The New Oxford, Salford

Located in Bexley Square, next to Salford Town Hall, the New Oxford is arguably the premier alehouse on either side of the Irwell. It certainly stakes a good claim thanks to what I think amounted to 18 hand pumps, although I may easily have miscounted. Ale options in the front bar on my recent visit were Beer Studio Mount Lublin, Wells Bombardier Pale Ale, Slaters Queen Bee, Bude Porthbud Pale Ale, Purple Moose Elderflower Ale, Green Duck Rain Dance, Tigertops Night Train, Empire Porter, Chadwicks Dark Side and Dorking Number One, with a load more on the pumps in the rear bar, all handily listed on boards opposite the bar. These boards also noted three cider options and a good keg range which included plenty of obscure Belgian beers - a feature of the pub, with many more Belgian offerings in bottled form. I tried a pint of the Rain Dance (£3.30), served to me by a very friendly old school landlady and in pretty good shape - not always a given in pubs with so many handpulls. It is perhaps fitting that the pub offers a large range of Belgian beers, given that the main bar feels a bit like a typical Belgian 'brown bar'. A corner entrance takes you into a bare boarded L-shaped room with some nice checker tiling around the servery. The bar has a tongue and groove counter lined with comfy bar stools, a simple mirrored bar back and a lovely stained glass gantry. Smart banquette seating runs opposite the bar and along the back wall, supported by some wide, well padded low stools, whilst a couple of high tables and stools are squeezed into the far corner of the room. The walls have been painted red with white uppers, much of which has been covered by the inevitable pump clip collection and those aforementioned beer boards. A few bits of breweriana, an Irish rugby scarf and some posters for live sports coverage round out the decor, which is for the most part kept simple but effective. The rear bar has a kitchen serving hatch on the back wall, but beyond that I couldn't properly explore as the room was in darkness with some of the seating stacked up, although some customers did go in there towards the end of my stay. TV screens in both rooms were showing At The Races and Sky Sports News with music playing in the background. This is a nice pub with friendly staff and locals and, of course, that beer line up. As beer exhibition pubs go, it certainly delivers and will no doubt be a big draw for real ale fans, beer tickers and Belgian beer aficionados, although whether it will appeal to anyone outside those niche groups is up for debate. I enjoyed my time here and would certainly like to visit again to give those handpulls a bit more of a workout.

A corker of a pub with about a billion handpumps spread over 2 rooms. A fantastic variety of ales to choose from and if you drink Belgian stuff you're in. Recommended.

This pub is fantastic for Belgium and euro beers. You cant help but get bladdered in here because the majority of their beer is 5%+! BE WARNED THOUGH TO REMORTGAGE YOUR HOUSE BEFORE ENTERING!! The landlord can blow hot or cold depending on his mood swings.

When we visited this pub it was called the Oxford,the pub is situated just off the busy chapel street. Once inside the pub had two rooms and we had a drink in the room at the front which was fairly basic but still a decent enough room to have a drink in. This pub used to be a Wilsons tied house and there were two real ales on the bar i had a drink of Wilsons bitter and this was a nice drink,the other beer was Wilsons mild. This was a decent enough pub to start our Salford crawl in. Pub visited 12/11/1988