ALL THE PUBS IN THE MANCHESTER BEER BOOK – THE PICCADILLY TAP

May 2024. Manchester.

“Doing the Manchester Beer Book” lacks the jeopardy of doing the GBG; it’s a static book, not one where you get 400 new entries each year. I reckon the Wickingman Bass list might be a harder ask.

But there’s a joy about being forced to re-visit and re-evaluate the Eternal City,

and from the Old Monkey I took a rare walk west towards Salford, thinking I might nip into the revived New Oxford.

But culture called, the People’s History Museum overlooking the Irwell. That building on the far right used to be a famous pub, you know.

The People’s Museum is wonderful, as good a curation of political and social history as Bonn’s Haus der Geschichte,

with a focus on suffrage, equality and unionism.

I don’t know if it’s pre-match terror, but I never feel up to doing the Manc museums on match days, but they are all wonderful, and the new Co-op Exhibition of Excuses for Gig Cancellation also sounds promising.

Back in St Peters via Kennedy Street I passed another Mancunian pub trilogy, perhaps even more famous than the Portland Street Run. All three heaving as the weekend started.

I always thought I had a good job, rotating between Cambridge, London and Leeds in latter career (excellent for pub ticking). Matt gets to live and cut hair in the centre of the greatest city in the world (OK, we’ll argue about Nuremberg).

While he clears 3 months of curls (even my Mum noticed) we talk football and gigs at the Co-op and his weekend of hardcore in Glasgow, which I’m certain aren’t subjects I discussed with my Dad at 22.

And then I race back to the station, somehow squeezing in a pint at the Piccadilly Tap on the “lazy S”.

Coming up to 10 years old, its fortunes wax and wane I always feel, though it’s never less than frenetic, even when there’s no match on.

Not quite sure why I don’t love it as much as, say, the Euston Tap,

as the beer range is pretty similar, Piccadilly has a better fish,

and there’s an eclectic soundtrack.

I guess it’s you can never feel comfortable downstairs, and need to head up, just like in Euston, for an underused pool room and balcony.

These 3 beers seem to have been abandoned, unless the 3 drinkers all went to the loo at the same time.

My Tim Taylor Dark Mild was OK, cool and well presented but a tad indistinct (3), but let’s not be too harsh, £4.40 a pint in central Manchester is a steal (apparently).

I love that pool room, with its photos of United fans on their way to Wembley,

in 1977, which was before the Reds opted not to defend the trophy and completed devalued the tournament, of course.

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.

13 thoughts on “ALL THE PUBS IN THE MANCHESTER BEER BOOK – THE PICCADILLY TAP”

  1. We really do need the Mark Addy back although the cost by now must be quite off putting….

    I had many a pint of Red Willow in there in the 2010s while working the other side of Spinningfields in the other city.

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    1. I initially thought you meant the price of a pint there if it ever re-opened, but I guess you mean conversion cost !

      Only went in a couple of times, the last after it seemed to go upmarket a decade ago (?).

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  2. That looks more like the Kennedy Street Run than the Portland Street Run.

    I’ve not used the Piccadilly Tap. The Piccadilly Tavern didn’t have any cask beer earlier this year. I’ve not used the Piccadilly Wetherspoons since being handed a plastic pint glass several years ago.

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    1. Yes that’s Kennedy Street’s “Mancunian pub trilogy, perhaps even more famous than the Portland Street Run”, though I expect you and I would prefer the family brewers along Portland St. It’s a while since I’ve been in The Vine, and you’d never get a seat in the Spoons.

      I’d struggle to recommend the Piccadilly Tap to you on comfort grounds,

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      1. No matter what it’s lacking in terms of “comfort” I intend avoiding any venue with “Piccadilly” in its name when, hopefully, I change there for Windermere a few weeks from now.

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  3. Although I never actually went to one, the interior fittings at the Piccadilly Tap always remind me of a functional, state-run East Berlin bar before the Wall came down in 1989, in a good, sort of Ostalgie by proxy, way.

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    1. It’s the lack of cosy seating downstairs that stands out. Can’t blame it, the design maximises trade which is typically groups of two or four mates.

      You remind me I need to get back to (old East) Berlin, Matthew. I used the “Berlin in 50 beers” book last time.

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      1. Good choice, Martin. I used that book on my first, and so far only visit to the German capital.

        That was back in 2014, so ten years now. Would love to go back, especially as the new airport has finally opened.

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