The region has a rich history to tell the world about and a wealth of well-deserved achievements to boast, but it looks as though the ‘rainy city’ has earned itself a new nickname by topping this frisky list.
It’s true that we may be in the middle of a global pandemic – with the UK having entered into its third national lockdown – but that hasn’t stopped the world getting down, dirty and dogging, with the latest research by DatingRoo showing that there has been an 85% increase in people searching for hookup spots, like cruising and dogging locations, likely due to the pent-up sexual tension and extra free time we’ve found ourselves with.
And yes, Manchester has taken the number one spot on the top 10 rankings.
The Hookup Hotspots Map by dating and sex experts DatingRoo has revealed that Manchester is the dogging capital of the UK, with Mancunians not wanting to miss out on the lockdown loving.
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Manchester clocks in at an impressive 131 outdoor hookup locations, with car parks of course among the top spots for casual outdoor-loving, and Silburn Way at Rhodes Lodges and Heaton Hall Park being firm favourites with locals.
But the adventures aren’t limited to just parks.
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Rank
City
Number of Locations
1
Manchester
131
2
Birmingham
103
3
Chelmsford
85
4
Liverpool
82
5
Bristol
76
6
Cardiff
76
7
London
67
8
Leeds
63
9
Edinburgh
62
10
Newcastle
59
Mancs apparently love to get risky in more public areas too, as Ancoats canal, Tesco Supermarket in Cheetham Hill, and Central Manchester Library are just a few of the daredevil places people love to have sex.
Elsewhere on the list, in second place is Birmingham with 103 spots, in third place is Chelmsford with 85, and heading back up north, in fourth place is Liverpool with 82 sexy hotspots.
And it’s not just England that loves to get frisky either.
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Cardiff takes fifth place with 76 spots, and meanwhile in Yorkshire, Sheffield, Leeds and Doncaster all appear in the top 20 cities.
While dogging may be stereotypically more of a British fetish, if we take a look overseas, Spain completely blows the UK out of the water when it comes to outdoor hookup and cruising locations, with an impressive 15,872 sexy hot spots.
The UK does come in second place though, with 4,616 hookup locations, but with no white sandy beaches, the top locations here were car parks and off road laybys – You know, the classic romantic spots.
You can find more information and check out the full top 20 list via the DatingRoo website here.
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‘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…
Benson Boone has announced a headline gig in Manchester – and it’s a big one
Danny Jones
American pop sensation and unrivalled king of unnecessary front flips, Benson Boone, has just announced his first-ever headline Manchester arena gig as part of a new arena tour.
The solo artist and acrobatic chart-topper has seen a meteoric rise in the US and, as is usually the case across the Atlantic, he’s become increasingly popular over here too.
Benson may have performed here in Manchester before as part of the 2024 MTV EMAs and for a small show at The Deaf Institute, but now big fans have the added Boone of getting to watch a standalone show at one of Europe’s leading indoor entertainment venues.
Announced on Friday, 30 May, the 22-year-old will be making his way across the pond from Washington for a limited run of UK concerts, with a date at Co-op Live arena being one of just five dates.
Extending his ‘American Heart Tour’ ahead of the release of his eponymous sophomore record, with this autumn leg, Co-op Live will mark his individual visit to 0161.
The Grammy-nominated artist has earned several nods of recognition already for his first album, Fireworks & Rollerblades, which was released just last spring.
He has been described as among the current trend of male singers who fit into the American Idol and ‘Voice audition pop’ genre (a term recently coined online), along with the likes of Teddy Swims, Shawn Mendes, Alex Warren and others.
Regardless of the slightly tongue-in-cheek term, he’s become a huge hit around the world and landing him is still a big coup for the venue that has already welcomed similarly massive pop contemporaries like Swims, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo and more.
In case you’re wondering just how big a deal he is over in the States, even this early in his career, his domestic headline dates sold out in seconds, quite literally…
The last time he visited Co-op Live was to perform at the most recent MTV EMAs
Benson Boone is coming to Manchester on Monday, 27 October and will be playing just two other British venues: The O2 in London (two nights) and the Utilita Arena in Birmingham.
Safe to say you don’t want to miss this one if you like soaring vocals and lots of flipping.
General admission tickets go live at 10am on Thursday, 5 June, but Co-op Members can gain access via the arena’s official pre-sale window from the same time on Tuesday (3 Jun).
Emily Sergeant -
8th January 2021 
