Rising Sun, Manchester

Attempted to visit on a Saturday night back in May, to find the front door firmly shut and locked at 9pm. Hopefully a one-off, but there was no note on the door to explain the early closure, and we were left disappointed. The cynic in me wonders if erratic opening hours and the poor ale selection mentioned by Mr Scrumpy below suggest this pub is on the decline - let's hope we both just had a bit of bad luck and caught the place on off days.

A single long room, the bar at one end. Several real ales including a stout, plus two real ciders. The somewhat un-publike utilitarian furnishings let it down, making it feel almost like a social club. Nice section of wood panelling but definitely lacks the charm of a Manchester city centre pub. Otherwise, friendly and busy and the beer was fine.

Return visit on Saturday night. It was pretty quiet, though perhaps the Dry January lot are keeping away. Eight hand pulls at the bar but of those three were dedicated to cider and two were off, leaving three real ales to choose from. My Epic IPA by Settle was decent enough though, and my drinking accomplice had the Black Stout by Blackedge, also good. I can't really put my finger on it but for me this pub doesn't seem to have the same charm that it once did.

A long corridor (with toilets) leads to a long room with a bar counter on the left, high tables nearby and bench seating towards the back. Or so say my notes made at the time. Alternatively, we could enter the pub through a door which leads through an area with bench seating against the front wall to high tables near the bar, which is on the right; toilets are down a corridor which leads to the back door. Old black and white photos, plus some advertising mirrors, adorn the walls. Eight hand pumps on the bar had six real ales and a cider at the time of my visit (see photos). I went for the Black Edge Black 4%, a fairly new brewery to me, having first come across its beer in Carnforth the week before, though I see from Untapped that they've been brewing in Horwich for seven years. I must get out more. Their Black was in very good condition and I would be happy to return to this pub another time.

Apparently, the Rising Sun is one of only 3 pubs in the Manchester City Centre to have a front and rear entrance (one on Lloyd Street & one on Queen Street). I agree this is another good ale house with an interesting range of different styles of Ales as listed by the fellow crawler below. I went for the Salopian Darwin’s Origins which was in good form. So, in agreement, a decent pub.

A fairly basic pub with a long, narrow opened out room inside, it has street entrances at either end of the pub.There were seven pumps with beers I would describe as mid range on the interest scale. My Salopian Darwins Origin was well cared for.Certainly worth inclusion on a pub crawl.