Scubar

I will admit to having a fondness for this place. Maybe it was living at Manchester Student Village — every sticky-​floored dive bar nearby became an exciting viable alternative to staying in my depressing flat. It is cheap (you can split a luridly coloured fishbowl for under £3 between three of you) and welcoming with a decent mix of customers — students, locals, lost spillover goths from up-​the-​road Grand Central. There aren’t too many seats and the décor will give you a splitting headache if you look at it too long (it is done up like the set of a sitcom about alien bartenders in an unpopular, backwoods spaceport) but if you keep staring down the business end of that bottle (like you’re supposed to dammit) this won’t be a problem. A fair few established nights, including popular dayglo emo/​pop love-​in Pop Bubble Rock, began in the sweaty basement club which is well worth checking out too.
Maybe my view is tinged with rose-​tint and beer-​haze but I think I love ScuBar.

Scubar was always the first thing greeting me when I came out of my Masters lectures at around 8pm on a Monday and Tuesday evening (yes, postgrads keep odd hours, big woop, wanna fight about it?), and considering I always then headed to the Sandbar or Salvation, it obviously didn’t do a good job of attracting me.
But I wouldn’t be a good Unilocaler if I didn’t give it a try so you don’t have to. Heck, I wasn’t even a Unilocaler when I tried it out, I was by now an MPhil student and helping a DJ friend out. I know, I know, I’ve more letters after my name than socks in my drawer. But that’s not important right now. I’m having to go right bang smack in the middle with Scu, because it has as many pros as it does cons.
The name is a stickler with me, I have to say. It doesn’t sound attractive. The fish bowls are just a technicolour scream to God down the big white porcelain telephone waiting to happen, the themed nights can attract the rowdiest of clientele (you think football fans like their beer, try students on a live football theme night), and they certainly don’t make the best of the three floor venue. As a result the popularity has been waning in recent years to the point of it only being open a few nights a week.
But as for the good points, it’s roomy, you can hire parts of it out cheaply for private parties or host your own clubnight there, and you can’t deny the atmosphere is pretty electric during Fresher’s Week. It might not be, er, pleasant, but electric it certainly is. Take from that what you will. It’s a student staple, that’s for sure, but I think it might have fallen victim to its own hype over the years. Never mind, eh. Scubar is like that advert for half-​fat butter that tells us ‘the middle’ is a great place to be (it’s not a feast or a famine, it’s not skinny marg or full fat butter, it’s not a fanatic or a slob and so on), but in this context the middle is a bit meh, a bit mediocre.

Scubar, when I first heard of it I thought the diving society lived in there after messing around in the aquatics centre next door. Apparently not. The scubar is a big venue that plays live DJs and jukebox hits. The place is split across 2 floors where you can stand from the upper floor and scream at your mates as they enter or throw things at them, always amusing. Lots of room to shake your booty and lots of seating with sofas as well. I’ve only been in scubar a few times over my period in Manchester, it’s a bit of an odd spot to be honest though, something about it doesn’t agree in my mind. It being smack bang in the middle of the car park might have something to do with it. Drinks are a reasonable and the scubar does the fish bowl thing (a fishbowl full of drink) for you to share which is nice. I’ve heard that standards have dropped though and this place use to be up there.

Shambolic Friend wittily calls this place Poo Bar, which is childish, but makes me laugh. Because Scu really is poo.
I don’t know what it is, really. Maybe it’s the skanky décor, or the dank upstairs balcony that smells of dust. Maybe it’s the red vinyl seats that are always a bit sticky, or the tons of pissed-​up Freshers gulping fishbowls.
Oh, yeah, the fishbowls. For around a tenner, the staff at Scu will fill a plastic fishbowl with cheap spirits, cheap mixers and ice, chuck a bunch of ridiculous straws in, and bob’s yer drunk-​le. Seriously, though, it’s a quaint idea, but as they’re made for sharing, like, backwash much? It’s like, I love my friends, but really, really do not want to drink their saliva. K?
This place is just rubbish, really. The bar prices are OK, the ambience is sub-​par, the music played is exclusively rubbish. There’s no need for anyone to go here, especially considering the Deaf Institute is just round the corner. They do cocktails too, but in actual glasses, minus your friends’ bodily fluids.

Scu-​Bar = Scum Bar. That is literally how it is known by all of my friends.
I really do not like this place.
We last went here when were kicked out of The Footage for being underage. Scu-​bar is literally the closest place to Footage so we ended up there.
I would go as far to say that this is the worst club I have visited in Manchester. The doorman tried to sell us poppers on the way in! It’s that bad!
It may have got better in the past few years but that one night was so bad that I never want to go back. Ever.

Has anybody noticed Manchester’s preoccupation with play on word bar names? Kro-​bar, Bar-​Ca, Scu-​bar– we get it Manchester, your witty.
Scu-​bar is pretty much student heaven contained in three storeys.
Colourful cocktails, cheap real ale, live music, club nights in the basement (the best place for clubnights), table football and live sports all combine to make quite a package. Conveniently situated just off Oxford rd, Scu-​bar ticks all the boxes… but it’s still got a crap name.

This place is a student friendly bar which is located close to Manchester’s two main University campuses, Scubar is probably best known for it’s’ goldfish bowl’ drinks which is basically a goldfish bowl filled with lager! In addition to this gimmick, the bar also has live football and club nights, cheap drinks before midnight and lots of pool tables. Its quite a long walk from the city centre, so it may not be the best place to start a big night out but it’s an ok venue for a cheap drink with friends

Manchester student haunt. Scubar used to be much better and much more popular back in the day, but standards have definitely gone down in recent times. Struggles for not being situated in the city centre or in the student central of Fallowfield. Located next to Manchester Aquatics Centre, on the Oxford Road. Sometimes runs special club nights, with fee for entry, which it holds downstairs. Famous for selling its cocktails in fishbowls with giant straws for sharing, but I heard a rumour they stopped this because everyone kept stealing the bowls.

Horrible little place, located just off the main Oxford road. I only ever go here if my friend is Djing, but it is mostly not worth it. The venue is boring and small with no real presence, and the bouncers are just out of order most of the time.
The drinks are bad, bad cocktails watery and tasteless mixed by less than friendly bar staff. The music is generally rubbish unless you go to a specific night in the basement club. The toilets are dirty and you feel a little diseased as you leave them.
I wouldn’t go here unless I really had to.

haha, I remember when they used to serve pitchers of cocktails in goldfish bowls as a gimick. It worked, but sadly so well that everyone in Manchester decided that they needed their own goldfish bowl, so everyone stole them from here. Kinda sad, but I guess that’s just the way that it goes

Fun bar, cheap drinks, great ofr everybody but particularly students.

A light-​hearted and fun bar just off Oxford Road. Pretty cheap and a decent selection of drinks.
The atmosphere is usually fairly mellow in here, though as a student bar it’s very much affected by the academic calendar as it were — expect carnage during freshers week!
It’s probably best known for it’s fishbowl cocktails, served in (you guessed it) a big fish bowl. They’re pretty good value — though if you’re sharing with a few friends it’s probably wise not to drink the last bit as it’s probably just saliva by that point.

Good fun bar, and not too expensive, loads of drinks promotions, very much a student bar though!
Entry on provision of NUS card on busy nites!

Scubar is located right in the middle of the universities of manchester, and manchester metropolitan and right behind the manchester aquatics centre. It is a very convenient place to meet up for friends for a drink. They also serve meals as well.
The best thing about this place is that rooms are available for you to hire it out for a private party although they are not so big, the place has a nice cozy atmosphere to it. Scubar also shows live premiership football games which comes in handy as the majority of students do not have sky so make sure you get there early to get a good seat because during match days the place gets absolutely packed out. Highly recommended.

The biggest (and best) Scubar in Manchester is situated right in the heart of student land, beside the Aquatic Centre.
This bar is brightly decorated and fun, and is busy most nights of the week. The top floor here can be hired out for private parties.
The star attractions are their ‘fishbowl’ cocktails; fishbowl-​sized glasses filled with toxic looking alcohol. Be warned– don’t try and drink one of these alone; you need at least two of you!