‘Apparently in Manchester, you can walk into any pub in the middle of the day and there will be life’
An Australian TikTok star visited a particularly popular Northern Quarter pub during a visit to the city(Image: TikTok: @mrmelk_)
It sounds like the start of a joke you’d already be grumbling at: An Aussie man walks into a Manchester bar and…
But, earlier this week, Australian content creator Olly Bowman, who has over 850,000 followers on TikTok alone, documented his visit to a particularly popular Northern Quarter boozer online and the jokes kept on coming.
During a recent visit to the city, Olly decided to stop by at The Millstone pub, on Thomas Street, which many will know has a reputation for its lively karaoke sessions and its rowdy-but-usually-harmless punters.
As part of a recent video series captioned ‘Aussie tries Manchester for the first time’, Olly, under the username @mrmelk_ on TikTok, spoke about how he realised there’s “more to the UK than just London”, and said he was told to visit the Northern Quarter during his trip here.
Stay connected with our City Life newsletter here
The Millstone is known for its lively nature(Image: TikTok: @mrmelk_)
His first stop was trying Gooey, where he ordered a Pecan and Chocolate pie. “I really like that,” he said. “That rivals a cinnamon bun”. He then headed to café institution Koffee Pot to try some Birria Brothers tacos.
Naturally, the next stop was then The Millstone. “Apparently in Manchester, you can walk into any pub in the middle of the day and there will be life,” he said in the next video as he walked into the pub ‘on a 3.30pm on a Tuesday’.
As he watched a man sing a rendition of Neil Diamond’s Cracklin’ Rosie from the sidelines, another customer approached Olly to ask ‘R Kid’ where he was from before telling him he was from ‘Ancoats, born and bred’.
Olly popped into the Millstone for a brief visit during his first time in the city(Image: TikTok: @mrmelk_)
“This is my first time here, I love it,” Olly told the punter, who responded with a series of ineligible words as the two partook in the ‘world’s longest handshake’. Another customer, wearing a black Guinness top, then approached Olly to ask: “Do you know Ned Kelly?”
In-between laughing, Olly responded: “Yeah, he’s my grandfather”. For those out of the know, the popular bushranger and gang-leader, originally from Victoria, died way back in 1880.
At the end of the video, which has had almost 350,000 views so far, Olly then concluded that the experience had been ‘so, so funny’. And his followers could not handle the fact he’d chosen the famed Manchester pub to visit.
Content cannot be displayed without consent
One person joked: “NOT THE MILLSTONE OMGG HAHAHAHAHAH You’re lucky to have gotten out alive.” Another commented: “you in the millstone was not on my 2025 bingo card.”
Another posted: “The Millstone is a wilddddd choice.” One other responded to say: “Again, welcome to the north.” Someone else commented: “The Millstone is not an ordinary pub. It’s one on its own.”
Others also took the chance to suggest the scenes in the video were similar to previous viral clips, including one at Doncaster’s Coach and Horses and another in Stockport – taken at The Chestergate – which featured a man lifting up his shirt to show off his belly during a karaoke session.
Olly said he ‘loved’ his visit to the iconic pub(Image: TikTok: @mrmelk_)
On Olly’s video, some people also commented to say that they had a genuine soft spot for The Millstone. One wrote: “The Millstone vibes are immaculate. Doesn’t matter of it’s a Saturday night or a Tuesday morning.”
Another said: “The Millstone is an incredible Manchester institution and should be protected at all costs! We love it in there.” One wrote: “The Millstone is like Groundhog Day, the vibes never stopppp!” Another added: “Salt of the earth. One of the best the millstone.”
Olly is on TikTok here.
Join our Manchester Food and Drink WhatsApp group HERE