The Dockyard, Salford

The Dockyard is a large open plan high ceiling drinking barn with industrial ambience. The U-shaped bar along the centre of the rear wall faces high tables and stools that run along the floor to ceiling front windows. In the right rear is an open kitchen which faces picnic style tables. During a recent Monday afternoon visit there was some background music playing and the large projector screen on the left wall was airing ITV daytime television. In any other pub this would be a no-no, but I suppose this abomination can be overlooked as the Dockyard is in the middle of Media City. However, the excessively loud afternoon music could be toned down a bit. The bar supports a premium keg range and I counted eight hand pumps. These were drawing Sharp’s Doom Bar, Beartown Brewery’s Trap, Rooster’s Napolean Complex, Serious Brewing’s Goldrush, St Austell Trevail and the house Dockyard Pale Ale. Food is available all day; the burgers start at £8. I would stop off here for another beer if passing but wouldn’t stay all evening.

This large modern bar, part of a small chain which also includes its namesake in Spinningfields, has a prominent location next to the BBC’s Media City complex on Salford Quays. The pub comprises one single, vast, concrete floored room with a large servery to the rear and a long row of wooden pillars through the centre which help to break things up a little. The bar has a nice counter which has been made to make it look like a beer barrel and behind this is a high bar back which incorporates a blackboard listing the full beer range. The large front windows have padded banquettes beneath them, each formed into pleasant looking booths, whilst the pillars behind these have high stools and drinking ledges around them. To either side of the room, mixed seating options appear, including lots of regular tables and chairs that are ideal for those wanting to eat, and a raised platform to the left with some sofas on it. Entertainment comes in the form of a table football game in the front left corner, which a group of children were certainly getting their money’s worth from on our visit, whilst a massive screen on one wall was showing a muted kids movie, also viewable from a number of smaller screens dotted around the room. There’s a nice fireplace in a central position near the entrance which helped warm punters up on a bitterly cold winter’s evening and an open kitchen to the rear right also offer the hope of some residual heat. For warmer months, a good deal of bench seating is available outside the front of the pub. The welcome sight of a long row of handpulls greeted us at the bar, with the options on this occasion comprising Great Heck Chopper, Titanic Plum Porter Reserve, Cross Bay Buddy, Tiny Rebel Stay Puft, Lancaster Blonde and a house beer called Dockyard Ale, of unknown provenance. Added to this, a great craft keg range was also available along with several bottle or can options. I tried the Stay Puft, which was probably on its way out, and my other half enjoyed one of their ciders. This is a pretty good, modern bar that suffers a little from feeling like a drinking barn, but was helped by a good crowd who created a nice atmosphere, in spite of the fact that there were a lot of noisy kids tearing around the place. This place looked far preferable to the other bars I saw around the Quays development and would be my venue of choice if I were to venture back this way again.

Official site of The Dockyard - www.dockyard.pub

Official site of The Dockyard - www.dockyard.pub

One of many modern bar / restaurants in the Media City UK development, but this looks more inviting than most because the front patio seating area catches the sun for most of the day. The interior also benefits from having a tall ceiling and full-height windows on two sides, but done in a way that avoids it looking or sounding cavernous. I found six different cask beers available from a total of eight handpumps, including their 'house' ale, the green-hopped Green Eyed Monster from Cross Bay (£4.00) and examples from Sonnet 43, Gasworks, Bootleg and Titanic. Also has seven craft keg taps on the bar-back. Overall, much better than I expected.