Pub quiz nights in Manchester: where to play

Manchester takes its pub quizzes seriously, and not just in the obvious student-heavy corners of the city. Northern Quarter bars run quizzes with genuine prize pots, Chorlton has a free-to-play pop culture mashup, and out in Withington and West Didsbury the neighbourhood pubs have been quietly running quizzes for years without much fuss. Below are six we could actually verify are running right now, checked against each venue's own website rather than a listings page that might be years out of date.

A quick note before you head out: quiz nights are one of the least stable fixtures in a pub's calendar. A new manager comes in, a host moves on, and suddenly a Tuesday quiz that's run for a decade just stops without anyone updating the website. We checked each of the following against the venue's own site as of publishing, and in a couple of cases cross-checked against the pub's own social media too, but that's still a snapshot. Ring ahead or check the pub's page before you make a special trip, especially if you're coming from outside the area.

Northern Quarter and city centre

Pencils Down at The Pen & Pencil, Hilton Street

The Pen & Pencil's weekly quiz, Pencils Down, runs every Tuesday from 7:30pm and costs a token £1 to enter. It's hosted by John Stansfield of Quizmodo and built around four rounds: film and TV, general knowledge, music, and a wildcard round that keeps things unpredictable. Winners split the entry money and the team with the best name walks off with a bottle of wine, which is the kind of small, silly prize that somehow makes people try harder on their team name than the actual questions.

Source: The Pen & Pencil, quiz night

Quiz Night at The Abel Heywood, Turner Street

The Abel Heywood runs a free quiz every Wednesday from 7pm, with a £50 bar tab for the winning team. It's a solid, no-frills setup in a pub that's become one of the Northern Quarter's better-known spots for food and drink as well as a night out, so it's worth getting there with a bit of time to spare if you also want a table for dinner beforehand.

Source: The Abel Heywood, what's on

If your own local doesn't run a quiz, it costs a pub next to nothing to start one, and it's an easy way to turn a quiet midweek night into a reason for regulars to come back. Or skip the pub altogether: grab a few mates, pick a night, and run your own quiz using our free quiz creator. No need to book a slot or compete for a table.

Spinningfields

Pub Quiz at The Blues Kitchen, Spinningfields

The Blues Kitchen's quiz runs every Tuesday at 7pm, with tickets at £3 a head and tables of up to five people. It's a bigger, louder setup than most pub quizzes, in keeping with a venue built around live music and American-style bar food, and the prize reflects that: £500 to spend on drinks and food at the venue for the winning team. It's worth booking ahead rather than turning up on spec, since tables do fill up.

Source: The Blues Kitchen, pub quiz

Chorlton

Quingo at Electrik, Beech Road

Electrik's Tuesday night fixture, Quingo, is a pop culture quiz and bingo mashup rather than a straight pub quiz, and it's free to play. It kicks off at 7:30pm and leans into a slightly more chaotic, game-show feel than a traditional quiz, which suits Electrik's usual crowd. Worth booking a table in advance by phone, email or WhatsApp, since it's a popular enough night that walk-ins aren't guaranteed a spot.

Source: Electrik, Quingo

South Manchester

Quiz Night at The Railway, West Didsbury

The Railway, a Joseph Holt pub on Lapwing Lane, runs a quiz every Tuesday from 8:30pm. It's a small, cosy, dog-friendly local with snug little rooms rather than one big open room, and it also runs live music and a comedy club on other nights, so it's clearly a pub that takes its events calendar seriously. The venue's own page confirms the night and time but doesn't list an entry fee or prize, so it's worth asking at the bar or checking their social media closer to the date if that matters to you.

Source: The Railway, West Didsbury

Quiz Night at The Red Lion, Withington

The Red Lion's weekly quiz night falls on a Wednesday, with the pub's own website billing the prize as a chance to "win your height in beer," which is a fun enough hook that it's stuck in our heads since we found it. The venue's own Facebook page has posted an 8:30pm start time for the quiz, and it's free to enter. Withington isn't the first place most people think of for a night out, but the Red Lion has built a proper local following around this one.

Source: The Red Lion, Withington: offers and events

Make your own quiz night happen

Six venues barely scratches the surface of what's actually on in Manchester on any given night, and there's a fair amount of quiz activity we came across that we couldn't pin down with confidence: pubs whose websites don't mention a quiz at all despite older write-ups claiming otherwise, or venues where the schedule seemed to have moved on without the listings catching up. We'd rather leave those out than send you somewhere on the wrong night. If nothing above is near you, or you fancy running the show yourself, our guide on how to run a great pub quiz covers round structure, pacing and keeping a room engaged, and our free quiz creator will get you a set of questions in a few minutes flat.