Mannings, Ipswich

Mannings is situated in quite a lively area of the town centre. On arrival, I could see that the 3 tables set up at the front of the pub were all taken. On enquiring with staff, there was one table left in quite a large yard to the side and rear of the pub. I'd arrived shortly after midday on a weekday and the pub was already full, with most patrons swilling pints of lager. One woman was already on her 4th bottle of WKD and another guy was onto his second bottle of wine! Whilst waiting to be served, a fight nearly broke out. This is certainly not the most salubrious of joints. Doom Bar and Landlord were the two real ales. So I opted for a cider and received a "half" in a glass that should have been used for mixers. Having waited over 10 minutes to get served, it wasn't worth the bother of challenging the short measure. Not the best start to my tour of Ipswich's pubs. This proved to be the worst one of the day.

Official site of Mannings - mannings-ipswich.craftunionpubs.com

Official site of Mannings - mannings-ipswich.craftunionpubs.com

Not a bad pub that had Adnams Broadside on draft which was OK. I probably would return to this place.

Nice bar, good looking woody interior, 4/5 ales inc Adnams(x2), Summer Lightning, Pride, those sampled in very good shape. Friendly barman mentioned a couple of others they get in on rotation. Good all round.

This rather squat, two storey town centre building was built back in the 16th Century and is named after the wine merchant who originally occupied the premises before it was converted to an inn. The pub previously had a two room layout, but sadly it was knocked through into it's current single room format in the early 1980's. There is a bare boarded seating area at the front of the pub with ample banquette and standard seating in a space with nice wood panelled walls, worn rugs on the floors and a mix of old pictures, beer bottles and jugs on display. The bar emerges a little further into the room, down the right hand side, with a predominantly dark wood servery which has an original water font on the counter, although this was partly obscured on my visit by a large flower display. Opposite the bar there is a slightly raised seating area with more banquettes and chairs under another jug and bottle collection. Further on, high stools serve tables and drinking ledges in the narrower space between the servery and left hand wall. Eventually you reach the rear section of the pub, which is quite a tidy and cosy feeling space with a lot of breweriana on the walls. Some doors to the left lead out to the long narrow courtyard which runs down the side of the building. There are lots of picnic benches out here, as well as a drinking shelf down the left side. The garden is quite characterful, including a vine that apparently dates back to the 1680's, a crumbling stone arch, gargoyles and a view of the clock tower of the neighbouring town hall. There are also a few patio heaters to keep smokers warm in the winter months. An encouraging nine hand pumps line up in the centre of the bar, but the beers were tripled up, so that Fullers London Pride, Adnams Southwold Bitter and Adnams Broadside appeared three times each. I went for a pint of the Southwold Bitter and was pleased to find it was in pretty good shape, but the uninspiring range could well be a off-putting factor when there are more adventurous selections to be found around town. This is a fairly solid town centre pub that is perhaps worth a look for the pleasant building and characterful courtyard, but there's not too much here to hold the attention beyond a quick pint and I would probably drop this one from any future crawl around Ipswich.

Long narrow pub in the pedestrian area of Ipswich where some decent architecture, such as the Town Hall and the Crown & Anchor Hotel (delicenced) still remains. The bar counter is down part of one side with mixed forms of seating at the front, side and back. Nice victorian ceiling, darkwood and bare boards, with fairly bland décor. There is a beer garden out the back and it has friendly staff and customers. There are 9 handpumps mainly serving Adnams beers in good nick, London Pride and Directors were also on as guests when I went in. GBG2010 listed.