Pubs of Manchester

All pubs within the city centre and beyond.
A history of Manchester's hundreds of lost pubs.

Tuesday 6 April 2010

052. Brunswick, Piccadilly


Brunswick, Piccadilly. (c) flickr4jazz st flickr.

This pub is another that has been here donkeys years, and that gets a name and image change about every three or four years to keep it "fresh". Now the B-Lounge @ Brunswick, it's the sister pub of (B-Lounge @) the Bridge, but has recently been known as the Brunswick Tavern, and Brunswick Inn. It is well located at the bottom of Piccadilly Station Approach and therefore picks up plenty of trade from people arriving or departing from the station. It also had a brief spell as a faux Irish bar (Finnegans Wake), and like all of these places that tried this before it, failed miserably. It's shown in better days as a Wilsons house in 1957, 1967 and the '70s, and dwarfed by Sparrow Hardwick & Co, what is now the Abode Hotel, in the '60s. To the left in the above photo is Paton Street, which back in the day had the Manchester Club and the Saxony Club on the left as you looked down the street from this corner.

As a pub, these days it's a fairly nondescript sort of place; two rooms, with the usual array of keg beer and lagers. It did also have real ale (Theakstons) in the corner, but regretably we didn't spot this until it was time to leave as there were some Norwich fans in huddled round the bar. I'm sure we'll make another attempt on this place at some time to let you know how well kept it is. Disappointingly, no Guinness on sale - the standard and Guinness Cold (is there a difference?) had run out, even though it was only 10:30am. We therefore had to suffer John Smiths Smooth, a bargain (not) at £3.05 a pint - who drinks this shite? No pool table or dartboard, one quiz machine and a couple of fruities. Not bad for a first or last pint, but not a place I'll be hurrying back to, and there's a better bet over the road in the form of the Waldorf and its (just about) cheaper and much better ale.

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