The Phoenix, Manchester

I remember first coming here in the first week of my first year at uni for a hangover cure brunch with my fellow housemates. It did the trick, and 5.5 years and countless trips later, I still quite like it in the Phoenix.

I would go as far as to say it is one of the only student bars I wouldn't now feel out of place in. Yes, it's a Scream bar, so although the drinks are cheap, the place is generally on the dingy side and the toilets are pretty rotten. However, you will not find the wallies or the loud music which are commonplace in the Fallowfield Scream venues and the Footage across the road.

I wouldn't really recommend the Phoenix for an entire night (unless, like James, you go upstairs to the karaoke rooms), but for a spot of lunch or a quiet drink in the evening it is both pleasant and affordable. However, when the students go home for summer the place is usually devoid of any life whatsoever.

Okay it's pretty dingy, it's another Scream pub in a nifty student zone, it's in the Precinct (ah?), but hey it serves its purposes so can we knock the Phoenix? £3.95 for a burger and beer, when you've done a long shift at the uni and you're feeling out of pocket. Winning? No?

It's vibrant yellowness makes up for what could be disappointing inside. Every Tuesday drinks from £1.25! Quiz nights on Thursday and Sunday asking how thick are you? Yellow card in tact, it's ridiculously cheap and therefore a little more cheerful but always brimming with the friendly faces so why on earth not.

Lets get the obvious negatives over with, yes it is a total dump, yes its been painted bright yellow for the same reason the rag is red in bull fighting and yes, it is part of the most depressing eyesore of a shambles of a building you will ever see. The staircase that leads you to the upper bar resembles one that you would see in a tower block scene in a Mike Leigh film or a Ross Kemp documentary. BUT!
Once you get to the top of those stairs you will be rewarded with the cheapest and largest karaoke booths in the northern hemisphere. It was so cheap that our group left thirty quid extra out of sheer guilt!
The staff are great fun and can be coerced into joining you for a sing (though I would like to take this opportunity to tell the head barman with the brown spiky hair that you don't pick Meat Loaf! Meat Loaf songs last for at least seven minutes! We give you an inch barman......), the beer is worryingly cheap and the songbook, though fairly thin, is made up of classics.
Who cares about threatening staircases, garish decor and the smell of death in the toilets when you have Barry Manilow? Lovely, lovely Barry Manilow.

If you're under the age of 20, look away from this review as some curmudgeonly old tart (me) is going to complain and gripe about this hideously youthful place and its exposed hips and dodgy tattoos.


Yep. The Phoenix pub, tucked away under the precinct on Oxford Road is a haven for students who seem intent on wanting to puke every last bit of fluid out of their loan ravaged skeletal little bodies.


In the day, students hang around here for cheap food and cheaper ale. In the day time, this place is borderline bearable.


Come the night and this is a sweaty, heaving clubnight place, where people gurn at strobe lights and fumble in each other's underpants under the pool table.


Of course, this will be bliss to some, but if you want to sit down and chat rubbish to friends, Phoenix will be a living hell.


Students. They're everywhere.

The Phoenix pub located under the precinct and the end of the uni is a fairly solid place. It has a traditional pub feel with a laid-back student twist.


The food isn't bad with a good selection of burgers to choose from. The prices are average with the usual selection of beers served on tap. There's a pool table and jukebox and upstairs turns into a club by night, I haven't sampled this yet.


A fairly decent student pub, great for a post-uni drink or bite to eat.

Phoenix is hidden under the roof of the University Precinct in Oxford Road. It is a small place, adjacent to a waxing parlour, a stationery shop, a Spar, and Blackwell's. Students love it, not lastly because of its regular quiz nights and parties.

The only time I visited the Phoenix, they had the Tangled club night on (sometimes described as Manchester's best-kept-secret!) and it was scary! Full of people dancing to crazy music and strobe lights. One for the hardcore clubbers I think - I quite enjoyed it despite being sober, but others probably would not! It's one of those places you have to know about - it's tucked away under the railway arches, so not many people know its there. Apparently in the daytime it's quite chilled out though, and a good place to escape from the hustle and bustle outside and enjoy a quiet drink. It's also part of the famous Scream chain of pubs, which means some good bargains to be had and drinks promotions - just ask at the bar for a yellow card which is about £3 and entitles you to lots of discounts!

A pretty grungey, dank, dark place full of students in the daytime and host to Tangled, Manchester's longest running Trance night! I was there almost every Saturday when Tangled was there, and loved the Tangled nights. The bouncers were good, always friendly to you, bar staff OK and the clubbers fantastic! Met most of my circle of friends in Tangled at The Phoenix and they became my 'clubbing family', I am still in contact with all of them even though I have since moved away. Tangled at The Phoenix will always be fond memories for me, not the venue.