retiredmartin

May 2025. Manchester.

Leaving the Crown I was almost distracted by the siren call of Heaton Mersey’s Griffin, a favourite of Old Mudgie,

who I was oddly reminded of by this;

but I’d arranged to meet Matt in town for pre-match tea, and had to dash to the end of the Didsbury line to catch the tram into town..

What views you get on the route (once past Old Trafford, anyway).

Matt’s artisanal barber’s shop Helvete is in Chinatown (behind the Circus/Grey Horse/Old Monkey pub trilogy), and from there you can explore Manchester’s many brutalist architectural treasures,

on the path to Oldham Street.

Matt tells me he’s been to the Castle, which by coincidence is where I’m headed for the first time in 14 years, when a City victory with Peter Crouch O.G. took us to the Champions League for the very first time. Can we get there again in 2025 ?

The kidz know the Castle for live music, scuzzy gigs, and relatively cheap pints;

the dads know it for the legacy of Kath, the pints of Old Tom, and that tiling, which I was too distracted to capture so here’s some from CAMRA.

I know what I’m having; what will Matt pick ?

Increasingly, Plum Porter if it’s cask, though everything gets drunk in the Castle.

Matt’s more interested in the jukebox than the beer.

Over Titanic and Robbie’s Unicorn (NBSS 3+) in the cosy back room he tells me his gigs for the summer. Old blokes called Bruce, Neil , Van, and Dinosaur Jr.

My list consists of young women called Anastasia, Faye, Jessica and Laura.

I ask Matt if he recognises the original album cover on the table above.

He doesn’t.