It has been confirmed today that one of Manchester’s oldest and most iconic pubs has been saved from permanent closure.
The Lower Turks Head & Scuttlers Wine Bar at Shudehill has been sold to Cheetham Hill-based brewery chain, Jospeh Holt – an independent family business which operates 127 pubs throughout Greater Manchester and the North West – for an undisclosed sum, and forms part of the brewery’s “ongoing commitment to rejuvenating Manchester city centre” as we begin to emerge from lockdown.
The brewery has plans to drop the name ‘Scuttlers Wine Bar’, and so the pub will become known purely as Lower Turks Head.
Dating back to 1745, The Lower Turks Head was once an old stagecoach stop and enjoyed a proud heritage through successive centuries, before closing its doors last August.
If you’ve ever stepped foot inside the deceptively-deep and roomy venue, you’ll know that the pub is crammed with distinctive fixtures and fittings, including a long wooden bar, checkerboard floors, wooden staircases, cut tables and cubby hole seating.
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Its ornately tiled façade makes it a distinctive landmark in the centre of Manchester too.
The Lower Turks Head
Lower Turks Head is set to reopen to the public by first offering the full range of award-winning Joseph Holt cask ales and lagers, followed by plans to introduce a unique food offering later in the year, and on top of that, as one of central Manchester’s few small pub hotels, it’s also known as a place to enjoy bed and breakfast accommodation, which the brewery has confirmed it will keep operating and let out as the city centre starts to recover.
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Lower Turks Head joins Joseph Holt’s already established collection of city centre pubs, which includes the Ape and Apple, the Crown and Anchor, the Old Monkey, the Eagle Inn and The Shamrock, the latter of which is set to reopen following a full re-development in 2022.
Meet the newest Joseph Holt pub – The Lower Turk's Head, Manchester!
“Joseph Holt is deeply entrenched in the history of Manchester and sees the Lower Turks Head as part of that heritage too,” Marketing Manager, Paul Longmire, said.
“Our brewery has a keen sense of nostalgia but as much as we treasure the past, Joseph Holt regards it as a way of guaranteeing the future of the city too [so] we’re sure the Lower Turks Head, along with our other central Manchester pubs, will lead the way in bringing drinkers back into the city”.
Tesco shoppers urged to use up £16.5m-worth of Clubcard vouchers before they expire this month
Emily Sergeant
Tesco is urging Clubcard members to check if they have any vouchers that need to be used up, as millions are set to expire at the end of this month.
Clubcard Vouchers, which are always valid for two years from issue, need to be exchanged before the clock strikes midnight on the last day of this month (30 November), and can go towards everything from the cost of the weekly shop, to pay for fuel, or to pick up a new Tesco Mobile deal.
What’s more is that shoppers can also exchange the remaining vouchers for double their value too -with more than 100 Clubcard reward partners.
You can even take advantage of some all-new reward partner deals as well.
These include the new ‘Tesco Tuesdays’ offer with Cineworld, giving Clubcard members the chance to get cinema tickets for Tuesday showings for just £5 (£2.50 in Clubcard Vouchers), and the amazing new triple value voucher offer with PizzaExpress, meaning £10 of Tesco Clubcard vouchers can be redeemed for a code for £30-off food at the popular pizza chain.
According to Tesco’s stats, if the soon-to-be expired vouchers were all used for ‘Tesco Tuesdays’, it would be enough to get 6.6 million cinema tickets at Cineworld, and if they were exchanged at PizzaExpress, they could secure a whopping £49.5 million of reward codes.
Clubcard members can earn Clubcard points in a variety of ways, including using their Clubcard when they shop or purchase fuel at Tesco, or when they charge electric vehicles at Pod charging facilities at Tesco stores.
Today, it’s believed that more than 24 million UK households have a Tesco Clubcard.
“We don’t want anyone to miss out on making the most of their Tesco Clubcard Vouchers, and with some great new offers with Clubcard Rewards this really is a great time to use those vouchers up,” commented Shama Wilson, who is the Tesco Group Membership and Loyalty Director.
“So it really is worth checking in the Tesco app to see if you have any vouchers expiring.”
Featured Image – Tesco
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Bongo’s Bingo is hosting a series of special ‘Christmas Cracker’ and New Year’s shows
Danny Jones
Britain’s beloved Bongo’s Bingo is hosting a series of massive end-of-season specials to ring in the new year, announcing a number of their famous ‘Christmas Cracker’ and festive parties.
They’re also holding a ‘Big Fat Bingo of the Year’ (we don’t see any trademark issues whatsoever…), including one for NYE.
As one of the best nights out, not just in the North but in the country, they’re hoping to send you into 2026 singing, dancing, laughing, and hopefully with some lasting memories and maybe a prize or two.
Confirming the latest raft of shows starting this month, you can expect all the usual Bongo’s madness and more, plus all the bells and whistles, as well as plenty of tinsel and holiday cheer.
We’d love a new hoover for Christmas, to be fair. (Credit: Press shot)
Returning to Albert Hall as it regularly does throughout the rest of the calendar, Bongo’s Bingo is promising to give Manchester a Christmas and New Year’s period they’ll never forget.
As they put it, the hosts will be “transporting everyone back to the time when coloured tree lights and flammable tinsel ruled supreme, because the halcyon days of turkey with all the trimmings, mini bottles of Babycham and not a naughty elf in sight are BACK big time at Bongo’s Bingo.”
Bloomin’ ‘eck, they don’t half know how to get a crowd fired up even before they’re in the room, do they?
Set to deliver all the best festive tunes, “dodgy Santa Clauses” – their words, not ours – as well as plenty of foil hats fresh from the Christmas cracker, they’ll be partying with us Mancs multiple times throughout December, not to mention a bonus show at the end of November as we fully swap autumn for winter.
As for the ‘Twixmas’/’Christmas gooch’ period (again, not our words…), the format will then switch to the Big Fat Bingo of the Year, with quiz elements featuring all the biggest memes, tunes and cultural moments of 2025.
You can see the full list of Bongo’s Bingo festive dates for 2025 down below:
Bongo’s Bingo Christmas Cracker and Big Fat Bingo of the Year dates
Christmas Cracker
November – Fri, 28
December – Sat 6 Dec (day and night), Sat 20 Dec, Sun 21 (day), Mon 22 and Tues 23
Big Fat Bingo Of The Year
Sat, 27 Dec (day and night), Sun 28 (day) and NYE 2025
If you’re interested in booking onto Bongo’s Bingo this Christmas and/or New Year’s, you can find out more information and grab your tickets right HERE.
Emily Sergeant -
30th March 2021 
