Grey Horse Inn, Manchester

Tiny, friendly, lovely traditional pub of the sort which us tourists from down south miss so much. Full Hydes range in good shape. Should be included on any crawl of the city.

An ancient building. Narrow and thin. Looks Georgian. The small semi circular bar is near the front. It is a tiny pub. Service was friendly, as was the clientele. It comes across as a proper old fashioned boozer. There were five ales on. Hydes Original, Hydes 1863, Hydes Anniversary, Lancaster Bomber and Beer Studio's Winsome Blonde. The Original was in good form. In short, a lovely pub. I would revisit.

This is a friendly traditional pub, the barmaid and manageress were welcoming and chatty. The pub has a relaxed atmosphere and is comfortable, no music playing and the tv was on subtitles. There were five ales on handpumps from Hydes, Mrs Ale went for the Hydes Frayed Knott. I tried the Hydes Original and the Mild.

A few doors down from The Circus Tavern is The Grey Horse, a fine welcoming traditional pub that is, in fact, not a lot bigger than its rather better known neighbour. Like that pub, it’s a small unassuming narrow frontage, which you could quite easily not notice if you didn’t know of it. It’s a cosy comfortable single room with fixed perimeter padded seating, circular tables and a bar counter that retains a gantry with frosted leaded glass. There’s something of a country pub feel to the place with black ceiling and wall beams, plates high up on a shelf and white lace curtains contributing to a slightly old fashioned “living room” feel. At the back, a door leads out to the now rare outside toilets. There’s a few football photographs / prints – Franny Lee, George Best etc – but nothing like the fine collection of The Circus Tavern. There’s a small unobtrusive TV high up in one corner of the room which, on my visit was showing highlights of the evening’s earlier game at Old Trafford against Fulham. The Grey Horse is a Hydes pub and, on my recent evening visit, was offering Original, Mild and the seasonal Berry Good. Hydes beers have never struck me as being particularly distinctive and my visit did nothing to change that perception, with both the Original and the Mild ( £ 2.80p and £ 2.60p respectively ) being rather bland and undistinguished. Perhaps I should have gone for the Berry Good. The pub is listed in the 2012 CAMRA Good Beer Guide. This is a friendly and welcoming pub that tends to attract a more mature clientele and, with more of a local feel than The Circus Tavern, you might want to call in if that pub is too crowded

This is a small, homely pub. I had an excellent pint of Hyde’s Original; they had another couple of ales on, including a Hyde’s Mild, which was also excellent according to one of my companions. There were a handful of small round metal framed tables, plus some upholstered benches and a few small stools. The walls were adorned with numerous photographs, including, predictably I suppose, those of George Best and Sir Alex Ferguson. The walls and ceiling had false dark varnished beams, I suppose to give the place something of a country pub appeal, but for some reason didn’t look out of place here. This is a nice little pub with none of the modern foibles that have spoilt so many pubs (at least in my native London). I doubt whether I’ll get the opportunity to get back to this one during my current trip – but I certainly wouldn’t mind paying a return visit some time.

Friendly pub with a good atmosphere and decent beer. The only problem is that once you've got the grey horse in you can't get anyone else in. Probably gets away with it because it's bigger than the Circus Tavern nearby.