I've been visiting the New Oxford with my best friend Paul for nearly a couple of decades - once or twice a year, or once every few years, sometimes more. Manchester (including the separate borough of Salford) has great pubs, traditional to modern, cheap to very expensive and cheap and cheerful to extremely trendy. The New Oxford has gone from a locals and newcomers pub with friendly staff, quite cheap traditional British beer (ale or bitter), real ale and good cheap Czech lager, to expensive locally brewed modern craft ales, excessively hoppy, strong or flavoured, and a huge variety of expensive fine lagers (other alcoholic and alcohol free drinks available). They could sell me one traditional Northern bitter (albeit by a micro brewery) and San Miguel lager suitable for a sunny June night. The outdoor space has massively increased, the friendly and fiesty barmaids are there, and a good mix locals, originals and newer residents, visitors and friends, of all ages and styles. A nice and genuinely inclusive atmosphere.