Duo behind popular Sheffield pub brands open up on end to 15 years on famous street
The pair described the situation as “hugely disappointing”
The duo behind a string of Sheffield bars have detailed the difficult conditions which earlier this year led to them calling time on running a prominent city centre site.
“Unsustainable trading conditions” have been blamed for the collapse of a Sheffield pub company run by one of the city's best-known entrepreneurs and his business partner.
James O'Hara, who is a founder of Sheffield’s Tramlines Festival and Crossed Wires Festival, along with his business partner James Hill, earlier this year ended a 15-year stint running a site on Sheffield’s Division Street which was home to pubs The Foresters and Gatsby.
In a statement to our sister title The Yorkshire Post, the pair described the situation as “hugely disappointing”, detailing how they had put hundreds of thousands of pounds of their own money into their businesses over the last five years.
Mr O’Hara and Mr Hill, who frequently operate as Rockingham Group, were also previously behind the now closed Picture House Social, on Abbeydale Road.
The pair said that a combination of “higher costs and constrained customer spending” had made it “increasingly difficult to sustain viable margins” on the businesses, in particular coming off the back of the pandemic.
They added: “The directors, who are experienced operators of other hospitality businesses, took extensive steps to preserve The Foresters, improve trading performance, manage liabilities and avoid insolvency.
“Significant personal funds were introduced through director loan accounts to support the company’s cashflow and ongoing obligations. James and James put in hundreds of thousands of pounds of their own money into the bar businesses to try and save them.
“Neither shareholder has taken any wages or dividends from any of the bars since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020. Throughout that period, the directors continued to commit their own funds in an effort to sustain the business.”
Earlier this year, Mr O’Hara and Mr Hill negotiated the surrender of the lease of The Forester to The Pub People, an unconnected company. The site has now re-opened as the ‘Six Barrel Drafthouse.
The pair said the decision had been made after it became clear that “trading could no longer viably continue”.
They added: “This resulted in a personal cost to the directors of approximately £95,000 in dilapidations and lease exit costs.”
Division Pubs Ltd, the company behind the pub, has ceased trading permanently.
Documents posted to Companies house show Mr Hill and Mr O’Hara to be owed around £41,000 each as part of the closure.
HMRC is also listed as being owed just under £100,000 from the collapse.
The appointment of liquidators at Division Pubs Limited also came after HMRC, as part of its status as a group owed money by the company, filed a petition for it to be wound up in March.
The statement from Mr O’Hara and Mr Hill added: “Following closure, the directors approached HMRC on multiple occasions to seek a payment arrangement for outstanding arrears, with the intention of meeting creditor obligations where possible.
“When an arrangement could not be agreed, they sought professional advice regarding the company’s insolvency position.
“Throughout this process, the directors’ intention has been to act in good faith, protect creditors’ interests and minimise further losses. As a result of the substantial personal financial support they provided, the directors are themselves the company’s largest creditors.”
The collapse of Division Pubs Ltd marks the fourth company liquidated by Mr O’Hara and Mr Hill associated with the Sheffield bars since 2021.
In March 2021, The Gatsby Entertainment Limited, a company which both Mr O’Hara and Mr Hill were directors of, appointed liquidators whilst owing almost £300,000, with around £124,000 owed to HMRC.
This came after PH Social Entertainment Limited, the company behind the now closed Picture House Social appointed liquidators in March 2020.
As part of the liquidation, assets from both The Gatsby Entertainment Limited and PH Social Entertainment Limited were sold to Bar Public Limited, another company which Mr O’Hara and Mr Hill were directors of.
According to documents on Companies House, Bar Public Limited was the company behind The Great Gatsby and Picture House Social, as well as fellow Sheffield cocktail bar, Public.
Public is now operated through the entity Below Street Bars, which both Mr O’Hara and Mr Hill are listed on Companies House as directors of.
The statement from the pair added: “We operated on Division St for 15 years, through multiple pubco's selling the building (we had four landlords during that time), through Covid, through utility bills sky-rocketing and most importantly, since 2020 and Covid for zero personal financial gain, not a single one of the bars under our joint control have paid us a penny since the onset of Covid, we effectively just tried to keep them going and improve them until that became impossible. From paying the staff with our personal money at the onset of Covid to taking out Covid loans to keep them going, paying rent even though the buildings were closed, you name it we've tried it and sadly we are not an unusual story in the hospitality industry.
“We eventually managed to get out of the leases for what was Foresters and Picture House Social – at a huge personal financial cost.”
The pair added that the closures came at a time when the “financial strain across the industry was considerable,” pointing to Insolvency Service figures which recorded 3,555 company insolvencies in hospitality in England and Wales in the 12 months to November 2024.
Mr O’Hara has played a role in some of Sheffield’s most successful events and developments of the past two decades. As well as playing a founding role in the establishment of the city’s Tramlines music festival and Crossed Wires podcast festival, he also helped to found Leah’s Yard.
Opened in 2024, the Leah’s Yard scheme turned a previously unused part of the city centre into a new space for independent shops, bars and cafes. The site forms part of Sheffield’s Heart of the City 2 scheme.
A team involving Mr O’Hara also previously saved Kelham Island Brewery and Fagan’s pub, also located in Sheffield city centre, from closure. In 2024, Mr O’Hara was made an Honorary Doctor of Letters at the University of Sheffield.