Closed Shop pub Commonside: Former boss returning to re-open popular Sheffield pub

Sophie Bailey has confirmed that she will return to The Closed Shop, on Commonside, near Crookes, around a year after leaving the well known venue, which has been closed since May.

She hopes to have the venue open for business again in the middle of August, and says she will be bringing food back at the venue, too. She told The Star: “We don’t have a set date yet as we’re still waiting on keys but hoping to be the second week in August.”

Sophie ran the pub for nearly three years between 2019 and 2022, before leaving to set up a business which now runs The Clubhouse, on London Road.

The success of the Clubhouse has led her to decide to take on a second venue, and she says it will be selling branded beers such as Birra Moretti, Inchs, Amstel as well as drinks off a cocktail menu, wines and spirits.

The Closed Shop has been well known for its real ales in recent years, and there will be cask ales but they will be mostly from bigger brands such as Bombardier, Abbot, and Titanic, as it will be a tied pub.

The kitchen will reopen shortly after the pub re-opens, with plans for serving pub grub.

The Closed Shop has been closed since late May, after Stancil Brewery’s lease on the venue came to an end. For the last six years, the pub had been run by Stancil, during which time it had been well known for real ale beers, brewed in Sheffield by what is a locally based brewery, which also operates the Albion pub, near Bramall Lane.

It is the latest boost for pubs in the city. Samuel Smith brewery, which owns The Brown Bear on Norfolk Street in the city centre, recently confirmed that the pub would be reopening this week, after drinkers discovered last week that the popular venue, one of the oldest in the city, had been closed, after its previous landlord left.

Officials at Samuel Smith say there has been a national shortage of staff in the pub industry since the pandemic, but they hope to reopen more venues.