The Marble Arch, Manchester

Built in 1888, this ornate ale house close to Manchester's Northern Quarter came under the ownership of a number of breweries over the years before eventually becoming a freehouse in 1984 and more recently finding fame as the home of the Marble Brewery. High demand may have since forced the brewery to relocate to a nearby railway arch, but Marble beers still rule the roost here and a long row of handpulls was dominated by their brews on my recent visit - Ginger 5.1, Pint (£3.10), Cinema Beer, Lagonda IPA, IBD Brew, Bitter, Chocolate Marble, Earl Grey IPA - plus a couple of guests in the shape of Squawk Small Pale and Arbor Motueka. Around ten keg beers were also available from the like of Marble and Magic Rock plus an Apple Jack cider, whilst a good bottled range, focussed mainly on Belgian beers, was detailed in the menus. As the first pub of the day, I felt I should sadly pass up the chance to try some of the stronger ales on offer and instead plumped for the Pint, which was in superb condition and served to me by a very friendly and knowledgeable barmaid. The pub has Grade II listing status and it is clear from the fine red granite exterior alone, that this is a beautiful alehouse. You enter through a corner porch with a stained glass canopy and mosaic tile floor, into a sloping floored main bar, with the servery at the bottom of the slope in the rear right corner. Padded banquettes and standard chairs fill the right hand side of the room, whilst chunky pews and standard chairs run down the left side where the bright floral mosaic tiled floor pattern continues into the pub from the porch. The rest of the room has plainer tiled floor and the walls have glazed tiles which look, at first glance, like exposed brickwork, with a similar effect employed on the ceiling. A lovely frieze runs around the top of the room, listing some of the products available back in the day (Porter, Ale, Brandies, Cordials etc..) and there are shelves to the right lined with old bottles whilst a few old pictures fill much of the remaining eye-level space. A large fireplace stands in front of the bar and this has a lovely decorative B&J McKenna brewery mirror above it as well as a selection of board games and local interest literature on the mantle. The angular servery has some bright green glazed tiles along the counter front and various old barrels and jugs on the canopy. There are a lot of pump clips on the bar back as well as helpful blackboards detailing the full beer range. A door to the rear leads into a simple, square dining room which has a serving hatch to the right and basic seating under a few modern art prints. A beer garden can be accessed from here, although I didn't bother to explore on this visit. Food is available at sensible prices and the menu included two pages of cheeses from which you can pick and mix to create your own cheeseboard. This is one of those pubs I was worried would suffer from heightened expectations, having been on my 'to-do' list for so long and receiving such praise on this website, but if anything it exceeded those expectations. I loved the place and could quite happily have knocked the rest of the day's plans on the head to stay in here instead. An essential port of call when in Manchester and it's arguably worth a trip to the city just to pay a visit.

The Marble Arch is a very attractive thin traditional pub with seating down the left and right hand walls and a bar on the rear wall. To the left of the bar a door leads to a small dining area and kitchen area and out the back is some seating at the end of a pebbled driveway. I counted eleven hand pumps that were all drawing different brews and there is also a limited premium and standard draught selection. I went for the Buxton Spa which was superb and served by a very friendly barman. The food seems to be on the posh and pricey side, but there is a bar menu with much cheaper food for those that just want to soak up a bit of beer. There are no televisions or gaming machines here, but there was some oldie music playing in the background. This pub is well worth a visit.