Next tour: Fri 11 May 2012.

Meet: Midland Hotel steps, Peter Street, 6pm.

Cost: £6 (£5 concessions).

Far from the madding crowds are the back-street boozers, twilight alehouses and tucked-away taverns where serious thinking and occasional drinking set Manchester to rights. The Sir Ralph Abercrombie fits the bill for all three descriptions, but we will also find a couple more pubs we hope you haven’t seen before but will return to a hundred times.

We will comb the side streets and back alleys away from the bright lights to a different, hidden Manchester.

* No need to book – just turn up!