Visited on: Thursday 23rd January 2020
Bob Thompson
This was the third on my tour of market hall bars in Greater Manchester. It is the second oldest after the Microbar in the market section of the Arndale Centre in Manchester.
The market hall was redeveloped during 2014 and when it reopened the bar was part of the scene, although it was then called Great Ale at the Market.
It is to be found in the “Lifestyle” Hall. It nestles amongst a number of food stalls and right door is a sandwich bar.
In front there is a large amount of wooden tables and benches that serve all of the outlets. This is important as the bar itself is very small. The bar counter is L-shaped and there are a number of stools around it.
Sometime after it opened it was extended in the adjacent unit which is called Gin Lane. Here spirits and wines are sold.
In Gin Lane there is a small counter and a fixed wooden table for upright drinking. There are also two large refrigerators containing a number of canned and bottled beers for consumption here or to take away. I mentioned take-away food that can be consumed here. Some of it is very exotic, coming from Asia and Africa.
The bar has three hand pumps and when I visited they dispensed Stamps (Bootle, Merseyside) Mail Train (4.2%); Green Duck (Stourbridge, West Midlands) Duck Blonde (4.2%) and Milestone (Cromwell, Nottinghamshire) Honey Porter (4.9%). All of these beers are very reasonably priced but I was lucky enough to be there on “Thirsty Thursday” when they are even cheaper.
Cider drinkers are not ignored either as they had Thistly Cross (West Barns, East Lothian, Scotland) Whisky Cask (6.7%); Gwynt y Ddraig (Pontypridd, Glamorgan, Wales) Black Dragon (7.2%) and their Autumn Magic with Blackberry (4.0%).
This was yet another great market hall bar and comes highly recommended. Please note that the Market Hall is only open on certain days of the week and the hours of One for the Road reflect this.
Important Information:
One for the Road, Stalls F14-F15 Bolton Market Hall, Bolton BL1 1TJ. Tel: 07725_338773
Hours: Sunday-Monday/Wednesday: Closed; Tuesday/Thursday-Saturday: 09.00_17.30
The 500 Metro Shuttle free bus is useful to get here from the bus station, alight at the Market Hall stop.
From the town centre alight at the Job Centre stop and walk in the same and the Market Hall is on the left.
Join at this stop to get to Bus and Rail stations. There are many other routes serving this section.
The Bus station is connected to the Railway Station by a footbridge.
There are many trains to Manchester, Wigan, Preston and further north, right up to Scotland.
