The Wharf, Macclesfield

Traditionally decorated corner pub opened out into one U shaped room with a central U shaped servery. Old board (bleached) floor, banquette seating and Britannia tables tick the boxes, there’s two dart boards at one end on a plank wall which doesn’t. The counter is decorated with panels from canal boats and is a solid Victorian looking job, the Macclesfield canal isn’t far away. Five pulls grace the end of the counter towards the main road, the not bad keg choice is at the other end of the counter. Three pulls were in use, two with Abbeydale beers and fortunately a Salopian beer on the third, sadly only average quality so maybe that’s why it’s no longer a GBG listed pub. A few old Camra awards are still on display and there are some GBGs on a book shelf.

This is a nicely presented, backstreet boozer located just a short way out of the town centre, albeit on the wrong side of rail line to easily slip into a crawl. Inside, you'll find a nice, opened out interior based around a former, multiple-room layout. You enter into a bare boarded bar area with the servery in a C-shape, directly opposite the front door. The bar has a nice panelled counter with a painted frieze which resembles a canal boat's livery, beneath a matching canopy and simple bar back. To the left of the entrance is a raised seating area with banquettes around the perimeter and a nice fireplace on the end wall which the landlord was busy trying to light when I arrived shortly after opening. Similar banquettes stand to the right, in a bare boarded space with lots of low stools in support. A partitioning wall partly screens the rear seating area, which mainly has basic tables and chairs, whilst the walls are a mix of exposed timbers or patterned wallpaper, with a dartboard on the back wall. The pub has been decorated in a modest, traditional style with lots of landscape paintings, plus a nice picture of the pub itself, as well as old brewery mirrors and other beer related bits. A cool Britpop and indie soundtrack played in the background, although there was only myself and one other bloke there to enjoy it. There were three handpulls in operation, out of the five on the bar, with the line up comprising Doctor Morrons Our Wayne, Acorn Yorkshire Pride (£4.40 a pint) and Taylors Landlord. The bar staff were nice enough and the barmaid pulled the line through before serving me as the first customer of the day. The Yorkshire Pride was a good drop and I got chatting to the only other customer who was a mine of information about the local pub scene. I really liked this place and thought it was a classic backstreet boozer with a welcoming feel, pleasant traditional interior and some well-kept beer to go at. One of the better pubs I visited in Macclesfield and well worth the short walk out of town to visit. Date of visit - 16th January 2024

Not my first time in the Wharf, in fact I was here with Ray (see review below) in August 2015. Then as now I was on a crawl, in fact towards the end of a crawl, when note taking has lapsed into illegibility and brain cells are at their least able. I wrote no review on that occasion, and on my more recent visit my notes read, "Corner pub near canal. 4hp. Good beer." I'll expand on that last point to the extent that I know I had a half of Landlord, which I rated NBSS 3.5, but I've no idea what it cost as it was someone else's round. Note to self: must do better next time.

The Wharf has a seating area in the front left with banquettes and a fireplace with burner in the left wall. A U-shaped bar from the left wall serves this front seating area as wall as standing room to the right and a smaller seating area at the rear not dissimilar to that already described. Two dartboards are on the rear wall to the right and there is a small seating area front right. My visit was on a quiet Monday evening so there was little going on other than a bit of background music. I think the dart team must have been playing away. Standard and premium keg was available alongside five hand pumps, four of which were in operation. These were drawing Storm Brewing’s Force, Abbeydale’s Serenity, Pictish Brewing’s Galena and Bridge Pale. I liked it in here and plan to return at a busier time to see what it’s like.

Quirky pub on the ‘wrong side’ of the rail line. The interior is opened-out in a disjointed manner. There’s a pretty painted lower servery, wood floor and fabric patterned seating; red is the main colour scheme. Five pumps with an ambitious four cask on a monsoon Tuesday evening. My Osset Blonde was served in a silly goblet glass but just about passed muster (NBSS 3). Something about the place just didn’t sit right with me for whatever reason. The local CAMRAs like it, branch POTY in 2022 so I read and GBG23 listed. 6.5