Manchester has been ranked one of the worst cities in the country for binge drinking, it has been revealed as part of a new study.
According to research undertaken by Private Rehab Clinic Delamere, Manchester is in the UK’s top 5 when it comes to cities that are considered to have toxic drinking cultures.
Coming in at number 4 on the list, we scored highly for alcoholism and hospital admissions, as well as having a large number of bars, clubs and off-licenses.
The study also looked at how many bottomless drinking locations a city had, as well as considering factors like drinking events, alcohol delivery services and alcohol tours, before ranking each city out of 80.
Overall, Manchester was given a score of 17.1.
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Image: Delamere / JBH
Other cities included in the top five worst drinking locations were London, which took the number one spot with a score of 0, and Leeds, which came in at second place with a score of 11 – partially thanks to its excessive number of bottomless offerings.
Completing the top three was Bristol with a score of 16.6 out of a possible 80, reports The Hoot
As the most populated city in the country, London had a huge 26,580 alcohol-related hospital admissions recorded between 2019-2020, 190 bottomless drinking locations and 1,068 bars and nightclubs that all contributed to its toxic drinking culture.
The Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities for Drinking Culture
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London – 0/80
Leeds – 11/80
Bristol – 16.6/80
Manchester – 17.1/80
Liverpool – 19.9/80
Birmingham – 22.3/80
Newcastle – 25.6/80
Nottingham – 31.1/80
Sheffield -31.2/80
Brighton -32/80
When compared to other countries in Europe, the UK was in the top three “at risk of dangerous drinking levels” with a score of 17.7/80.
Martin Preston, Founder and Chief Executive at Delamere, shared his insight on why binge drinking rates are so high in the UK:
Image: Delamere / JBH
“The coronavirus pandemic caused an alarming spike in binge drinking levels across the UK, the isolation caused many people to turn to drinking high levels of alcohol at home.
Drinking at home, rather than at a pub, removes the need to wait between drinks and also the worry around spending too much money. For example, the average bottle of wine in the UK costs around £6, which is what some glasses of the same wine can cost in pubs and bars.
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The endless hours spent at home during the lockdowns meant that 18.1% of people were drinking at a high-risk level. While one in four (22%) of adults had increased their alcohol consumption, causing 10% of people to worry about the strain of alcohol on their health.
Image: Delamere / JBH
As well as this, our research found that the top three cities with the highest binge drinking problems had a large number of drinks delivery services, so the need to leave the house to buy alcohol was eliminated.
For more information about drinking culture in the UK and the results of this study, including tips for combatting binge drinking and alcohol dependancy, visit the Delamere website.
This Manchester bar serves a bottomless cheese fondue with endless beer and wine
Georgina Pellant
There’s a bar in Manchester serving a bottomless cheese fondue with endless wine and beer, and it honestly sounds like the perfect treat.
While it might scream cosy winter night in, with a huge outdoor terrace, The Mews is also a firm favourite during the summer months.
Add in a board of melt-in-the-mouth charcuterie, springy pieces of garlic sourdough and a host of crunchy cheese biscuits, and you’ve got yourself the ideal afternoon if you ask us.
But there’s more. Alongside all that cheese and meat and bread, included in the price of The Mews’ bottomless fondue, cheese lovers can also enjoy 90 minutes of non-stop drinks.
Bottomless cheese fondue at The Mews on Deansgate in Manchester. (Credit: The Manc Eats)
Costing £37.50 each, included in the deal is a huge pot of melted Italian Fontina cheese served with homemade garlic croutons, sourdough crackers, and slices of British charcuterie.
You’ll also get to enjoy an hour and a half of endless pints of house pilsner and carafes of red or white wine to enjoy alongside.
Serving up to six people, the bottomless cheese fondue is available only when you pre-book, so make sure to get in touch ahead of your visit to let The Mews know that you’re coming.
If you’re not on the sauce, you can opt for the cheese fondue alone. Without the booze, it’s quite a bit cheaper at £25 for one, and £2.50 on top for any additional people who want to get stuck in.
Housed up on Deansgate Mews, just behind the main hustle and bustle of Deansgate, there’s plenty of space inside as well as a large, secluded terrace that is quite the suntrap (when the Manchester sun is shining).
‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Georgina Pellant -
30th June 2022 
