Talk:Meetup/Manchester/23

Manchester very busy on 18 May

Attendees would be advised to allow plenty of extra time for their journey. Its the Great Manchester Run on the 18th, so a number of major roads in the city centre will be closed. The race starts very close to the Waterhouse, on Portland Street. With 30,000 runners and large numbers of spectators the area will be VERY busy, as will public transport links. The final wave sets off at 12:30, so the event will still be in progress. If you are caught the wrong side of the course you will have to make a long detour. Road closures are listed here. It is also the rugby league "Magic Weekend" at the Etihad Stadium, so 40,000 rugby supporters will be heading there as well adding to the congestion. Oldelpaso (talk) 16:38, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

Excellent point. We'll have to find an alternative, further away from the race. How about the Jolly Angler on Ducie Street? Any other suggestions welcome! Cheers, Bazonka (talk) 16:40, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Options

It seems that the Jolly Angler operates a "members only" policy on matchdays at the Etihad, and although it's not a Man City match it may still apply, and if not, I think it could still be very busy - also, I don't think it does food. So I've been looking for alternative locations in the other direction, away from both the Etihad and the route of the Run. I think it's going to be very busy, so I think we need to find somewhere not too central, and not too close to the stations. Some possibilities are:

• The Church Inn - looks really nice, but not particularly close to any stations. It's a walkable distance from Oxford Road. Far enough away to be quiet (hopefully), but not close enough to be convenient.
• Footage - a bit closer, but it prides itself on its big screen TVs, so it could be a bit on the loud side.
• Joshua Brooks - turns into a nightclub in the evening, but probably OK during the day.
• Wetherspoons Piccadilly - Wetherspoons, so you know what to expect, but it's more central, so could be very busy.
• The Bulls Head - right next to Piccadilly, so probably busy.

I don't know what's best! My gut feeling is for the Church Inn or Joshua Brooks. What do you think? Bazonka (talk) 20:14, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

• The Bulls Head is good, but it is only a small pub. We used to meet in Wetherspoons Piccadilly (or at least one version of it), but that did tend to get busy and it's an open-plan pub so it can be noisy. Joshua Brooks might work well. Footage is definitely on the loud side, and is best avoided - but close to that, Sandbar is good (it's the local pub that my uni department tends to go to). I've never been to The Church Inn, so I have no opinion there. Other good options relatively near the city centre might be Britons Protection or Rain Bar. I hope that those comments help more than they confuse the possibilities further. ;-) Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 23:47, 14 May 2014 (UTC)
• Another group that I belonged to used to meet for a short while at Wetherspoons Piccadilly, but we gave it up very quickly. Its open plan design means that if there are a lot of people there, it can be so noisy that group conversation is virtually impossible; it can get really crowded; we tried escaping to the one part of the pub which gets less crowded, but we found that part was sometimes unbearably hot. I have no knowledge of any of the other pubs suggested. JamesBWatson (talk) 06:47, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

Let's go for the Sandbar. Looks OK, and hopefully is a) not too far away from town to be an inconvenience, and b) far enough away from town not to be packed with revellers. Thanks for the suggestion Mike. See you all on Sunday, Bazonka (talk) 17:13, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

Why the switch to Sundays?

I won't ever be able to make a Sunday afternoon event, but maybe that's a good thing. :-) Malleus Fatuorum (talk) 20:41, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

Because the best pub for the event (The Waterhouse) is always ram-packed on Saturdays, but (with the probable exception of this weekend) is generally OK on Sundays. We can always switch back to Saturdays if someone can suggest a better venue... (see thread above). Bazonka (talk) 20:53, 14 May 2014 (UTC)