Budget Boozing – The Lord Nelson, Urmston
Like many of the London-based Publog correspondents, I’m a fan of the Sam Smith’s pub. Leaving aside the tastiness of their beers and the pleasing trad interiors, the winning factor for a skinflint like me is the sheer cheapness of a pint.
On a recent visit to Manchester, it was a pleasant surprise to find myself in a pub selling Joseph Holt’s beers (less surprising for anyone living in Greater Manchester as there are around 125 Holt’s pubs). Their Ayingerbrau-equivalent Crystal lager sells for ‘1.30 a pint while the stronger Diamond will empty your pocket to the tune of ‘1.40. The Diamond proved to be a crisp, easy drinking pint and was just the ticket after a jalfrezi in Rusholme. For those who like to keep it real with their ale, they do a bitter and a dark mild for ‘1.10 and ‘1.04 respectively. Sadly, on this occasion, none of us felt up to drinking the mild but the bitter was adjudged to be The Business.
The pub itself was large and comfortable with enough strategically placed partitions to keep things cosy. Unfortunately, a preponderance of HMS Victory-related decoration only served to remind me that I had to travel back to Portsmouth and its disgraceful lack of sub-‘2 beers the next day.