Royal Oak — Restaurant in Manchester

08/10/22: on all the Chorlton Ale Trails I've done, this is the first time here at the Royal Oak. A Greene King pub, standard British fare. Not too much out of the ordinary craft ales, other than what Greene King brew. Had 2 flavours of Lilleys cider on which is exceptionally tasty. Mango and Cherries n Berries (tastes like Vimto). It's a large pub, claims dog friendly, but only on laminated flooring areas, not carpeted areas. It did what it said on the tin and provided a quick, one drink stop. A no frills boozer, rough and ready, has pool tables and plenty of big screens to watch sports.

The Royal Oaks history courtesy of Andrew Simpson, a historian who has written a book featuring many buildings in the surrounding area. Chorlton History Blog Spot.

"It was built in the late 1920s and replaced a smaller beer shop of the same name which had been in business from before the mid 19th century.

The second Royal Oak was at the centre of “New Chorlton” which was that part of our township which had developed in the 40 years before the pub was built. It was a mix of tall terraced houses for the “middling sort” along with shops and the railway station.

The building is a large solid block with white facing stone and when new there were glazed tiles and coloured glass, which complimented the entrance columns. And then there was that staircase which greeted customers as they walked in. It was wider than most staircases that could be found in private homes and grander than that of the Lloyds or the Oaks which specialized in the cemetery trade.

The Royal Oak remains a landmark, but equally impressive in its way would have been the building torn down to make way for the pub. This was Renshaws Buildings which had stood on the same site from the early 1830s. They were one of the first blocks of brick built cottages in the township, may have been one up one downs and were built by one of our local farmers. By the beginning of the last century part at least of the buildings had been converted into a cycle shop and later a garage. Today all that remains is the thin strip of pavement and kerb stone which ran the length of the block.

The original Royal Oak was a little west of the present pub and was much frequented by our farm labourers and the Sunday trade which made their way from the city to drink amongst the fields. Not as notorious as the Black Horse at Lane End it could still boast robberies and saw riotous mobs from Manchester...

Pub is nice but unfortunately the bar staff are on a different level and lacking big-time CUSTOMER SERVICEs😕 Even though you are paying for your drinks few of them though you are doing you a favour by serving. Such a long wait to get served despite having only few people waiting to be served. Such a shame that the bar staff look at faces before serving. If you are not welcome or they don't like you face, goodluck as I have seen of numerous occasions wasting time pretending be doing something else. I can tell you honestly I work in a senior hospitality position my customers are our priority and there is no harm to be friendly. It will be so bad if I mentioned exactly the 2 people who serving. Not realising who can be a mystery shopper, pub blogger, etc. Personally will not recommend and prefer going other places close by where you can experience great customer services. I wouldn't give a bad review if I experienced it once but 5 times being ignored is a disgraced and while getting served they had such an attitude. Would highly recommend to the owner to get the staff trained for customer services. Until them will never go back and won't even recommend as you can find decent places around and...

I would avoid this pub at all costs. We went in for a drink on a Sunday night. The music on the speakers was very loud so it was difficult to hear yourself speak. The crowd in the pub were very noisy and seemed to be under the influence of drugs. The toilets were unclean. We couldn’t actually use the ladies’ toilets because there was one woman sat on the toilet with the seat down on her phone who refused to move. We had to use the disabled toilet which was unclean. When some others in our group tried the ladies’ toilet again, said woman was still sat on the toilet on her phone and a group of three others went into the other cubicle (presumably to do drugs). Some of our party said there was blood on the floor in one cubicle of the men’s toilets. One of our party went outside for a smoke and witnessed a brawl outside. There doesn’t seem to be any law and order at all in this pub. We were on edge when moving around the pub. Things could turn...