Manchester bar Schofield’s has put the city on the map in a whole new way after making it into the extremely prestigious World’s 50 Best Bars list.
It is the first time a cocktail bar from Manchester has been featured in the annual list since it began.
The World’s 50 best represents the ultimate international guide to the world’s top bars and drinking destinations, providing an annual ranking of bars as voted for by 650 drinks experts from across the globe.
The list is revealed annually at The World’s 50 Best Bars awards, which will take place this year in Barcelona on 4 October 2022.
Image: Schofield’s
Image: Schofield’s
However, every year alongside the 50 Best the organisation also publishes an extended 51-100 list featuring some of the world’s best drinking destinations – including Manchester favourite Schofield’s.
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The eponymous bar from Bury-born brothers Dan and Joe Schofield ranks highly at number 59, sitting above London bars Three Sheets (#72), Side Hustle (#75) and Donovan Bar (#89) in what is a real coup for Manchester’s cocktail bartending scene.
Speaking on the award win, the brothers told The Manc: “We are honoured to have been placed as the 59th best bar in the world!
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“Especially when the organisation informed us we are the only bar in the country to have placed in the list outside of London since 2008 when the list officially started.
“It’s great to be part of this wonderful bar and restaurant scene in Manchester.”
Despite having only been open a year and a half, the bar has amassed an armory of accolades. Earlier this year it was named UK Bar of the Year and New Bar of the Year at the Class Bar Mag awards, making history in the process as the first venue to ever win both.
Opened inside the Art Deco Sunlight House, previously home to historic Manchester boozer the Old Grapes, on the menu you’ll find a list of carefully-curated cocktails, beers, wine, champagne and small plates.
Image: Schofield’s
Image: Schofield’s
Offering a mix of refined classics like sazeracs, martinis, negronis and manhattans, alongside house signatures like the ‘Lone Tree’, ‘Tattle Tale’ and ‘Guinness Punch’, the brothers draw on their combined 30 years of experience to create something truly special.
They have also launched two more bars in the city since opening Schofield’s: Atomeca on Deansgate Square and, just last week, the new drinking den Sterling, which is found in an old bank vault underneath Gary Neville’s Stock Exchange Hotel.
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Open from 12pm – 1.30am Wednesday to Sunday, walk-ins are welcome but you can reserve a table if you wish. To see the full menu at Schofield’s click here.
Feature image – Schofield’s
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Luxury Manchester gym Blok confirms permanent closure after weeks of uncertainty
Daisy Jackson
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure, weeks after the doors to the premium fitness facility mysteriously closed.
Around a fortnight ago, members began to arrive to their classes to find the gym on Ducie Street locked up and a forfeiture notice on the door – but at the time, Blok said that it was fighting to reopen.
Sadly, in an email sent to members today, its founder has confirmed that the studio is now permanently closed.
Blok – which has several very successful sites down in London – said that its relationship with its landlord has ‘broken down to a point where trust has been lost’.
The gym wrote that it’s been left with ‘no workable way forward’.
They said: “BLOK Manchester was a space built by our loyal and dedicated community. Whether you joined us for one class or one hundred, we are deeply grateful. You helped create something genuinely special in an incredible city.”
In the immediate future, they said they’ll be supporting the team of fantastic trainers who worked here, as well as looking after members.
Members will be contacted within a few hours with options and refunds owed.
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure. Credit: The Manc Group
CEO and founder Ed Stanbury said: “While this marks the end of a chapter, we don’t see it as the end of our story in Manchester. We’re already speaking with developers about potential future sites and remain committed to returning to the city when the time is right.
“Thank you for being part of our story so far. Let’s shape the future of wellness. The mission continues.”
Commenting on Blok’s Instagram post – its first in almost a fortnight – people have been sharing their sadness at the closure of its Manchester site.
One person wrote: “beautiful space, beautiful staff and beautiful community.”
Another said: “Sending love to all the instructors !! :(((( gutted”
Someone else commented: “THE BEST CLASSES. I’m gutted.”
‘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 -
27th September 2022 
