but you might be interested to see what was on at the Piccadilly Gardens Spoons where I stopped for a comfort break;

Yes, it’s a famously grotty JDW, but that’s some range for £3 £2.50.

Cheap beer in Sinclair’s Oyster House, too,

but there hasn’t been cask in Sinclairs for many, many, years.

Or so I thought.

But there it is, smiling at me.

Even better, for the first time in decades, I’m here outside a match day, so no bouncer, no plastic glass, and a seat of my choice upstairs.

Why did no-one tell me Sinclair’s was THIS good ?

I was last here in 1996, watching the first game of Euro ’96 over the course of four pints of OBB.

Except I wasn’t, as a week later the IRA bomb meant Sinclair’s was moved (again) from the back of the Arndale to Cathedral Square.

It’s 11:30, there’s a young couple in the corner; I ask them if it’s OK if I take a photo with my camera. They laugh.

Then OBB is wonderful, particularly before that head clears a bit (NBSS 3.5). Why on earth did they drop it for years ?

I considered having lunch here, but it’s almost a crime to sully the atmosphere of this place with the smell of chips.

A group of tourists tip up and eye my bench seat jealously so I let them have it and grab a table before Paul arrives.

Paul had brought the rain with him, and a list of targets for the day.

I don’t think he did them all, but you’ll have to read his blog to find out.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

23 thoughts on “SINCLAIRS GETS ITS CASK BACK”

  1. It was always a magnificent pub Martin, but I have not been in since cask was dropped several years ago. Thanks for the info about the cask!

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    1. It certainly was, John, but rarely a good bet for a relaxed pint on match days so glad to revisit it properly and enjoy it. I’d have been very happy with the keg stout so cask was a bonus !

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    2. Thanks for the back-handed compliment, Dave!! I’m definitely no Alan Winfield, and at my age (see below), I’m not out to win any prizes, either. Instead, I find a slow and steady approach works best, and – spoiler alert, I did manage just under half of the pubs on that list.

      Btw, the circled H, to the right of some of the pubs, means they are listed on CAMRA’s National Inventory of pubs with interiors of historical importance. I’m on a, not particularly fast-moving mission to “tick” them all. Easier than completing the GBG? Definitely, but there’s still a lot of traveling involved.

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      1. I should have said I complimented you (sincerely) on the quality of your handwriting.

        I do hope you keep that paper for when the Museum of Pubs finally opens at Wolverhampton Spoons.

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      1. Blimey, that ages you, Andy.

        The OBB in Sinclair’s that day the Euros started in ’96 was £1.23, and back then the Holt Bitter was exactly a pound in the newly opened Old Monkey (95p the Mild).

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      4. 24th June 1973, 6½p for a half in the Burns Hotel, 9p for a half in the York Arms, both York.
        Halves because I was just on pocket money then.

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  4. I tried to get into Sinclair’s last time I was in Manchester but it was just too rammed. Went to a nice Holt’s pub up the road instead.

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      1. Fairly sure it was the Crown and Anchor although I stood at the bar rather than risk those high tables on account of my dodgy knee (which, like BRAPA, I don’t like to talk about)

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  5. I can write a lot neater than that list, but seeing as you complimented my hand-writing, I shall return the compliment with regard to your interior shots of Sinclair’s.

    Mind you, the all seeing eye of Dark Lord – Humphrey Smith has undoubtedly clocked your misdemeanor, so be careful next time you set foot in a Sam Smith’s pub.

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