Rose House pub Walkley: Sheffield landlady pledges to stay open after windows smashed in two attacks

Jacqui Hanson called South Yorkshire Police in the early hours of August 2, to tell them someone she believed was on a scooter had smashed windows at the Rose House, in Walkey, using a hammer.

Then she rang them again in the early hours of Wednesday morning, August 10, to tell them bricks had been put through the remaining windows.

She has now boarded the windows up, but the pub remains open as normal, continuing to serve customers inside the boarded-up bar room, and in its popular beer garden outside.

Jacqui said the first incident happened at around 4.30am, when four windows were broken, waking her up. She rang the police immediately.

Then the second incident, on Wednesday at around 3am, saw two bricks thrown through the windows.

Jacqui said it was a terrifying experience. She was fearful at the time of the vandalism that someone had entered the pub after smashing the windows. However she said that fear proved unfounded, although there was extensive damage to clear up.

But she is refusing to let the vandalism stop her running her pub, and has now cleared up the damage to be able to re-open. Customers in the bar were expressing support for her.

She said police came to the pub after the second incident to look at CCTV pictures.

She said: “We have spent too much to let this stop us. We have boarded up the windows instead of replacing the glass, and I’m going to leave them boarded up for now.”

Jacqui says she is also looking for a local artist who may be interested in creating a painting on the boards which have been placed where the windows were in the meantime.

She told how she felt bad for her customers and added that she refused to give up over what had happened.

She said: “We’ve put so much into keeping this business going. It's a local community pub that’s been here for many, many years, and I feel I’ve let them down in some ways for this to happen, but having said that, they are showing a hell of a lot of support, and I’m not going to give up. I’m going to keep the pub open and I’m going to keep going.”

South Yorkshire Police said they had launched a criminal damage investigation after it was reported by Jacqui. They also today put out an appeal for anyone with any information to come forward.

The force said in a statement this afternoon: "An investigation into criminal damage is currently underway following reports that the windows of a property on South Road, in Sheffield, have been smashed on several occasions.

"It is reported the property was targeted on August 2 and August 10.

"Anyone with information is asked to report it via our online reporting portal or by calling 101 quoting incident number 128 of August 2, 2022."

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