Sheffield
Tim - Where are you?
Mike - Err, Sheffield.
Tim - What are you doing in Sheffield?
Mike - Fell asleep on the tube.
Tim - The tube doesn't go to Sheffield, Mike.
Mike - Yeah, I know. I, um, must have changed at King's Cross.
Spaced, 1999
This, my friends, is a fine drinking city. Alas, Sheffield Wednesday's unfortunate relegation means that we now only have one day a season to enjoy here, although if you go to Rotherham via public transport, chances are you'll change here and you may well squeeze in a pint or two while doing so. Even in the days when we came here twice a season, we never really exhausted the drinking possibilities of this city.
Because a handful of supporters of other clubs also patronise these guides, I will continue to attempt to make this a guide which covers both Sheffields, United and Wednesday. Obviously the two clubs play some miles apart, but there are a number of pubs, particularly in the city centre, that you could easily visit for a match against either club. In previous recent seasons when we've had both to visit I've tended to save the city centre pubs for the Sheffield United trip, and do north Sheffield pubs on the way to Wednesday, but there's no right or wrong way about it. You might find the city centre pubs quieter when Wednesday play, but you'll be a long way from the ground. Central pubs are handy for United, but you might struggle to get in. It has to be said that the north Sheffield pubs are the best, and it seems a shame not to go to them. It might be for that reason, amongst others, that trips to Wednesday were always rather more enjoyable than those to United.
If you're coming by train, you'll arrive at Sheffield Midland station, which is fairly central. You can walk to Bramall Lane from here, or from any of the below-listed city centre pubs, as the ground is just south of the centre. Wednesday, on the other hand, are based a couple of miles north west of the centre, on the edge of the city. Could be difficult, but hey, like Birmingham, Croydon and Manchester, Sheffield has trams these days, so it's easy. The Leppings Lane stop is very close to the ground. Surely they haven't designed a public transport system which enables people to get to a football ground. Is this allowed?
For starters, let's say you've arrived by train and are looking for a drink around the city centre. Firstly, there's a not very good pub opposite the station, in the shape of the Howard. It sold Mansfield's when I called in a few years ago, having ten minutes or so to kill before a train to Rotherham. It wasn't much cop then, and I've not been back since.
Unless you're ultra pushed for time, you can do better. Traverse a complicated set of roads and go sort of left from the station. You're looking for a big bulbous metal thing. This incredibly ugly building was the National Centre for Popular Music, a grandiose millennium project beside which Blair's tent looks a positive success. It was open for several months before going out of business. Walk past this - everyone does - and you come to Brown Street, home of the Rutland Arms. A cosy pub, this, nicely looked after and with a good beer range, including, on recent visits, Barnsley and Black Sheep bitters. They do food as well. It can't win unalloyed praise, however, as it has a door policy. When I called in before a match at Sheffield United, the front door closed at 12.30 sharp. In mitigation, this pub is more or less on a direct route between the station and the ground, so it will fill up when United are at home, but this was hardly a warm welcome. This is therefore one to do early, although regulars will know about the secret back door entrance through the garden. I also recall that on some visits the service has been pretty poor, and these things matter when drinking time is short. For more information, see their website - yes, pubs have websites these days - from which it's apparent that they do accommodation, should you need it. The site even provides a scanned copy of the menu!
Close by, on Charles Street, is the Red Lion, a former Wards pub. Now, here's a sad story. Wards was one of my favourite beers. Brewed in Sheffield, it was an avatar of the South Yorkshire beer style: malty, big headed, pale, and not too bitter; and consequently, very easy to drink. Presumably, after a day spent slaving in the white heat of a steelworks you slaked your thirst with a few of these. Now, however, pretty much like the steel, it's gone. A couple of years ago, Wards was shut down in an act of monumental corporate short-sightedness by its owners, Vaux, who decided brewing was boring and wanted to be a hotel company, which indeed they were for several weeks, before being swallowed by a bigger fish. Tragic. Stones has just about gone the same way, too. Brewed then by Bass, and now by the Belgian company that owns them, it was a good Sheffield pint, surprisingly so for a big company beer. Now the brewery has gone, and Stones is forlornly brewed in Burton upon Trent. Meanwhile, most ex Wards pubs now sell national beers. And so back to the Red Lion, which has a fine, mournful collection of Wards paraphernalia. On my most recent visit they sold Magnet, which is better than you might hope for. It's a minority pint, the dark red Magnet, but one I enjoy, despite the fact that it comes from a big brewer. They must have forgotten they make it, or surely they'd have stopped by now. As for the pub, it's pleasant, with a comfortable main room and a posher, newer conservatory bit, and a warm welcome.
Continue along Charles Street, and you're heading into the city centre proper. Perhaps, like many cities, this is not the best place for decent pubs. There are a couple of humdrum chain pubs to dismiss here. South of the City Hall (not to be confused with the Town Hall, for they have one of each) is one of the local Wetherspoon's, called, with stunning imagination, Wetherspoon's. Where do they get those names from, eh? It's on Cambridge Street, which is pretty much chain pub central, and boy, it's a weird place, sort of space-age retro inside. It makes the one in Burnley look tasteful. It's low profile from the outside, to the point that you could walk past it (and people did), but if you do, you won't be missing out. My pint was poor, and there were bouncers on the door, even early on a Saturday. I've really sold this to you, eh?
Between City Hall and the Cathedral, on Orchard Square, is the Hogshead. Nearest tram stops are City Hall and Cathedral, oddly enough. Usual modern décor and humourless bar staff, made worse on my April 2001 visit by the fact that all the beers were novelty snooker beers, if you could imagine such a thing. Apparently the World Championship was on at the Crucible. The beers were iffy, and the pub wasn't worth making a detour for. The chain has recently announced it is turning its back on beer to concentrate on drinks which get kids drunk fast, so probably forget it.
Further on from here is a much better Wetherspoon's, the Banker's Draft (hmm, wonder what they converted that from?). This is handily situated on Market Place, just off the High Street, and right by the Castle Square tram stop. I called in after Sheffield Wednesday in March 2001, and while I'd say it's not one of the best Wetherspoon's, it was alright, and at least on that occasion they didn't have matchday bouncers. I think they might for Sheffield Utd games, however. On my abortive trip on New Year's Day 2003, when the match at Bramall Lane was postponed as our train rolled through the outskirts of Sheffield, the beer was decent and the food was fine.
Enough of the chains. Follow signs to the Crucible Theatre, scene of many a great snooker moment, next to which, on Norfolk Street, you'll find the Brown Bear. This is a scruffy, locals' sort of pub, decorated entirely with theatrical posters. It's a Sam Smith's house, so the only beer is Old Brewery Bitter. Is it me, or is this beer just not what it used to be? Anyway, it was a reasonable pint, and I did quite like the pub. But avoid the toilets if you can. Close by here is the newly opened and rather spectacular Winter Garden.
Tucked away on a corner behind the cathedral, on Silver Street Head (nearest tram stop is Cathedral), is the Three Tuns. This is a rather unattractively decorated, angular pub, but it was friendly on my visit, and although the beer was only Tetley's, it was a good pint thereof, well looked after and a pleasure to drink. It isn't just about having a row of handpumps on the bar.
On and around West Street, which runs through much of the city centre, I know a few good pubs and one bad one. We'll tackle the bad one first. The Hallamshire Hotel is a rather grand pub close to the West Street tram stop. You can see how this ought to be a good pub - it's large, imposing, and woody - but as for the beer, oh dear. On our visit it was a case of do you want Tetley's, Marston's, or this week's special guest beer - Draught Bass! Truly, this was an embarrassment of bland beer. It was poor quality, too. You can get decent pints of Tetley - see above - but not here. They also did food, but I can't attest to the quality. A big disappointment, although they did pipe the Sky Sports commentary into the toilets, which is classy. I have an idea this has since changed its name and become an inevitable awful themed bar aimed at students, as has been the regrettable case with many pubs on the West Street run, which happens to be close to the main university.
As different a kettle of fish as you can imagine was the Grapes Inn on nearby Trippet Lane (City Hall stop). Corporate this was not. It was a dark, perhaps dingy, traditional corner pub. Yep, my kind of place. It has some very attractive tiles and a nice fireplace. On our visit, the woman serving had lost the key to the front door, so we had to access the pub by walking through the bar. It got even better for one of our crew, CAMRA man John Webster. By now, we'd picked up a few waifs and strays, in the normal manner of things, so we had quite a group. Naturally they all wanted a drink at the same time, which was a bit much for the one woman working on what had hitherto been a quiet Saturday lunchtime. Sensing a dream come true in the offing, John volunteered to 'help out', and thus found himself behind the bar, serving his fellow supporters pints. What a place. As it happens, the beer was probably the least interesting thing about it, being Tetley's and, I think, John Smith's; but what the hell, it was a better pint than at the Hallamshire, and in all other respects the pub was a gem.
Unfortunately, we tried to go here again on another Saturday, and it was very closed, so we ended up in the pub next door. Was this called the Dog and Partridge? Anyway, it's right next to the Grapes, and it was a shabby, comfortable pub, undoubtedly a locals' place, and properly Irish. The room at the back is called the John F Kennedy Room. But the beer was Magnet, and it was good. Plus they had a big pile of slices of ham and egg pie on sale on the bar, which just has to be good.
We also once spent a fair amount of time wandering around the centre for a pub called the Devonshire Cat, apparently a cousin of the Fat Cat, of which more in a minute. We didn't find it, though. It's supposed to be on Wellington Street, if you fancy looking for it; and it must exist, because they have a website.
I once rated the Red Deer, on Pitt Street, again off West Street and by way of Mappin Street (West Street stop). This long pub had a great beer selection on my first visit, including Timothy Taylor's Landlord as a regular and lots of guest beers I didn't know. I was looking forward to calling in again, but I was disappointed last time. The range of beers had become very mainstream, and many of them were on the strong side. They also seemed to stop serving food very early.
Those, then, are the city centre pubs I know of. I'm not familiar with any pubs between the centre and Bramall Lane, but for what it's worth, I've heard that you'll struggle to get a drink near the ground. Indeed, I'm told you may not even get into city centre pubs, particularly if you're wearing colours. I don't wear colours, and I've managed to get served everywhere I wanted.
One other suggestion was passed on to me by a Sheffield-based supporter of another team, who advises:
"Best pub near the ground (competing with The Fat Cat as best pub in Sheffield IMHO now) is the Sheaf View, on the corner of Gleadless Road and Prospect Road - a new real ale outlet just the other side of the ground from the station. Two minutes walk to the ground."
Can't be bad.
That more or less concludes the Sheffield United section of the guide. If you're tramming it up to Hillsborough and north Sheffield boozers from these pubs, handy stops are Castle Square, City Hall and West Street. One slight irritation is that the tram doesn't run directly between the station and Hillsborough. There are three lines, and you need the Middlewood tram to get to Leppings Lane. If you're set on going all the way from the station, you could change at Cathedral or Castle Square. Coming back, you'll need a train bound for Halfway (why don't they go all the way?) to get to the station; and again, if you're coming from Leppings Lane, you'll need to change en route. For unlimited journeying - which will allow you to stop off for pints on the way - you can get a Day Rider ticket, which should cost a couple of quid.
Tramspotting section over. There are more good pubs just north of the centre, in Shalesmoor. Yes, you can get the tram there, too, but as it snakes around the city centre instead of going straight through, it may be quicker to walk. On Henry Street, just off the main road, Penistone Road (get it out of your system now), is a fine drinking house, the Cask and Cutler. This is a little chapel dedicated to the worship of beer. It's something of a perma-beer festival, being a traditional-looking pub that sells an untraditional amount of independent beer, including a mild. These people know their stuff, and that's reflected in a number of local pub of the year awards. The only bad point is the opening hours. They don't open until twelve, and for our pointless New Year's Day trip we were badly misinformed by someone in the pub about afternoon closing. We phoned them up, and someone answered the phone and told us they shut at three. It turned out that they shut at two, which was a lot of use to us at half two. The afternoon took a surreal turn as we waited at the tram stop complaining loudly about the fact that the pub was shut. The other people waiting for the tram turned out to be from the pub. Ridiculously, they started an argument with us, and even denied having answered the phone in their own pub! The place rather went down in my estimation as a result of this, and the row left a bitter taste in my mouth, which was more than can be said of the beer we were unable to drink. If you're planning to go here, best phone up and check the times, then phone them back again to make sure they haven't changed their minds.
Close by, on Alma Street, we come at last to the aforementioned Fat Cat, one of Sheffield's (and indeed, England's) consistently great pubs. Is any visit to Sheffield complete without a stop here? The approach is bleak, taking you on a mini tour of dead industry, but persist, for the Fat Cat sells, amongst others, the products of the nearby Kelham Island Brewery. This used to be Sheffield's minor brewery, but now, thanks to the acts of vandalism bemoaned earlier, it's the largest. Their beer is excellent. The smartly-named Sheffield Best Bitter is good, Easy Rider is fine, but their best beer is Pale Rider, an intense, complicated and strong pale beer. This is one of my favourite pints. It's so good, that you are likely to forget it's not clever to drink beers of over 5% strength on an all-day mission. If you call in here, make an exception and have a pint. As for the pub, it's comfy, making good use of the listed 1850s building; there's a roaring fire, and the home-cooked food comes in heart-warming portions. Vegetarians will do well here. It's rather oddly shaped and on the narrow side, so it does get crowded easily. The toilet is decorated with photos of other toilets, perhaps logically enough. They too have a website.
The Ship Inn, on Shalesmoor itself, between the other two, is a locals' pub selling Hardys & Hansons (AKA Kimberley) beer. It's nowhere near the same league as the Cask and Cutler and the Fat Cat, and the welcome was a little on the frosty side when I visited, but there's nothing wrong with it as such; it looks nice from the outside and the beer is fine.
North Sheffield you may be in, but you're still some miles from the ground, up and eventually off Penistone Road. If you have the time, there are other rewarding stops approximately en route. Off Penistone Road (to your right as you head upwards) on Neepsend Lane you'll find one of the best, the Gardeners Rest. Nearest tram stop is Infirmary Road. The surroundings are, again, a bit post-industrial, with Sheffield Ski Village, of all things, looming above; but this is a damn fine pub. It sells selections from the Tim Taylor's range, plus others. They promise four Taylor's beers at all times, and on three visits they have been selling the never seen elsewhere Tim Taylor's Porter. This is a divine pint from a great brewery, and as one of the older drinkers in our lot put it, it reminded you why you started drinking in the first place. It proves there's more to Timothy Taylor's than Landlord, which you probably won't even get round to drinking in here. It's a bit 'new pub' in places, with a conservatory and art on the walls, and it therefore struck me as something of a genteel place. I suspect folk music may be played here from time to time. That said, we received a friendly enough welcome, and with beer this good, anything is forgivable. The people who made this out of what was a boarded-up boozer deserve nothing but praise. They also promise lots of Belgian beers, as if a choice of Taylor's wasn't enough.
The one good thing about once playing on a Sunday thanks to ITV Digital (remember them?) was that it allowed us to visit the elusive Hillsborough Hotel, over on Langsett Road, across the other side of Penistone Road (to your left heading towards the ground). The Langsett Road / Primrose View tram stop is close to it. Previous attempts had proved unsuccessful, and we now know why. Essentially, this is what it says: a hotel. It does, however, have a bar, which opens to the public, but unfortunately and strangely only after 4.30 between Thursdays and Sundays. This is, therefore, only an option if you're going to one of those moved matches that we complain so much about. Regard this place as a silver lining on the cloud of fixture changes, as it's excellent. Outside looks unpromising, with a curiously blank exterior, giving little hint of the excellent real ale bar inside. Once in, there was a changing choice of several beers, all from small breweries, and those I managed to sample were outstandingly good. I understand they now have their own microbrewery, the Crown Brewery, named after a nearby defunct brewery. Hearts in the right place, one feels. The interior is clean, modern and pleasant - they recently won an award for the refurbishment - and, if it isn't raining too hard, they have a patio at the back with a panoramic view over that part of the city, which is a stirring place to swig a pint. The welcome was surprisingly friendly - places like this often regard strangers with suspicion, but they were fine. One to take in if you happen to be passing at the few hours in the week they're open. It might also, I suggest, be a good place to stay if you need accommodation. For more about that, see their inevitable website. All we need to do now is persuade them to keep reasonable hours.
The closest pub to Sheffield Wednesday's ground that I've drunk in is the New Barrack Tavern, further up Penistone Road. The tram stop is Bamforth Street. This is a pub with more than one face. Outside, it's traditional, perhaps unwelcoming. Once in, you encounter a basic, no nonsense, beer-drinking arena, where the bar area will be crowded with home supporters. This can feel a bit intimidating, and a low profile is no bad thing. The beer, however, is excellent, with plenty of guests and more splendid Barnsley Bitter. At the back, the pub turns into a modern nachos-and-tortilla-wraps kind of place, markedly different from the front of the pub. This is yet another Sheffield pub that does food. They like their grub round here.
This was further away from the ground than I anticipated. It was still something of a trek. You need at least twenty minutes. As far as I'm aware, pubs close to Hillsborough tend not to let away supporters in, and those exceptions that do apparently fill up quickly and then not let in any more, so it isn't ideal. Also allow enough time for the fact that, if you approach from the main road, this is one of those grounds that you have to walk around a fair bit of before you get to the away end. It almost becomes pastoral as you cross the River Don.
Non-drinkers looking for something to do in Sheffield might like to visit the Cutlery Museum, which I'm told is very good.
As for the grounds, both of them are fairly standard, recently modernised, unattractive places. At least Bramall Lane doesn't have pillars, or a bloody annoying band. Security for home supporters at Sheffield Wednesday seemed rather lax on our August 2001 visit, compared to the away end overkill which sees police crowding already narrow passages and stairs. A pitch invasion at the end of the 2000-2001 season at Bramall Lane also threatened to get unpleasant, and there have been some worrying moments outside the ground as well.
For food, you should eat in one of the pubs, but save enough room for the balti pie that you ought to be able to get at both.
Firmo
Last visited: January 2003
Last updated: November 2003
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