Best Manchester Nightlife for Students

We’re here to talk about the best Manchester nightlife for students because we have talked about universities in terms of their academic excellence and reputation, like the Red Brick and Russell Group Universities. We can’t then forget about the fun part of university ‒ the socialising and drinking that you can enjoy at bars, or the late-night partying before a morning lecture that all of us are guilty of, and which, by the way, this blog is in no way encouraging!

Where better to start than the best Manchester nightlife for students? In a 2018 student survey by Which?, the University of Manchester was ranked as one of the 10 universities with the best party lifestyle in the UK. Manchester is home to The Northern Quarter, which is well-known for its young, trendy, and lively feel. Here you will find plenty of independent bars, live music venues, and nightclubs for your next night out. The Independent reported that Manchester was in fact named the “wildest city” in the world in 2018 following data collected data from Yelp and TripAdvisor. Send My Bag is here to tell you about the best Manchester nightlife where you can experience the wildness that Manchester is known for!

The Bar, Fallowfield

This is an independent bar that is right around the corner from the Fallowfield campus at The University of Manchester ‒ a one-minute walk, to be exact. They are open 7 days a week and run a happy hour from Wednesday to Sunday, between 7pm-10pm, with deals on beer, ales, and wine. They also run a weekly pub quiz every Tuesday. The bar itself isn’t extravagant. Its simplicity and affordability simply make it an excellent spot if you’re looking for a good chat with friends at a convenient location where a few drinks won’t cost the earth.

Dive NQ

On Tib Street in the city centre, this bar has a mixture of everything for everyone, whether you want to have casual drinks, enjoy live music, or if you’re looking for something a bit wilder, as they are the only club with a license to stay open until 5am at the weekends. They run a happy hour every Sunday to Friday from 5-10pm, when drinks start at just £3.50. Good news for the upcoming summer season is that their newly renovated beer garden will be open, so you can enjoy some day drinks in the sun.

Dog Bowl

On Whitworth Street, which is only a 15-minute walk away from The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University, Dog Bowl is a bar with a more fun and quirky edge to it. They have a New-York style bowling alley with cool and extravagant cocktails, like a salted caramel and apple old fashioned, a brown bag pawn star, and many other cocktails with a twist. This would be a good spot for perhaps a fun night out during the week with your flatmates, where you can bond over bowling and booze.

Menagerie

If you’re looking for a more stylish bar, to maybe have a girl’s night out, chatting and trying cocktails, then Menagerie is for you. You can try a ‘Basic Bitch’ or ‘Queen B’ cocktail from their trendy menu, or their mermaid and unicorn cocktails. They have a very Instagrammable bar with a lot of glitz and glam going on, including floral walls, neon lights on the ceiling, and plenty of pink. They also have live performers for you to watch whilst enjoying a drink or food at a booth with your friends.

The Deaf Institute

This is a venue with a cosy and quaint basement bar, as well as a music hall that hosts live gigs and club nights almost every night of the week. The vibe here is quite hip and edgy, with the general music taste being underground, garage, and hip hop. You can get lager or cider for £2.80 from their happy-hour menu, which runs every day from 4-7pm, or one of their funky cocktails, like a ‘Drumstick’, ‘A Blame it on the Bucky’ or a ‘Bana-Colada’ for £5. The bar is located on Grosvenor Street, so it is just around the corner from Manchester Metropolitan University, and only a 5-minute walk from The University of Manchester.

Albert’s Schloss

This is probably one of the best spots for beer lovers, as they serve fresh pilsner beer that has been made in a pilsner brewery in the Czech Republic and is shipped weekly to their own beer cellar. You can enjoy a beer and watch their live performances every night of the week, including DJs, musicians, and cabaret shows.

Tiger

This is a favourite Saturday night spot for students in Manchester, especially because they get free entry after 12am. They have a happy hour which runs from 5pm-9pm every Sunday-Friday, when you can enjoy 50% of all drinks! It has three club rooms, one where you can sing your heart out and dance to cheesy songs from the 80s through to the 00s, another with chart music and R&B, whilst the third club room is a bit more edgy, with house and electric dance music. You can get here in 20 minutes by train from Manchester’s universities and can take a 10-minute taxi ride home again that night when you’ve finished clubbing.

Gorilla

Gorilla is an industrial-style venue under the railway arches in Manchester that has something on every night of the week, from live performances by bands and comedians, to a range of club nights for all music tastes. For all the gin lovers out there, the venue has its very own gin parlour with distinctive gins from across the globe, as well as speciality cocktails that are £5.00 between 5pm-8pm every day. A short 5-minute walk will get you here from Manchester Metropolitan University or a 15-minute walk from The University of Manchester.

The Fitzgerald

If you want to feel like you’re in the 1920s, or the roaring twenties as it was called, then this is the spot for you. Down a backstreet in Stevenson Square, this drinking den is just like the secret speakeasies from the 1920s, with décor that provides some Great-Gatsby-style glamour. Every Thursday, they have live jazz musicians and a happy hour with great deals on cocktails. It is a bar that shows the character and creativity of the Northern Quarter in Manchester, and is definitely a spot that is different to your typical nightclub.

These bars, clubs, and live music venues add to Manchester’s young, hip, and edgy vibe in and around the Northern Quarter. The streets of Manchester are thriving with individuality, where you can choose from these characterful night-life venues, as well as a variety of the cheapest places to eat. 

If the characterful and cultural Mancunian city is where you’ll be going to university, and you need to send luggage cheap, then Send My Bag is here to help! Our international student shipping service is more affordable than forking out for student storage at the end of the semester.