Here's a tour around a number of Manchester pubs and bars in the network of streets between Piccadilly and Great Ancoats Street, including a couple that are settling into life under new ownership.... It had been over two months since I had last been to Manchester so with a spare day I off I decided to go over one of my favourite cities and check out a couple of new bars that had opened recently under new guises. One of them was the Rat & Pigeon, a re-working of a previous pub, Mother Mac's, the other a takeover of the former Pelican bar by new owners, Fell. They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and it can certainly be a source of frustration too. I thought I knew where the Rat & Pigeon would be, and to be fair I do know Manchester pretty well. But I should really have checked the address before I set off towards Piccadilly. I walked amongst and out beyond the seething masses of Piccadilly Gardens and then looked to where I thought the pub should be...but it w
In which I bring you a heady mix including another festival or two, shouty girl bands, illuminating conversations, a radical exhibition, a few decent pints, and more big brewery shenanigans.... I stayed local last Friday. Well, by local I mean I stayed within a few miles of home. I travelled by bus as well, and all the timings went to plan, which is not something you can say every time. I had planned to go to the Elland Beer Festival, spend a couple of hours there, and then head to the Grayston Unity where I had a ticket to see rising Manchester band Loose Articles as part of this year's Town Festival of Music & Words. I left home just after 5 and caught the bus into Brighouse where, having earmarked a bus earlier in the day to go to Elland at about 6, my thoughts were on grabbing a pint from the current barrel of Two by Two that had been drinking well in the Crafty Fox the night before. However, when I spotted a bus waiting that was going to Elland from Brighouse imminently, o