May 2025. Manchester.
Well, there’s a pub you’ll know and probably love, but it’s not the star of our Moderate Night Out with Blackpool Jane last week. That comes next.
Jane does something called “work”, and we picked the Pev to meet to plan our pubs as it’s, remarkably, a place Mrs RM didn’t remember going in.
Before that, we’d ticked off an actual National Trust entry in the heart of Manchester, the Castlefield viaduct awash with plants in what an overgenerous person might call a mini-High Line (if they’d never been to New York).
Still, it’s cute, and free to all,
and if you stand in front of this mirror at the entrance you can lose weight quicker than Mounjaro.
Which is just as well, as 3 pints and a curry is a good way to put the weight back on.
Let’s start at Manchester’s most famous tiling,
home to the city’s “beloved” Wilson’s bitter once, not that I can remember Wilson’s.
The sun is out, it’s Manchester after all, so the drinking is largely outside, and Mrs RM was able to grab a rare inside table at 4pm.
What a gorgeous pub.
Like the similarly famous Lass O’ Gowrie it’s always had the cask to match, but you can’t go wrong with Landlord and Plum Porter, can you ? Can you ?
Well, the Plum and a Brightside Blonde were good enough (NBSS 3), but having bagged a table the Pev felt a 5,
aided by a decent level soundtrack of ’80s pop. Joan Armatrading and that bloke from Chicago.
“You can’t go wrong with the Bee Gees” says Mrs RM. She’s no good on the pop round in the pub quiz.
But she’s finished her pint by the time Jane arrives with a half and a “Coo, this is nice” and 10 minutes later we’re off .
But where ?
retiredmartin 
Nice to see the Pev still going strong.
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With Woodwork one of my best grades at GCE O Level 54 years ago, whenever there I marvel at those window frames, complemented by the green and red. Stained glass is for pubs, not just churches.
I shall be six miles short of there today.
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“Boddington’s or Willy’s lads?”
“Willy’s tastes like piss!”
Never was quite sure if the Willy’s referred to Wilsons or Lees though.
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I’ve never noticed that mosaic of Brendan Behan at the Pev, unless it’s been added since the last time I was in a few years ago. Behan has a Manchester connection: he served time at Strangeways Gaol in the late forties after attempting to aid the escape of a fellow IRA man imprisoned there.
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During the First World War Stafford Gaol held Irish prisoners captured after the 1916 Easter Rising included Michael Collins.
You should be able to find a photograph of him there.
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Mrs. E says exactly the same thing about the Bee Gees. There’re limits to marital understanding.
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Getting the Bee Gees mixed up with Peter Cetera is a marital offence, surely ?
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I get them mixed up with Et Cetera.
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That was Ed Cetera of 10cc . Totally different.
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Wilsons was part of Watney (from about 1960) and closed in 1986. The beers were then brewed by Websters near Halifax, until they closed in 1996. I remember visiting both on a tour in the early 80s which was arranged by Watneys PR, with a group associated with CAMRA’s London Drinker magazine. At that time Websters beer was being sold in London but there were rumours (reported in LD) that it was actually brewed at Mortlake rather than in Yorkshire. I’m not sure now, but I think we were told that the trucks bringing Websters to London went back loaded with Budweiser, to inflict (not their word) on the North.
[IPW]
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Aaaah. Thanks for that. It no doubt explains why I found Websters and Wilsons equally dispiriting.
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When I first drank in the Pev in the late 80s it was a choice btw Wilsons and Websters; great pub but beer were shiiiite. Boddies as well maybe. The Britons’ had Ind Coope Burton and Jennings bitter; I’d love a pint of the latter now.
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