Ashley Brook

Head down to this Joseph Holt boozer on Liverpool Street in Salford and you'll find exactly what a proper pub should be—no airs, no craft beer snobbery, just honest pints and people who've been coming here for years. The vibe is refreshingly unpretentious: the sort of place where you can sink a few without anyone judging you for ordering a lager, where the jukebox probably won't play anything too obscure, and where the bar staff remember your usual. It's the kind of local that keeps a neighbourhood stitched together, the one your mates drag you to because it's familiar and reliable, not because it's trying to be something it isn't.