ALL THE PUBS IN THE MANCHESTER BEER BOOK – THE ANGEL

June 2024. Manchester.

I think I’ll have ticked more pubs in Matt Curtis’s wonderful guide to Manchester than the actual GBG during June, but that’s OK. The main priority is to beat Blackpool Jane to the prize, which I believe is a tripe barm.

I was in Manchester 10 days ago for a gig at Band on the Wall,

somehow missing Mr Modern Music Man himself Chris Dyson, who had trod much the same steps as me but gone posh at Mackie Mayor that night.

I wonder if we can rely on Chris to give us a first report on the reopening of The City pub on Oldham Street, though frankly it looked some distance from a June 14 relaunch that night.

If you asked me my favourite Manc pubs it’d be City Arms, Hare & Hounds and the Angel, with the Angel the wild card in that three due to some inconsistency when I’ve been in with fellow pubbers before.

But I love the quirkiness, cosy seating, the customer mix of professional drinkers (ahem) and students, the cask under £4…

Yes, under four quid from an exemplary Farm Yard Haybob, with obligatory straw taste.

SO much conversation here, much of it intelligent, but the bit I remember was about a mate getting stabbed in Oldham, and the new cheery barmaid having a bit of a ‘mare (no-one cares). “Car crash ledge” she christens herself.

The Angel, a little like the Old Vic or the Harlequin, continues to stand defiantly against the modernisation of inner Manchester, and now it’s firmly back in the GBG I assume the beer is as consistent as I’ve always found it. I do miss the French Onion Soup I had here a decade ago, though.

Back at Band on the Wall, the sound is exemplary, the crowd quiet,

and Bess Atwell plays through a new album that’ll be in my Top 5 come year end.

And she’s finished in 50 minutes, allowing me to catch the 10:15 back to Sheff. What a star.

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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.

9 thoughts on “ALL THE PUBS IN THE MANCHESTER BEER BOOK – THE ANGEL”

  1. “the Angel the wild card in that three due to some inconsistency when I’ve been in with fellow pubbers before” – yes indeed, I remember it well, “Three small overcooked chicken goujons in a none too fresh barm cake isn’t what I expect when ordering a chicken sandwich and £6 was too much for such a snack”. I should have ordered a larger breakfast in the Lost Dene.

    “the cask under £4” but you might be averaging just under £3.50 in Stafford on Wednesday 3rd July.

    …

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  2. It’s always had a slightly strange (and inconsistent) vibe…although I’ve not been for a while. It was always somewhere to go after Marble Arch to break the journey to N/4.

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  3. Favourite three Manchester pubs has stumped me.

    Hare and Hounds definitely first but then …….

    …… it’d probably have to be the Coach and Horses and the Jolly Angler even though both have sadly closed.

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      1. Manchester is undoubtedly my top pub town, so many great pubs, such as the Grey Horse and the Circus Tavern, getting me there for a day or a stay probably more than anywhere else. Manchester would be very well represented in my top one hundred pubs but what you’ve just made me realise is that probably only the Hare and Hounds would be in my top ten pubs.

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      2. I was reminded of the Circus Tavern’s sausage rolls this lunchtime. I enjoyed the 175 minute walk, mainly along canal towpaths, but was a bit peckish on entering the Red Lion as my second Rugeley pub. Imagine my delight at the remains of a buffet on the bar counter which it would have been impolite not to partake of. I wasn’t greedy though.

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