Many of the windows at the old Cannon Brewery building have been smashedMany of the windows at the old Cannon Brewery building have been smashed
Many of the windows at the old Cannon Brewery building have been smashed

Creepy photos show inside abandoned Stones Cannon Brewery in Sheffield

It is a monument to Sheffield’s proud brewing history, yet new photos from inside this long-abandoned building show it is not for the faint-hearted.

The former Cannon Brewery in Neepsend is where Stones Bitter, which in the 90s became the UK’s best-selling bitter, was brewed for many years.

Scenes for the classic 90s football film When Saturday Comes, starring Sean Bean, were filmed there.

But the building closed in 1999 and has fallen into dereliction.

Today, colourful artwork covers many of its walls, with only a few reminders of its former use, including a sign showing the ingredients of the different beers once brewed there.

It has become a popular haunt for so-called urban explorers, and Cal Knight, who shared his photos to the popular Facebook page Abandoned Block Explorations, is the latest to venture inside.

Among the images he captured are two particularly eerie scenes.

One features a woody chair pushed up against the brick wall of a dusty cellar, with the words ‘death chair’ scrawled in large red letters above.

In the other, the words ‘turn back!’ loom large on another wall, with ‘you can’t’ spelled out beneath, leaving visitors to imagine what lurks around the corner.

The site has a long history, according to Sheffield & District CAMRA.

William Stones began brewing in 1847 and in 1868 he purchased the lease of the Neepsend Brewery, renaming it the Cannon Brewery.

Stones Bitter, which was popular with steelworkers in the area, was brewed on the site from 1948.

William Stones Ltd was purchased by Bass Brewery in 1968.

The site’s owner, Sheffield business Hague Plant, was granted permission to demolish the buildings in 2015, but work never started.

It was not made clear if the urban explorer had permission from the owners to access the building.

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