The Hare & Hounds, Manchester

A classic street corner boozer with very fine exterior and internal glazed tiling,PSM says it all below.Rightfully listed in the CAMRA historic interior inventory,there are three sections each with their own bar access.The front room has a padded bench seat running the full length of the perimeter and long standing but departed customers are awarded a brass plaque above their seat. The central corridor bar is mainly for vertical drinking,while the thinner real room is charming and furnished traditionally. Three handpumps operational offering on my trip Doom Bar,Robinson's Dizzy Blonde and a regular Holts Bitter with an illuminated sign affixed to the handpump. Although the ale selection is mundane,it's well worth a look around ,it's beautifully preserved and so are most of the customers.

Just a couple of minutes from Victoria station, the Hare and Hounds is a wonderfully well preserved pub dating back to the early 1800's and boasting an intact inter-war interior. The pub sports some excellent external tiling that really catches the eye from across the road, and this theme is continued as you enter into a beautiful porch with glazed tiles which continue through to the drinking lobby beyond. The focal point of the pub is the lobby, which runs down the left hand side of the building and provides the main access point to the servery, which is to the right. The bar has a lovely dark wood counter and a spectacular canopy fitted with leaded glazed panes. There are limited seating options here, with just a couple of tables and chairs positioned around the extremities of the room, but I can imagine this is sensible, as the area offers ample standing room for busier periods. Those seeking seating options are better off in either the front or rear bar, where plentiful options can be found. The front bar has plush banquettes and some attractive obscured windows with decorative banding. The area around the bar has some more glazed tiling and there is a high shelf running around the room with various bottles, plates, jugs and the like on display. Meanwhile, the rear bar, which is accessed through a smart doorway with similar glasswork to that on the bar canopy, offers more well upholstered banquette and bench seating supplemented by numerous low stools. The room is decorated with some rather old-fashioned wallpaper and portraits of various old entertainers, none of whom I recognised. There is a skylight near the entrance to the room and a simple tiled fireplace with a small burner inside on the right hand wall. I was a little surprised to note a TV screen towards the rear, although it was turned off in favour of a fine Motown and soul soundtrack. I visited not long after opening on a Saturday morning and was surprised to find it already doing a pretty good trade, with the back room quickly filling up with old boys, each of whom was greeted by name by the friendly barmaid. The pub is well known for its Holt's Bitter, which was available in both cask and keg formats, but a couple of guest ales were also available in the shape of Robinson's Dizzy Blonde and Sharps Doom Bar. I opted for the Dizzy Blonde, a beer I always seem to have great success with in terms of quality, and it was no exception here with a well kept pint going down nicely as I whiled away the time before heading off for my onward train. This is a lovely pub that is well worth a look just for the remarkably well preserved interior, which must rank it very highly in terms of Manchester's heritage pubs. The beer range may not excite in the same way some of the city's top alehouses can and I may well have been the youngest customer by a good 20 years, but with beer this good and such friendly service and convivial atmosphere, it's hard to knock the place. A surefire winner for the pub traditionalist and well worth a look for anyone looking for a charming, down to earth city centre pub.

A corner boozer that doesnt look like its changed in decades. Only Holts bitter with a handpump currently not in use. Directly opposite the bus station.

The Hare and Hounds was my first port of call during a recent Thursday crawl around the area. It consists of a bar area in the centre where there is a flight of stairs, that I didn’t climb, as well as front and back rooms. During my visit there was a large contingent of older customers who were enjoying singing some old time songs. It was very loud, but there was a great atmosphere and I was able to escape by sitting in the front room. The bar is stocked with standard draught and one of the three hand pumps was unused leaving Joseph Holt’s Bitter and Wadworth’s Old Timer as the ale options. This is a good old fashioned traditional boozer that is well worth a visit, if only to see what pubs used to be like.

Called in here around 11.40 on a Monday morning and the pub was busy. The pub had a good atmosphere and a friendly manager. This is a National Inventory pub and is well worth a look. Pity there wasn't a bit more choice on the bar.

Close to Shudehill tram stop and Manchester Victoria Station is The Hare and Hounds, a real locals pub with a small but attractive tiled frontage. Outside it advertises “traditional beer, darts and crib”. We also see that it’s yet another former Tetleys house. We enter the pub into a narrow corridor which widens to reach a typical central drinking lobby. It’s a splendid old fashioned traditional interior here with much brown and green tilework, polished wood and a bar counter that retains leaded glass sash window drop down screens. As well as the large lobby, there’s two rooms – one in front and one behind. These are traditionally furnished and include fixed banquette seating and bell pushes. The front bar is the vaults and has some tiling on the wall that forms the boundary with the lobby. Service from this room is via a hatch to the main bar servery. The rear room is similar in style, but much smaller. The pub is listed in CAMRA’s National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors. On my recent mid afternoon visit, a singer with a keyboard in the rear room was belting out all the old favourites ( Neil Diamond, Elvis etc ), with considerable gusto to a boisterous but appreciative mixed crowd of more mature local customers, some of whom could pass as extras from Last of the Summer Wine, leading to an atmosphere rather reminiscent of an earlier era. The friendly landlord was bringing round large trays of free hot sausage rolls, chatting animatedly with all and sundry and contributing in no small measure to the general feeling of bonhomie. As expected, there was only one real ale on – a typically bittery pint of Holts at a cheap £ 2 ( against the pub price list price of £ 2.30p ). This is a real gem, a splendid survivor so close to the City Centre. The restricted real ale range will certainly not discourage me from revisiting when I’m next in the area. Try and do this one if you can