In which I return to Manchester to visit a few places in a former stomping ground around the university and the south of the city on the same day as a repeat of last season's all-Manchester FA Cup final. Here's how the afternoon panned out....
I arrived on the train from Halifax at Manchester Victoria early afternoon, and within a few minutes I was on a tram heading towards the south Manchester suburb of Didsbury. I was re-visiting an area that I knew well from my student days back in the 1970's but in the case of Didsbury I'd hardly, if ever, been back to it since. We passed through Exchange Square, St Peter's Square, and once we had gone through Deansgate-Castlefield we were high above the canals and old warehouses passing one gleaming futuristic apartment block after another as we headed out to Cornbrook. The surroundings got leafier as we approached Chorlton where I'd had a good wander one afternoon a couple of years ago, and it continued that way as we passed through Withington and West Didsbury before arriving at Didsbury Village, where I was leaving the tram.
I walked up the ramp from the station platform and found myself in a quiet suburban street with housing and a row of shops and a restaurant just a little further along. It wasn't far to the first pub on my list; a left turn and then left again, and I was at the Fletcher Moss, which takes its name from a former city alderman. It is a Hydes pub, and I walked into a noisy pub where a large crowd was preparing to watch the Cup Final on one of several TV screens positioned around the place. It was two deep at the bar, so when I finally managed to get served I took the unusual step of ordering two pints straight off, and leaving the bar I found a quiet pleasantly-decorated room in this deceptively large pub which for a time I had to myself. There was no TV screen, but no problem, I just switched it on on my phone.
I'd ordered a pint of Hopster, a 3.8% zesty pale featuring Citra hops which is the latest beer to be added to Hydes' core range, and a pint of the 3.9% Light Ale, a seasonal easy-drinking session pale with a satisfying malty base and a crisp, refreshing finish. It has a retro pump clip which suggests it may be an old beer they have revived. I'd assumed this was a lower gravity ale because of the name, so I drank it first and very refreshing it was too, and in great nick, deserving of a 3.5 rating on the National Beer Scoring System scale. In comparison the Hopster was similarly very good but with a more citrussy character (NBSS 3.5). Both were very reasonably priced; the cost for the pair of them was £7.70.
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| The Hydes beers I tried over the day |
A loud cheer rang out from around the bar, but due to the time delay when watching on I-Player nothing had happened on my screen. It turned out that United had opened the scoring against the odds, which came through on my phone a couple of minutes later. The celebrations reminded me that support for each club does vary across the city with much of south Manchester and areas like Chorlton generally supporting United, whilst much of City's support is in the east of the city. I liked the Fletcher Moss, and I am sure it would be good place to visit on a quieter day. But it was bedlam today!
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| A very busy pub; The Fletcher Moss, Didsbury |
Just around the corner on Wilmslow Road is the Royal Oak, a Marstons pub famed for its cheese and pate lunches which have been a feature here since before my student days. However, there was literally no room at the inn today, a guy on the door said they were too full to let anybody else in. Ah well, no worries, I had been here before, but I had been looking forward to re-acquainting myself with the place. It would have to be another time though.
A few minutes later I caught one of several buses that travel up the Wilmslow Road to Withington and beyond to the city centre. We passed through leafy suburbs with many of the large houses converted in to flats, and the Red Lion pub, a former Marstons house now owned by J W Lees which had a large bowling green out back when I was a student. It was a rambling place, with an olde-world country feel and was something of a destination pub back then. I rang the bell and was dropped off just before the junction with Palatine Road. I crossed over by a Sainsburys Local, situated in a building that may well have been a pub in its day. I walked past a former Wilsons pub called the Albert, the signage still referring to the original owners, with a glorious tiled exterior. According to Whatpub? it has an Irish flavour to it and is sadly a long-time keg-only pub, so I gave it a miss.
Not much further along Wilmslow Road I came to the Victoria, another Hydes pub with an attractive exterior. I walked into another busy pub, but in contrast to the Fletcher Moss this was a sea of light blue shirts as fans of Manchester City watched their team on a host of TV screens positioned around this deceptively-spacious pub in such a way that it would have been harder to miss the action than see it. A corner bar was busy but the staff here were on top of their game and it wasn't long before I was served with a pint of Hydes Original, which was another good-value pint but unfortunately was served in a plastic glass, and a squidgy one at that which needed gentle handling to avoid any spillage (NBSS 2.5). I managed to find a corner shelf so I could watch and rest my pint, but with the game still seeing United the better of the two teams, there was a general air of anxiety within this friendly and welcoming pub. The Victoria was another fine pub which I would happily visit again.
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| Victoria Hotel, Withington; Pep and the City fans looking anxious |
I walked along to the nearest bus stop and it wasn't too long before a bus appeared to take me up towards the University. The constant flow of orange and white buses operated by SELNEC that operated along Wilmslow Road was a memorable feature of my student years and it continues to this day although the colours of the buses have changed. We passed through the student-dominated suburb of Fallowfield where I lived for 3 years, one of them at Owens Park on the 16th floor of the Tower, whose height dominated the area around. The sprawling campus which also included smaller buildings was home to over 1,000 students and is currently being re-developed with the iconic Tower being demolished. We went past Platt Fields, a large park which houses the 18th century Platt Hall, former home of the Worsley family, and features an artificial lake and several botanical gardens. Next it was Rusholme, a suburb where I'd lived for a year, now transformed from a predominantly Irish enclave into the so called Curry Mile, bustling and brimming with restaurants and takeaways featuring cuisine from the Indian sub-continent and the Middle East alongside Asian fashion shops and supermarkets. Shortly afterwards we were in the heart of the main University area and here I got off at the Student Union building.
I crossed over and headed down Grafton Street to a pub I used to visit regularly when I was a student. This was the Grafton Arms, which I had called in a couple of years ago or so before going to see the wonderful Big Thief at the Academy. So I knew that this former tiny back-street Holts boozer with a strong Irish character had been updated and opened out. There is a club-like room to the left as you go in with pool table and stage, today featuring a large screen showing the Cup Final, with a smaller room to the right. Outside is an enclosed beer garden, which was quite busy today given the pleasant sunny weather. It was busy inside too, and as the final whistle blew in the Cup Final which saw United defy the odds and beat City 2-1, the resultant cheering and shouting left you in no doubt that this was a United pub through and through. The girl behind the bar though was a City fan, and grumbled about the result to me as I nursed a half of Holts Bitter (NBSS 3). A friendly down-to-earth boozer still, the Grafton is a throwback to the days before the University and academia swallowed up this part of the city. At least it still appears to be thriving. which is more can be said for another pub we used to frequent nearby, the former Plymouth Grove, a long-lost and much-loved Boddingtons pub.
I headed back towards the City Centre passing the Academy, the Student Union, and the original University buildings. I had one more place to visit on this trip down memory lane aka Wilmslow Road, and it was a little off the beaten track as well. I turned left off the main road and walked along Booth Road West, and then turned right on to Higher Cambridge Street. A couple of minutes later I turned right again on to Boundary Street West where I spotted the pub (opening image), situated alongside SODA which is not, as the bright sign suggests, a nightclub, but the School of Digital Arts of Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), whose buildings dominate this stretch to the west of Wilmslow Road. The pub address incidentally is listed as 12 Higher Chatham Street, which runs briefly to the side.
I don't recall ever going to the Salutation when I was a student, presumably because at that time it had no real ale. It has been a pub for a long time, although it wasn't back in 1846 as a blue plaque on the wall refers to Charlotte Bronte, who lodged at the site with her father and whilst here started to write her classic novel, Jane Eyre. It was originally owned by the long-gone Hulme-based Hardy's Crown Brewery who are remembered in the brick sign at the top of the facade, but eventually it ended up being owned by Punch Taverns. In 2011 when it faced closure it was taken over by MMU and since 2013 has been operated by the student's union, whose own building is just around the block. Inevitably it attracts a lot of custom from students, lecturers, and university staff, but it also attracts locals and CAMRA members and beer lovers due to its inclusion in the present Good Beer Guide. The pub wasn't very busy when I walked in. There were a few people dotted around a large rectangular room, which is served by a long L-shaped bar facing the entrance at the front. The room is attractively-decorated with a striking ceiling and tiled floor, with the room being broken into discrete areas by the odd wooden screen. The cask beer is supplied by Bollington Brewery, a rare sight in Manchester, so it is worth visiting if you've never tried them before. I ordered a pint of Long Hop, a 3.9% hoppy blonde ale which was in cracking form, cool and refreshing on what had turned out to be a warm day (NBSS 3.5). It was another well-priced pint, which had been a pleasant surprise in a city where I have become accustomed to paying major money for my beer over recent years!
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| The Salutation, Hulme |
The Salutation was an excellent spot to conclude my return to this part of Manchester. The beer was very good, the pub had a nice, laid back feel to it, and the girls who were working the bar were friendly and welcoming. And unusually for today it was bereft of football fans - or at least shouting, cheering ones. The pub has a food menu, whilst there is a beer garden out the back, and it hosts a number of different events. And one event that happened here in 2010 was the last-ever performance of Chris Sievey, aka papier-mâché headed Frank Sidebottom when - maintaining the football thread - he launched a World Cup-themed song Three Shirts On The Line.
My beer was going down, and with time moving on and I decided to call an Uber. I was by now decidedly peckish, and I suddenly thought of the first place that I'd had a curry, the former Plaza Cafe on Upper Brook Street. It always a dubious chicken biryani with a devilishly-hot deep red sauce with a heat to the north of vindaloo, and only ever-consumed after a long evening's drinking. Run by a West Indian guy called Charlie, it acquired a legendary status with students of the time. Back to the present, the taxi turned up a few minutes later, and shortly afterwards I was deposited in the Northern Quarter, and once there, I was off for the much safer modern option of rice and three at This and That, having had a great afternoon revisiting an old stomping ground....
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