The Alexandra, Stockport

A punishing incline from the Nursery Inn to the Alexandra nearly claimed me, but it was worth the hike because this is a grand red bricked Robinsons pub with intricately etched windows that give a flavour of what to expect inside. The entrance opens into a central foyer with a mosaic floor, and a bar to the left with counters that serve the foyer and a wooden floored vault in the front left window where a dartboard also resides. I counted four hand pumps that were drawing Dizzy Blonde, Idaho and Unicorn, the Blonde being on good form. To the right of the entrance is a carpeted seating area with red banquettes and a television that was airing muted football, in fact all of the rooms have at least one television, and also a fireplace. In the left rear behind the bar is a carpeted room with grey banquettes and to the right rear is a room with a dartboard and a pool table that sits on the dartboard’s oche, so I imagine the board is for competitions because moving a pool table to have a game of arrows is a lot of effort. The largest of the rooms is found at the end of a mosaic floored corridor to the far right where a well-trodden laminate floor supports high tables and another pool table. Again the table encroaches onto the oche of a dartboard, which I don’t understand because there’s plenty of room to fit both with the high tables also present. There are two televisions in here that were showing the football while some background music played. There’s a stained glass skylight in the ceiling and a small DJ booth in the corner that, according to the adverts, comes into its own on Friday nights. I liked the pub and the service from the barmaid was very friendly, so I’d say this pub is well worth the walk out of town.

A magnificent Robinsons multi roomed roadhouse all very nicely decorated without spoiling the interior. The bar itself is excellent and very ornate. There's a pool table in a rear room and a giant TV. In another room there's a parrot in a huge cage. The jukebox has some great tracks on it and I liked every single one that was played during my visit. PSM describes the interior in much more detail below. All 5 handpumps were on and the Dizzy Blonde was a decent enough pint (for Dizzy). This is a marvellous pub, such a shame it's only Robbies beers.

Another Stockport CAMRA inventory pub - this one is a multi-room gem, hidden away in the backstreets and virtually untouched since 1911. A few hardy souls from our group struck out to do this one off the main crawl and were well-rewarded. The exterior of the pub has some lovely striped brickwork and you enter to a mosaic tiled hallway with a super curved dark wood and glass lobby bar. Each room has a door with etched glass bearing the room’s stated purpose – ‘commercial’, tap room’ etc. There’s lots of tiling to be seen of an Art Nouveau vintage in the lobby and going up the impressive staircase. Look out for the old bell-pushes as well. It’s a Robbies place and had three of their on, I had the Unicorn and got a decent half . I really enjoyed this one and would highly recommend the expending of shoe leather to sample it.

This is a spectacular Robinson’s pub tucked away down the back streets of Edgeley, making it a slightly out-on-a-limb option to include on a crawl. However, it is well worth the long traipse down Chatham Street in order to take in the fantastic multiple room interior. You enter into a grand mosaic tile floored lobby with a small servery to the right behind a pleasant semi circular bar counter. The lobby has some great glazed tiling on the walls with a floral pattern that put me in mind of the tiling at the Victoria in Great Harwood. Opposite the bar there is a nice staircase with a sturdy dark wood banister and the same tile pattern follows the stairs up to the first floor, although this is out of bounds to customers. From the lobby, there is access to several rooms, each with comfortable banquette seating, fireplaces and carpeting. Many have been decorated with traditional paintings and advertisements, a few bits of breweriana and some interesting display cabinets. The room we chose had some antlers on one of the tables waiting to be mounted on the wall. Behind the staircase there is a games room with a pool table and dartboard in slightly more spartan surrounds and with a higher ceiling than the other rooms. Bell pushes can be found behind most of the banquettes throughout the pub and there is plenty of attractive etched and stained glass to round out what amounts to a pretty special visual experience. Just the three Robinson’s beers available on this occasion – Dizzy Blonde, Unicorn and Trooper. I gave the latter a try and thought it was in excellent shape – what a far better advert for Robinson’s beers this place would be rather than the rather non-descript visitor’s centre across town. Stockport is blessed with lots of beautiful old pubs that have been well preserved and retain plenty of interesting features, but I think of all of them, this is the one I thought looked the best. If you haven’t already supped too much Robinson’s, I’d definitely encourage a visit out here as it’s a great place to enjoy the local brew.

Large Robinson's pub - albeit hidden away in the Edgeley backstreets - retaining its original multi-room room layout. The striped layers of external brickwork are certainly striking, but it is the interior that is the stand-out feature here. The entrance hall leads into the central drinking lobby with the main servery, Art Nouveau tiled walls and a mosaic floor. Around this, there are four rooms which each have their own style (but all having decorative glazing and impressive fireplaces, so very impressive in their different ways) plus what is now a pool room along a corridor beside the staircase. Dizzy Blonde (£3.00), Unicorn and Trooper available from three of five handpumps. I was really impressed by this one, and it's certainly well worth making a detour to get here.