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.
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!
“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.
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
News
‘Dazzling’ Victorian silver sculpture goes on public display in Greater Manchester after fears it was lost
Emily Sergeant
A long-lost masterpiece of Victorian silverwork has been saved and is now on display to the public in Greater Manchester.
Anyone taking a trip over to the National Trust’s historic Dunham Massey property, on the border of Greater Manchester into Cheshire, this summer will get to see the ‘dazzling’ sculpture called Stags in Bradgate Park – which was commissioned by a former owner in a defiant gesture to the society that shunned him.
The dramatic sculpture of two rutting Red Deer stags, commissioned in 1855 by George Harry Grey, 7th Earl of Stamford, was said to be an ‘act of love and rebellion’.
It also serves as a symbol of ‘locking horns’ with the society that ostracised him over his marriage to a woman considered ‘beneath him’.
“This isn’t just silver – it’s a story,” says James Rothwell, who is the National Trust‘s curator for decorative arts.
“A story of a man who fell in love with a woman that society deemed unworthy. When the Earl married Catherine Cox, whose colourful past was said to have included performing in a circus, Victorian high society was scandalised. Even Queen Victoria shunned the couple at the opera and local gentry at the horse races in Cheshire turned their backs on them.”
Modelled by Alfred Brown and crafted by royal goldsmiths Hunt & Roskell, Stags in Bradgate Park is a meticulously-detailed depiction of nature, and was considered a ‘sensation’ in its day.
Showing the rutting deer positioned on a rocky outcrop with gnarled hollow oaks, it graced the pages of the Illustrated London News, was exhibited at the London International Exhibition of 1862, and at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867 – both of which were events that drew millions of visitors.
A ‘dazzling’ Victorian silver sculpture has gone on public display in Greater Manchester / Credit: Joe Wainwright | James Dobson (via Supplied)
The silver centrepiece was the celebrity art of its time, paraded through streets and admired by the public like no other.
Gradually over the years, some of the Earl of Stamford’s silver collection has been re-acquired for Dunham Massey, and this particular world-renowned sculpture, thought to be lost for decades and feared to have been melted down, has miraculously survived with its ‘dramatic’ central component being all that is left.
“The sculpture is not only a technical marvel, with its lifelike depiction of Bradgate Park’s rugged landscape and wildlife, but also a dramatic human story key to the history of Dunham Massey,” added Emma Campagnaro, who is the Property Curator at Dunham Massey.
“It speaks of nature, of craftsmanship, and of a couple who chose each other over status and what others thought of them.”
The sculpture has now gone on display at Dunham Massey from Thursday 26 June.
Featured Image – James Dobson (via Supplied)
News
Lewis Capaldi announces MASSIVE comeback gig in Manchester this year
Thomas Melia
Everyone’s favourite Scottish ballad-maker, Lewis Capaldi, is heading out on tour across the UK, including a massive Manchester date.
Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi is ready to tug at our heartstrings again right in front of our eyes as he announces a new UK arena tour.
This huge announcement comes right after his surprise set at the UK’s biggest music event of the year, Glastonbury, where he made a heroic return to the Pyramid Stage just two years after being forced to pull out.
Capaldi is known for writing some of the most notable and emotive hits of the late 2010s and early 2020s, including a long list of anthems such as ‘Someone You Loved’, ‘Bruises’ and ‘Before You Go’.
His monster of a hit ‘Someone You Loved’ has surpassed 3.9 billion views and is the UK’s most-streamed song of all time, so it is safe to say that his presence has been well and truly missed.
To many fans’ delight, the singer has stepped back into the spotlight and is ready to sing his heart out live at a variety of arenas across the UK, including Co-op Live right here in Manchester.
Now, in a post on his official Instagram account announcing this upcoming UK and Ireland arena tour, it’s good to see the Scottish powerhouse hasn’t lost his wit and charm as he jokes, “About time I got back to work.”
These shows are set to be in high demand as the singer has also revealed these upcoming dates, “Will be my only shows in the UK, Ireland or Europe this year! Would love to see ya there.”
On the back of his glorious Glasto return, Capaldi has dropped a huge heart-wrencher titled ‘Survive’ which offers more insight into the struggles and challenges the singer has been facing.
There is no confirmation of whether this new single marks the launch of a bigger project or not, but we can’t wait to scream his hits at the top of our lungs, regardless of when he pays Manchester a visit later this year.
Georgina Pellant -
27th September 2022 
