Author: Andy Cullen

Another new micropub has opened in the Hillsborough area. The Beekeeper can be found at 61 Middlewood Road, opposite B&M and near Hillsborough Park tram stop. It is open Thursday to Sunday with local beers available on cask and keg plus coffee (thanks to Richard Allen for the photo).

Itchy Pig‘s second micropub opened on Ecclesall Road South in Banner Cross on 18 February.

Meanwhile over in Woodseats a new micropub, the Boston Arms, has been given the go ahead by the council to open and is expected to be ready in April. The same people as the Boozehound craft beer bar in Cutlery Works food hall (which closes on 28 February) are behind it. As the former shop unit being converted is close to Woodseats Primary school the bar won’t be opening before 4pm on weekdays.

The Little John Hotel in Hathersage now has a new manager, Simon Smith, running the bar for the long established owners. Simon has experience running pubs for the likes of Mitchells & Butlers but now with a little more freedom has taken the opportunity to be more adventurous with the beer range both in terms of the cask selection and introducing craft beer options to the keg line up.

Breweries featured recently include Abbeydale, Ashover, Neepsend, Pentrich and Thornbridge, amongst others.

The Taphouse Bar bar at Kelham Island unfortunately didn’t survive the Coronavirus pandemic, a new venue is opening in its place called the Chop House Bar & Grill. It is run by the same people as Butcher & Catch restaurant in Broomhill, however the food focus here will be more on the meat including steaks and rotisserie chicken. The bar will stock quality wines designed to go with the food along with local cask ales and cocktails.

Also in Kelham Island a new beer shop with a drink in option has opened in Kelham Island. Hymn to Ninkasi is located on the Little Kelham development, which is accessed next to the Fat Cat.

The former Stew & Oyster bar is no more. Following refurbishment it is now a Salt Brewery tap bar and the food offering is Bao buns.

The Yorkshireman pub on Cross Burgess Street has now been demolished. The pub is thought to be dated back to around 1790 but was apparently suffering structural issues. Sheffield City Council had compulsory purchased it and other buildings in the area as part of the Heart of the City regeneration project. The people that ran the pub until its closure have relocated to the former Mulberry Tavern on Arundel Gate which has been renamed the Yorkshireman Rock Bar.

There are still plans to open Rag N Tag on Shude Hill (between Sheffield Interchange and Ponds Forge), which is located in an arch underneath Commercial Street. This is a long abandoned space that was a pub called Barrow Boys many years ago. It is planned to be a rock bar with some live music, possibly also serving food. The target is to have it finished and open late summer/autumn this year, the delays in the building work have been partly due to Coronavirus restrictions but also issues with drainage from the road above and complications of there now being a tramway running over the structure!

Sheffield’s newest branch of JD Wetherspoon is now open at Beighton, near Crystal Peaks. The Scarsdale Hundred, is in the premises previously occupied by Damons restaurant.

The Dark Horse, a new microbar at Banner Cross, has now opened. Two cask beers are available along with all the other usual pub drinks and food is provided by Slap & Pickle Burgers.

The Royal Standard on St Mary’s Road (inner ring road) was sold off by Enterprise Inns at auction last year and has been stood closed for about a year or so now, but work has started to take place on the premises. The new owner is the company that runs Prime Pizza & Grill in Firth Park, however we do not know their plans for the building as yet.

The Three Cranes has been removed from the Sheffield’s Real Heritage Pubs guide following its conversion to a hotel (with bar) as all the original features have been ripped out in the process.

The Queen’s Ground at Hillsborough has reopened.

The Anchor near Tideswell is currently closed for renovation, including renewing the electrics.

The Lescar Hotel at Sharrow Vale and Two Thirds Beer Co. on Abbeydale Road both closed in January temporarily for a refurbishment.

A charity gig for NHS charities featuring a night of great music from rock to punk to blues is taking place upstairs at Shakespeares on 26 March. Promised is a night of giving back featuring great music from Kill Your Darlings (covers band playing great tracks from Weezer to Hives), The Hey Hounds (Americana blues rock) and Seconds to Go (Sheffield-based punk, post rock).

The Washington in Sheffield City Centre is hosting a music week from 31 January to 4 February. Each evening there will be live music from 8pm to around 10-11pm, followed by a DJ on until 3am. Real ale available.

On Wednesday 15 December the Kelham Island Tavern will be holding a Christmas Carol sing-along evening raising money for Sheffield Children’s Hospital. There will be a small brass band and everyone is encouraged to join in.

Sheffield Folk Sessions Festival is back from 15-17 April bringing a programme of live folk music across a number of pubs in Sheffield.

The Crafty One is a new craft beer bar and shop located on Oakbrook Road, Nether Green, next to Rafters restaurant. A range of beer from keg and can is available along with wines and spirits, the addition of cask beer is being considered as a future development and space is currently tight.

The Sportsman at Norton Lees has closed for refurbishment and is expected to relaunch in December.

The Mulberry Tavern on Arundel Gate reopens on the weekend of the 23 October – as the Yorkshireman Rock Bar, under the same management as the one on Burgess Street that had to close to be demolished for redevelopment as part of the council Heart of the City project we understand.

The Noah’s Ark in Crookes and the Crosspool Tavern both had no real ale available on our correspondents last visit. The Three Merry Lads at Lodge Moor has a new manager.

Following some delays while the architects drew up changes to the plans to accommodate planning conditions imposed by the council, work has now begun converting an empty shop unit at Totley Rise into the Tunnel Tap micropub.

Food is now available again from Conor’s Kitchen at the Dog & Partridge in Sheffield City Centre, principally hot sandwiches and loaded fries. The Social on Snig Hill has bar snacks available most evenings, usually either sandwiches or canapes.

Opening on High Street in Sheffield City Centre is a new indoor mini golf course and bar for adults with a bit of a cheeky theme. It is called Glory Holes and is a second venue following the original one in Nottingham. Based on the bar in Nottingham we don’t expect real ale to be available and the keg beer is generally from the nationally distributed brands. Meanwhile down on the Moor, in the complex that houses the Light Cinema, another fun new venue is planned called the Boom Battle Bar offering axe throwing and beer pong games. No word on whether they will have decent beer yet, opening is planned for early 2022.

Work is underway on the new JD Wetherspoon pub at Beighton, in the old Damon’s restaurant near Crystal Peaks shopping centre, which will be known as the Scarsdale Hundred. No official opening date has been announced as yet, however reports in the Sheffield Star newspaper suggest the current target date is 30 November, so it will be open before Christmas.

The White Hart on St Philips Road, Netherthorpe, has reopened. It has a pool table, football on TV and a regularly changing guest ale.

The Pheonix at Ridgeway has had a refurbishment.

The will-it-or-won’t-it saga of the old Matilda Tavern on Matilda Street, which closed in 2005, may yet turn out to be good news if the latest planning application is successful. While upstairs has seen conversion to student flats, the previous plans for the ground floor of the old pub to convert to office accommodation never happened and it is understood that the developers no longer see any demand in Sheffield for additional office space post-COVID, while all the residential development including student flats in the area over recent years has created a new community that might like a traditional pub as its hub – and the new planning application is to restore the ground floor as a pub with a riverside beer terrace.

Mojo bar is a new opening on Holly Street, alongside the City Hall. No real ale or other craft beer appears to be available.

The former Plug nightclub has now become Network, a music venue.

Work has now begun to demolish the Rising Sun between Bamford and Hope, an 18th century coaching inn that has been closed since 2017 and left to fall derelict, and build a new hotel on the site.

The Dorothy Pax at Victoria Quays is now back into the swing of things with five real ales and a busy programme of live music events – some ticketed and some free entry – check out their website for listings. The music events are benefitting from an excellent new sound system in the venue, paid for by a grant from the Art Council’s Cultural Recovery Fund.

The Walkley Beer Company celebrated their seventh birthday on 20 November with an event featuring special beers and more.

Our friends at the Rotherham CAMRA branch have presented their Pub of the Year award to the Wath Tap, an excellent micropub in Wath-upon-Dearne. If you fancy a trip there buses 22a, 22c and 22x run there from Rotherham Interchange and Parkgate (with connecting trams, trains and buses available from Sheffield).