Sheffield's 'hardest' pubs remembered, including 'infamous' boozer and 'very scary' toilets

The comedian and DJ Danny Baker asked people what was the ‘hardest’ pub in their area when they were growing up.

The Manor Hotel, the upstairs bar at The Cannon, and the Domino, all in Sheffield, were among hundreds of responses from people across the country.

All three had a bit of a reputation back in their day for being a bit rough, but they have long since closed.

The Domino

The Domino pub opened on Egerton Road in 1970 as part of the Broomhall Flats complex.

It survived the initial demolition of the flats but was later bulldozed to make way for the Domino House student accommodation block.

One person recalled: “Saw a couple have a row, bloke hit over head with bottle. Toilets very scary.”

The Manor Hotel

The Manor Hotel pub, on Fretson Road, was reportedly once declared by the Sun newspaper in the 90s to be the roughest pub in Britain.

One person wrote: “Shut now, but the Manor Hotel in Sheffield was infamous when I started drinking in the late 80s. It was just up the road from me but I was too much of a coward to go in!”

On the Lost Pubs of Sheffield Facebook page, opinions about the Manor Hotel vary.

One person said they had heard bouncers saying they ‘refused to work the door there’, while a second person said they had some ‘great nights’ there but also witnessed ‘many fights like western style hitting people over heads with chairs’.

Another former punter described how ‘some good folk went in (and) some rough uns’, while a fourth person said they had the ‘best memories’ of the pub, adding ‘so much laughter back then’.

A former member of the bar staff there recalled how the atmosphere was ‘brilliant’ and it was a ‘very friendly place’ with ‘very nice people’.

The Cannon

The Cannon, on Castle Street, in Sheffield city centre, closed more than a decade ago after being branded a 'den of iniquity' and has since been converted into flats.

One person wrote: “The upstairs bar in The Cannon, Sheffield, was a bit lively in the early 80s. Great bar staff though and a decent club downstairs. We loved it.”

There were no nominations for The Magnet, on Southey Green Road, which often crops up in lists of Sheffield’s ‘roughest’ pubs of yesteryear.

Nor did the old Samuel Plimsoll pub, at Sheffield’s Hyde Park Flats, get a mention.

The Roman Ridge pub on Sheffield’s Flower estate, the Robin Hood and Albion pubs in Pitsmoor, and the old Market Tavern pub on Exchange Street in the city centre are among the other pubs which have previously been suggested as some of the city’s most infamous but which did not make the conversation this time.

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