Over the years Sheffield’s high street has seen countless changes, but one thing always remains - the city’s love of pubs.
With two Wetherspoons only a stone’s throw away from one another, and a top-rated pub nestled inside the train station, the city has managed to sustain a thriving hospitality industry despite ongoing problems across the sector post-Covid.
And as with all things in the Steel City, a lot of the success grew out of the area’s industrial heritage.
So here are 10 of CAMRA’s best-rated heritage venues, and how they came to be.
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1. Sheffield Tap; Platform 1b, Sheffield Railway Station, Sheaf Street S1 2BP
Hidden within the train station is one of Sheffield’s best, and most lovingly-preserved venues. Originally the station’s First Class Refreshment Lounge, the venue was closed entirely in 1975, with original features like the mahogany bar top and ornate fireplace removed. It stayed locked up for 30 years, until work to restore the pub began in 2008. Re-opening in 2009, it has remained a popular spot, winning the National Publican Food and Drinks Award, Cask Pub of the Year and the Modern Railways Restoration Award in 2010. | CAMRA Photo: CAMRA
2. Bath Hotel; 66-68 Victoria Street, S3 7QL
This enduring icon has remained almost entirely unaltered for the past 90 years. Originally a Victorian-era grocer/beer house combination, the current form came together in 1931 when the pub extended into the former shop, and in the years since much has been done to preserve this beloved haunt. | CAMRA Photo: CAMRA
3. Sportsman; Main Street, Hackenthorpe, S12 4LA
Little of this pub has changed since its 1958 construction, when it became the last pub to be built by the Worksop and Retford Brewery. | CAMRA Photo: CAMRA
4. Grapes; 80 Trippet Lane, S1 4EL
The pub’s most striking feature may well be the Guinness pelican painted across the side of the building, but for local historians the site has plenty more to tell as it remains the best surviving example of a pub built by Thomas Rawson & Co, one of the foremost names in Sheffield brewing up until World War Two. | N/A