THE Star and Green'Un football awards at the Royal Victoria Hotel were the highlight around here this week.
Packed with our sports stars, managers and one or two wives and girlfriends, the evening passed very pleasantly.
Teams and players got their gongs, food was OK, master of ceremonies Malcolm Lord was hilarious and the Bobby Robson cancer charity ma
de a good few thousand quid from the auction of signed football shirts.
But, and you just knew there was a but coming, the Royal Victoria Hotel needs a bit of help.
Set in a superb location towering over the gateway to the city on a rock of its own for 143 years, the Victorian-built hotel is a link with our railway heritage adjacent to what was the Sheffield Victoria station when the railways ruled.
Soon to be built in its shadow are a new three-star hotel and an all-singing and dancing five-star, both to be built by Royal Victoria owners Holiday Inn.
Never mind building new places, the Royal Victoria needs a shot in the arm – and an expensive one too.
It is a magnificent building with a great history but it feels tired and worn inside.
The ground floor is a warren of passages, partitions and doorways and looks like it has suffered from one too many 'good ideas' in the past.
The Royal Vic should be renovated and improved to be the city's flagship hotel leading the way in accommodation and dining just like it did when it was built in 1865.
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