The White Lion has not only been a constant fixture on London Road since 1781, it has been a constant favourite on the Sheffield beer scene, appearing in 28 editions of the Good Beer Guide. Its 28th appearance is in 2017. The architectural history of this one pub alone could fill an entire issue of Beer Matters. It has earned Grade II listing (1999), one of a select group of Tetley’s ‘Heritage Inns’ (1989) and, more recently, recognised by CAMRA as having an interior of outstanding historic interest, appearing in CAMRA’s Yorkshire Pub Heritage publication. For visitors to the White Lion it is the beautiful tiles, seemingly eccentric collection of rooms, and the famous reversed ‘N’ in the stained-glass that make it an endearing and comfortably atmospheric place to enjoy a few ales.
Over the years it must have had dozens of licensees but the current incumbents, Jon and Mandy, have not only been running the White Lion for as little as 18 months, but had never managed a pub before. Their story is a fairy-tale. Long-time customers of the White Lion, Jon and Mandy gave-up their public-sector careers to take on the pub they loved, worried that it was in danger of going into a terminal decline. And what a job they’ve done! As well as four regular ales – Abbeydale Moonshine, Kelham Island Lion’s Main, Tetley Bitter, and Wychwood Hobgoblin – there is always a fascinating (and often unusual) selection of up to seven excellently kept guest ales. The pub also has real cider (Weston’s Old Rosie and one guest), and an impressive selection of malt whisky.
The White Lion is a champion music venue, winning the title of best music pub in Yorkshire and the north-east in 2015. Free live music is a feature nearly every night, apart from Wednesdays when it hosts a popular pub quiz.
And given Jon and Mandy’s story, it is hardly surprising that they have made the White Lion a true community pub. It gives rooms over to clubs, groups and the local community, hosts regular charity events, supports local community events and neighbouring businesses. For all these reasons an unincorporated body, consisting of members of the local community and with the support of CAMRA, has just submitted an application to list the White Lion as an asset of community value (ACV) – fingers-crossed!
We’ll be presenting this much-deserved ‘Pub of the Month’ award on Tuesday 11 October from 8pm onwards, so come along (615 London Road, Heeley (next to Ponsford, at the heart of the Heeley Triangle) – on bus routes 10, 10A, 20, 24, 25, 43, 43A, 44, X17), and enjoy a celebration with some fine ales in one of Sheffield’s most fascinating pubs. Normal opening hours are 4pm to midnight Monday to Thursday, 4pm to 1am on Fridays, noon to 1am on Saturdays, and 2pm to midnight on Sundays.
Richard Short
The Beer Engine was opened in its current guise about a year and a half ago, having been through a number of incarnations such as Delaney’s Music Bar since the premises last since carried the current name.
Behind it is Tom Harrington (known as Baz to some of his friends), who has previously worked for others such as Thornbridge and Hillsborough Hotel, this is his first own pub venture, where the focus is almost entirely on serving good beer and simple but quality food that compliments the beer nicely.
The pub is furnished and decorated simply but is laid out to appeal to all – a main open area around the bar and a couple of small, cosy rooms along with an outdoor area. The atmosphere is laid back.
The bar is home to 6 handpumps, one of which often hosts a real cider and one which dispenses the (currently) always available Neepsend Blonde, the remaining four featuring an ever changing range of ales. There are also 4 guest craft keg lines and an extensive selection of spirits. The staff are friendly and knowledgable and if you want to try several beers you can buy tasting flights of 1/3 pints.
Food on Monday to Saturday is pub tapas, with a selection of around 8 dishes on a menu which changes weekly, on a Tuesday. At present every Monday – the last day of the menu rotation – dishes are offered on a two for the price of one basis. On a Sunday the Beer Engine offers home cooked roast dinners with a choice of meat of the week, veggie and vegan options. Food is served 5-8pm Monday to Thursday, 12-8pm Friday and Saturday, 12-5pm on Sundays.
Sheffield & District CAMRA held our branch meeting in the Beer Engine when it first opened and the numbers turned up exceeded the size of the room, such was the interest, the beer and food was enjoyed and now members have voted it as the winner of our August 2016 Pub of the Month. We’ll be presenting the award certificate at the Beer Engine on Tuesday 16th August with the pub holding a bit of a celebration, all are welcome to join us from 8pm onwards.
The Beer Engine is at 17 Cemetery Road, next to Waitrose petrol station off London Road and the Chinese Firework Company.
Closest buses are routes 3,4 and 4a, however the stop on London Road is also very close.
The pub is open from 4pm to 11pm Monday to Thursday, midday to midnight Friday and Saturday, midday to 11pm Sundays.
The Walkley Beer Company in a previous brief and festive life was the Crookes Ale House, a pop up experiment by local lad Kit Challis back in Christmas 2013 to test the market for a micropub in the area. During its brief existence in a former fancy dress shop a range of 3 cask ales and 12 bottled beers were available in basic surroundings.
The idea proved a hit and the Ale House returned in a different shop unit, a former florist shop, in Walkley, naturally renamed given the new location – the Walkley Beer Company.
The Walkley Beer Company opens just at weekends to fit around the owners day job with three cask ales and a craft keg line on the bar on Thursday evening along with an expanding selection of bottled world beers. The Walkley Beer Company also opens Friday evenings and Saturday and the draught beers remain on sale until they run out. A new selection gets put on the following weekend. This means the beer is always served fresh and the selection is usually quite interesting.
Technically the Walkley Beer Company isn’t actually a micropub – it is an off licence shop with a tasting bar. Either way a small, basic and friendly environment is provided to sit and enjoy good beer and the format has proved a success. Bottled beers and cask ales are available to takeaway too and the shop side has started to expand into catering for the requirements of home brewers with malt, hops and yeast available to buy.
Sheffield & District CAMRA members have voted the Walkley Beer Company as the winner of the July Pub of the Month award and they will be opening specially to receive the certificate on the evening of Tuesday 12th July, all are welcome to join us from 8pm for a drink and to show support at the presentation.
You can find the Walkley Beer Company at 362 South Road, Walkley, on bus routes 31, 31a and 95 – bus stops almost right outside the shop. Normal opening hours are Thursday 4pm to 8pm, Friday & Saturday 2pm to 10pm.
The perfect pub for a Saturday afternoon – pick up a paper from the bar and a homemade hot roast pork sandwich; a guaranteed tranquil day.
Knowledgeable and friendly staff makes this Grade II listed pub (dating back to 1867) a popular watering hole. Inside you’ll find a remarkable tiled interior bar housing six hand pulled ales and six keg offerings, no wonder it’s listed in CAMRA’s National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors!
Rotating Thornbridge Brewery kegs such as their big bourbon barrel aged Imperial stout Eldon in addition to regular guests from the likes of Tiny Rebel and Cloudwater, sit welcomingly on the bar.
With regular pub quizzes, art exhibitions and music gigs, plus free Wi-Fi so you can check in and update friends on the beers they’re missing out on; this pub is a must visit on any city centre pub trail.
Address: 66-68 Victoria Street, Sheffield S3 7QL
www.beerinthebath.co.uk / @BeerInTheBath
Jules Gray
The Harlequin on Nursery Street used to be known as the Manchester, named after the nearby railway line. It became the Harlequin (with a nod towards a different Harlequin pub demolished to make way for the ring road) after being relaunched as a real ale free house and has since been taken over by the current landlady Liz Aspden and Exit 33 Brewing owner Pete Roberts.
The bar features a range of around 10 real ales with the house beers provided by Exit 33, the pub also showcases all the latest Exit 33 brews as well as quality guest ales, generally from Yorkshire and the North East but sometimes beyond and the guest range is constantly changing.
The Harlequin is also considered the best pub in Sheffield for cider lovers with a range of up to 14 different ciders which get their own section of bar, look for the cider board with the current choice including descriptions. This is our branch Cider Pub of the Year.
There is also a range of craft keg and bottled beers including an international selection. The range of spirits is extensive and quality and the pub is particularly known for its range of gins with tasting events organised from time to time.
Whatever your choice of tipple, the staff are knowledgeable, the quality is always there and the prices reasonable.
A popular quiz is hosted on Wednesdays, a varied programme of events take place on Thursday nights and music features on Friday and Saturdays with rock bands normally dominating the Saturday slot.
Food is served lunchtimes and evenings every day with a menu of freshly prepared meals, snacks and sandwiches. The £3 sandwich meal deal (includes crisps and soft drink) offered on Monday and Tuesday lunchtimes is popular with nearby office workers and the Sunday roasts are popular with all! There is also an upstairs function room available to hire with catering for private events.
The Harlequin is a short walk from the City Centre or Kelham Island, it also has a bus stop right outside the pub served by routes 3, 7 and 8.
The Beer House is Sheffield’s first full time micro pub and is situated at 623 Ecclesall Road, just before Hunter’s Bar. The pub opened in December 2014 by John Harrison, following conversion from a shop unit. The bar counter, tables and chairs came from the closed Bridge pub in Dronfield, the bar having been reconstructed to fit in the small front room.
The six handpumps dispense an ever changing range of beers, sourced from microbreweries around the country, some obscure, and sometimes a beer can sell out in a matter of hours. The two rooms can quickly get full in the evenings and at weekends, and although there are also two tables for outdoors drinking, drinks are not allowed outside after 9pm. The pub is open daily from noon to 11pm and there is a regular quiz Wednesday evening. In addition to the cask beers the local Stancill Pilsner is the lager offering and there is an interesting range of gins.
So congratulations then to John and his team led by manager Lucy on winning the Pub of the Month Award for April. The presentation will be on Tuesday 12 April from 8pm.
Buses 81, 82, 83 and 88 all stop at Hunter’s Bar.
Derek Longford
This months Pub of the Month award see us back in Commonside at the Closed Shop, directly opposite last months winner, Hallamshire House. Beer drinkers in the area have never had it so good!
The Closed Shop was taken on by Sheffield’s Reet Ale Pubs over three years ago and it has since gone from strength to strength. A large scale refurbishment in July 2013 added the kitchen and updated the interior. It’s a traditional style pub with separate areas on different levels, and a large beer garden. The back room has a pool table and large TV screen for showing the occasional sports event.
Manager Andy Stephens, Assistant Manager Christie McIntosh and bar staff Dan, Kirsten and Louise have worked hard to ensure the pub has a very friendly feel. It’s a great pub to just sit and chat to friends and the informal nature of the staff adds to the atmosphere. Evidence of this is the outdoor ‘A’ board with its ever changing humorous comments. (the word ‘humorous’ is being used loosely in this context as you’ll see when you visit!)
However don’t let this light-hearted touch fool you when it comes to the serious business of food and Drink. 8 handpulls serve an array of fine beer, always including Blue Bee’s excellent Reet Pale, which is hardly a surprise as the company also owns the brewery. One or two Blue Bee specials usually feature on the other pumps as well as a range of local and national beers featuring a variety of styles.
A good wine and spirits list caters for the non-beer drinkers. Worth a mention is Christie’s ‘Ginfusions’ – gin from Locksleys of Sheffield infused with an array of flavourings. Home cooked food is also a feature of the pub with a good mix of traditional dishes such as steak and ale pie, classic burgers, and old-favourite butties. Chef Dean Long and assistants Simon and James produce an ever-changing specials board to add to the choice and vegetarian options are always available. Sundays see the menu expanded to include traditional roast meats which are extremely popular.
Wednesday and Sunday quizzes are a big attraction at the pub. Free to enter, often themed, and with a range of prizes.
Sheffield CAMRA will be presenting the award on Tuesday 8th March. The evening starts at 8 pm, with a free buffet after the presentation.
The Closed Shop opens at 4 weekdays, food till 9.30, and opens midday at weekends, with food till 9. Full details are on the pub’s website www.theclosedshopsheffield.co.uk or their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TheClosedShop. You can also follow them on twitter – @theclosedshop. Get there on bus 95 or car parking is available at the rear of the pub.
Commonside is one of those classic Sheffield locations that stick in the mind as somewhere unique, especially as a beer drinker. You alight the number 95 bus on the crest of the Barber Road hill, outside the Dram Shop off-licence and New Cod on the Block fish & chip shop. If you are my age you nod at PA Jewellery (Old Bank, Commonside, Walkley) remembering how often their adverts and sponsorship were on Radio Hallam and walk up Commonside where two good pubs are opposite one another. You wonder why you don’t make the effort a little more often.
The Hallamshire House is one of those pubs. It is a Sheffield classic multi-room pub and when the long serving licencee retired the lease was taken over by Thornbridge Brewery. A refurbishment took place that gave the pub a more clean, smart and modern look without losing the classic character that people loved about the pub. The two snug like rooms at the front of the pub are still present and correct, as is the big back room with the full size snooker table – one of the few still left in Sheffield pubs – along with the lounge.
There is also now a fairly unique smokers room downstairs – an undercroft area with sofas and tables, which extends out into a small beer garden area at the rear.
Whatever type of pub you love, there is probably a room for you!
Meanwhile at the bar, managers Tom & Becky Ashfield and their team present a selection of craft beers across all the formats – cask real ales, keg, bottle and can; mainly from Thornbridge but complimented by interesting guests – always kept to a high standard. You can be alerted to exciting new beers appearing on the bar by following the pub on Twitter – @HallamshireHaus.
Bar snacks are available in the form of pork pies, sausage rolls and scotch eggs.
On the entertainment front, there is a monthly blues club, regular quiz nights and other special events. Otherwise it is just great beer served in a nice chilled out pub.
Join us for the award presentation evening, we’ll be there from about 8pm on Tuesday 9th February.
The Hallamshire House is open Monday to Wednesday 4pm to 11:30pm, Thursday noon to 11:30pm, Friday & Saturday noon to 12:30am and Sunday noon to 11:30pm. Website: www.myhallamshire.co.uk.
The Three Tuns on Silver Street Head is one of Sheffield’s classic traditional pubs, thanks to it’s triangular shape and the feeling of being on the bow of a ship for those occupying the seats in the window where the point of the triangle is!
Despite being a classic Sheffield pub, its location tucked away off Paradise Square has also led some to describe it as a ‘hidden gem’, which in the past has relied on an after work crowd from the nearby HSBC bank building and the various local solicitors offices, however it is now getting better known and much more popular.
Although refurbished to feel modern and comfortable, it also retains an old fashioned feel to the design and is simply somewhere you can sit in a relaxed and civilised atmosphere.
The atmosphere of the pub is helped by the staff – Manager Kate Major is a younger version of what some old timers would describe as ‘a proper pub landlady’ and her team offers friendly and efficient service at the bar.
Being part of the Reet Ale Pubs business, the beer range features a selection of cask ales from Blue Bee Brewery plus guests, these are spread across 6 handpumps. A real cider from the Westons range is also available.
Food is available at meal times on weekdays and all day on Saturdays, the pub only has a very small kitchen so the offering has been restricted to a selection of hot and cold sandwiches along with some hot meal options on the specials board, usually a curry or casserole dish.
This is the second time the Three Tuns has won a Pub of the Month award – voted for by our members – since Reet Ale Pubs took the lease from Punch Taverns, this one reflects the hard work by Kate and her team to not only maintain standards but grow the popularity of this iconic little pub of Sheffield.
We’ll be presenting the certificate at the Three Tuns on the evening of Tuesday 12th January, why not join us from 8pm and enjoy a few beers, it could be a bit of a party!
The Porter Cottage is on Sharrow Vale Road, just behind Ecclesall Road. Tim and Mandy Price have been in charge for 25 years. It is believed the pub was an old coaching inn established 150 years ago, subsequently acquired by Duncan Gilmour and then Tetley. It is now part of Wear Inns based in Castle Eden, Co Durham.
The handpumps dispense Bradfield Farmers Blond and Bitter (and Belgian Blue when available) together with Abbeydale Deception and Sharps Doombar, as well as a guest beer usually from Saltaire or Kelham Island. For cider lovers there’s Weston’s Wildwood.
Quiz nights are Tuesday and Sunday, and from 4 to 6pm on the second Sunday each month is an acoustic session with various artists, and at the same time on the 4th Sunday there’s live blues in conjunction with the Honey Bee Blues Club and Martin Bedford.
The Porter Cottage is open from 5pm Mon – Thurs, and from 12 noon Fri – Sun. The Cottage is a well run friendly pub with a good local following, and there’s a nationally acclaimed alternative jukebox.
So it’s well done to Mandy, Tim and their team.
Derek LongfordThe Pub of the Month award will be presented on Tuesday 8th December from 8pm. Nearest bus stop is Hunters Bar on routes 81,82,83,83a,88,272.
