Intro
This part of the city has had a low profile for decades, but since the 1990s has carved itself a niche in the hearts of cask ale supporters. This district on this page goes from the edge of town up the Upper River Don Valley to the edge of Owlerton. An area which was once heavily populated with back to back slum housing until the 1960s when high rise living changed the face of the area completely, with Kelvin Flats, the tower blocks of Upperthorpe, Netherthorpe and nearby Pye Bank. There are many old pubs that have dissapeared and some where the pub building has another use, but the ones which remain, more than make up for that loss with their much wider than average selections of ales and old fashioned pub atmosphere.

Penistone Road Widening
Penistone road is a big part of the story of this area and it was gradually upgraded from a narrow local main road to an impressive overbuilt dual carriageway with a deceptively low speed limit of 30 mph. The first part of this widening occured north of this area adjacent to the Sheffield Wednesday Football Ground. The ground was used during the football world cup of 1966, where the ground was one of the main stadia used for the finals which were hosted in England. In readiness for this competition the road was widened to a dual carriageway with central reservation and sixteen flagpoles were sited along the central reservation to hold the flags of all the participating nations competing in the finals. In the mid 1970s the dual carriageway was completed up to Wadsley Bridge. Later in 2000 an additional four flagpoles were installed because the ground was again employed for Euro 2000 and that competition had more teams.

Penistone road is parallel with Langsett Road-Middlewood Road, and when this closeby western neighbour was chosen to be the path for the Sheffield Supertram route due to it's convenience for the residents of the Kelvin Flats, plans for the widening of the rest of Penistone Road were pushed up the agenda because it would have to take all the through traffic by road and take over the established trunk road designation "A61". This final Penistone Road Widening was the death knell of many old pubs for two reasons. Mainly many were in the way of the road, but secondly hundreds of houses were demolished which removed lots of local custom. This led to several of the surviving pubs, closing in the years after the road was completed. In 1986 the road widening affected the area with the demolition of The Victoria, the Sportsmans Group, The Royal Hotel and The Cambridge all were on Penistone Road. The Supertram was fully open by 1995, and by that time the upheaval caused to the area by a decade of construction work had left many local businesses without a leg to stand on. To make matters worse, in the late 1980s the Kelvin Flats complex was demolished, greatly reducing the amount of people living in the area, and affecting the immediate viability of the Supertram Route for a number of years.

A Century Earlier
In many ways it can be said that the heyday of this area was much earlier in the 19th century. The terraces of housing were dense and extensive, there were dozens more pubs, the industry was large and local, there was even a railway station and a large hospital which existed until the early 1970s as The Royal Infirmary.. In the early 20th century the area had several cinemas and an enormous power station. How different from today when everything is thinned out with the remaining old pubs often the only indication of styles and sometimes road alignments from yesteryear. Now you can see large areas of landscaping where houses used to stand, this undoubtedly makes the area more attractive to look at and a quieter, more pleasent place to live, but has the knock on effect of needing less pubs to serve a smaller and more speadout local population.

Notable Landmarks
There is no other concentration of pubs in the county of South Yorkshire with such a large array of CAMRA (campaign for real ale) awards!

At least 2 of the pubs in this district have micro breweries on the premises.

Wherever possible I will attempt to use the pub's original name when identifying the premesis. Mainly because on the pages devoted to other districts the identification tables have got into a right buggers muddle due to the constant changing of pub names.

Pub Original Name	Address	Notes	Approximate year of opening
Alma Hotel Currently named - The Fat Cat	23 Alma Street	Sheffield's Original specialist cask ale pub
Barrack Tavern The New Barrack Tavern	217 Penistone Road		193?
Brown Cow Aka Morriseys Riverside, The Riverside	11 Mowbray Street	Became Morrisey's Riverside in 1995
Farfield Inn AKA The Owl, Muff Inn	376 Neepsend Lane, Hillfoot Bridge	This pub was battered by the summer 2007 floods, at present it is gutted and bare walls inside	1753
Gardeners Rest	105 Neepsend Lane	This pub suffered terribly during the floods of summer 2007
Manchester Hotel aka Manchester & Lincolnshire railway Hotel Currently Harlequin	108 Nursury Street	This pub should not be confused with the original Harlequin, which was just across the road. As the manchester it lost the whole facade in the Great sheffield flood of 1864
Shakespere Hotel	146 - 148 Gibraltar Street	Former Coaching Inn
Ship Inn	312 Shalesmoor		early 1800s
Wellington Inn Currently named the Hillsborough Hotel, also been know as Hero and his Horse and Hillsborough Hotel previously	56 - 58 Langsett Road	This Pub has a Lively and productive Brewery in the large basement Has been renamed the Hillsborough Hotel since early 1999
The Wellington aka Cask and Cutler	1 Henry Street	Recently Turned back into a pub, after a couple of decades of other uses
White Heart Kelham Island Tavern	62 Russel Street	Changed it's name in 1990s to reflect the resergence of the area and the adjacent Kelham Island Industrial Museum

~ Lost Pubs of Neepsend Area ~

The Shakespeare, 146/148 Gibraltar Street, Still sporting original Wards signage and leaded window detail. This old coaching house apparently still has a cobbled passageway, behind the gate leading to the courtyard behind and also the old hayloft and stables. Thanks to Bulldozer for supplying me with this photo which he took on the 15th March 2008

Here we see a couple of views of the Farfield on Sunday 30th of March 2008. The pub is in need of renovation due to the Summer 2007 floods. All the plaster has been stripped from the ground floor so that the structure of the building can dry out.

He we have the Victoria which has been used by Le Pla Hydraulics since 1992

Below you can still see detail of the internal pub windows Taken 30th March 2008

This pub is another which suffered badly from the Summer 2007 flooding. A quick peek through the window shows evidence of renovation and redecorating. The notice on the window at the far right is a planning permission notice related to the imporvements being undertaken. Taken 30th March 2008 . It was reported in the April 2008 CAMRA newsletter that repairs to the cellar are now finished and the pub is awaiting delivery of the new bar, they are hoping to be back open at the end of April.

This corner building was the Crown Pub It replaced an earlier old Pub called the Rutland Arms Belonging to the adjacent Stones brewery when it closed as a pub it became the Brewery hospitality centre, where people were invited to tour the brewery and sample some of the beer afterwards Taken 30th March 2008. It is recored that it closed as a pub in 1992 At the other end of the block we can see the huge vats which were used in the brewing process, in photos of the site from the heyday of brewing these were shiny silver coloured vessels, but as you can see they have nasty blue paint peeling of them now. Here a closeup of the stairway in this tower, and a winch

This pub was originally the Neepsend Tavern. On 144 Neepsend Lane it was a pub from the 1839 right through to 1974 Taken 30th March 2008

This is probably my favourite pub in the area. It has a large selection of cask ales and a superb beer garden around the back. The blackboard on the right shows some of the awards this fine pub has recently won including "Best Pub in Yorkshire" Originally called the White Heart, it still has that name on the front windows. Taken 30th March 2008

The Hillsborough Hotel is an actual hotel with guestrooms, and it also has an enormous basement which is a microbrewery named "Crown Brewery". For most of it's life this pub was known as The Wellington. Photo taken 30th March 2008. It replaced an older building on the same site which had a setback on the first floor, looking as if the original house had a ground floor extension to the pavement. The old building was still in existance in 1902.

Talking about Wellingtons, just up the road we have This pub was The wellington back in the 1960s but in recent decades I believe was something else. It had converted back to being a pub by 1996 with the name Cask & Cutler, before reverting back to it's proper original name. Taken 30th March 2008

This printers was originally the Acorn Inn from 1829 - 1960 Older pictures of the building show the upper floors clad with fake tudor timbers Taken 30th March 2008

The Ship is a lovely example of an traditional old English Pub Taken 30th March 2008

In this picture of the new junction of the Sheffield Inner Ring road, we are directly opposite where the Nags Head Pub used to stand. The little blocked off road with the three thin posts at the bottom is Matthew Street, and the nags head was at the right hand corner of Matthew Street and Shalesmoor. Taken 30th March 2008

The Sawmakers - Taken By Amere 31st March 2008

This pub pulled it's last pint in 1966, It stands at 1 Neepsend Lane

The Wheatsheaf - Taken By Amere - 31st March 2008

This pub at 84 Green Lane was first opened in 1833. Standing on the corner of Green Lane and Ball Street, in 1969 Listed as an apolsterers, It was standing as a disused building in 1999 with two seperate applications for reuse as Licensed Premises and now it is The Milestone Bar-Restaurant

A few missing ones from Saturday the 5th of April

The Burgoyne Arms on Langsett Road

The Masons Arms at 270 Langsett Road. A victorian pub. On a picture from 1979 it looks a little like an old cinema with mouldings coming down from the parapet and dark trim around each set of windows. You can still just see some of these features under the white paint. The older picture shows the pub as the best building in line of a long terrace of shabby shops which all have a roofline about the same height and pitch as the pub. Today only the 3 pubs are left from those times, with modern apartment blocks built or proposed, along the street.

Cuthbert Bank Pub at 164 Langsett Road, appears to be advertising for a new tennant. An older picture, back when this pub was a Stones house in the 1990s, shows the far left section as looking like it was a house next door on the same terrace which had been added on to the pub. You can just make out evidence of a bricked up front door behind the Snacks Available sign.

The Marvellous New Barrack Tavern. This pub has a massive selection of cask ales, and regular venue for live bands in the front lounge, which is a bit of a squeeze, but great atmosphere. Also this great pub retains several partitions so if you don't like the band you can find a quieter corner. The attached property at the far right is what is left of a shop which jutted out into the road. I have read that it was demolished when Penistone Road was widened in the 1980s. The pub was built in the 1930s and replaced a terrace of houses with the shop attached. At one time in the 1980s was a popular meeting point for young men on italian scooters.

When Penistone road was widened and made into a dual carriageway the road was lowered and the little wall was built. Before that time the roadway was almost level with the pavement.and you could see cars parked right up to the front wall.

This Masons is Just off Penistone Road on Capel Street. It looks like a nice cosy welcoming pub although it needs a lick of paint on the outside. It was originally adjacent to its brewery where it was the brewery tap.

George IV is a big pub at 216 Langsett Road, it was right opposite Kelvin Flats during the 60s, 70s and 80s. At times renowned as a live venue it has a large function room. It was first opened in 1833. It closed down from 1992 to 1994 and has remained open ever since.

A further stroll around the area on a bright cold sunday morning. The pics were taken on 6th April 2008

Firstly The Riverside. Until 1995 this old boozer was called the Brown Cow. It has the benefit of 10 large cellars which extend out from the back of the pub to the riverwall. The original address is given as both 1 Mowbray Street and 25 Bridgehouse. Here below we see the front of the pub

And in the second photo below, we see the back of the pub, where it overlooks the River Don. As you can see the cellars have a window and door to the riverbank, which still shows the debris and damage from the floods of 2007. You can just tell something of the size of the cellars as they are under the full width of the outdoor terrace.

Here below we see that the Manchester Hotel has stolen the name of it's lost neighbour The Harlequin. Both names are abreviations because the Manchester was originally named "Manchester & Lincolnshire Railway Hotel" and the Harlequin was originally "Harlequin and Clown". This pub had its entire facade ripped away in the Great Sheffield Flood of 1864

Here we see the Fat Cat. Originally named the Alma Hotel it was the pioneering real ale pub of Sheffield where the researgence of Cask Ale began. This pub proved so popular that the Devonshire Cat was later opened by the same people to bring a huge range of Cask Ales and variety of world beers to a large city centre bar.

And below a closeup of the artificial tidemarks from the Sheffield Floods ( Ancient and Modern )

At the back of the Fat Cat is one of the new breed of local Breweries, The Kelham Island Brewery. There are several small breweries in operation today in the city which have a reputation for extremely high quality beers, available in many of the local independant pubs as well as in bottles at local retailers.

This Shop was originally the Sun Inn at 134 West Bar. It was opened in the 1820s. It has been a shop for decades. I am especially curious as to what the bizarre rooftop window is. It looks as if it is a lookout post. Or signal station. Maybe the original owner was interested in astronomy ?

This Old Pub is at 27 - 29 Nursery Street. It has been closed for nearly 10 years and was already battered looking before the summer 2007 flooding made it look even worse. It almost backs onto the river Don. Earlier pictures of this pub show that it is an interesting Art Deco style. When it was last open the pub was quite a rough place with extremely loud music. But with so many new apartments opening in the area maybe there is a slight hope that someone can bring this sorry looking place back into use.

Photo taken 24th May 2008

Here is a satellite picture from several years ago which shows the location of the original Harlequin pub on Johnston street before it was demolished.

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And below another look at the Manchester House

Thanks to Bulldozer and Amere for valuable Help with this page

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