Sheffield Slug and Lettuce issue apology after refusing to serve homeless man on opening day

Homelessness charity Sheffield Tent City uploaded a video to the internet of a man complaining that he had just been turned away from the Holly Street restaurant.

In the video, the man states that he was sitting outside the new bar when a manager approached him and said ‘we don’t want people like you around our pub', before asking him to leave.

Anthony Cunningham, who runs the Sheffield Tent City page, said he was buying the homeless man a drink while the incident unfolded.

In the video, which has been shared almost 500 times, he says: "Ladies and gentlemen, Slug and Lettuce has just opened. I’ve had to walk over here because I was fuming.

“The Slug and Lettuce is refusing customers. They are entitled to refuse whoever they want. What if I dress like that?

“Should I put a rucksack on my back, would he then refuse me? Slug and Lettuce, wow, I love you. You have just kicked a man seriously down. You have just let yourself down big time.”

Slug and Lettuce opened their doors in Sheffield on Tuesday following a £500,000 refurbishment of 1980s-themed bar Reflex which closed down in March.

The venue is owned by Stonegate Pub Company, which said it aimed to bring a ‘touch of glitz and glamour with a stylish edge to Sheffield city centre’.

Mr Cunningham said he has planned to meet the Slug and Lettuce manager to discuss the incident.

He said: “The man was at his lowest point. He’s raising awareness to show everyone just how impossible it is to get off the streets and through the homeless system just like thousands of other people that sleep rough in our country.”

Slug and Lettuce have apologised for the incident and said it is not company policy to turn away homeless people.