Real ale campaigners celebrate as more Sheffield pubs are protected

Both The Bath Hotel in Victoria Street and The Sheffield Tap at the railway station are now listed as assets of community value, or ACVs.

This means they cannot be converted or demolished without planning permission and local residents will have six months to make an offer if either pub is put on the market.

There are now six protected pubs in the city.

The Sheffield and District branch of the Campaign for Real Ale, or Camra, has submitted other applications to get pubs listed as ACVs, with the aim of protecting Sheffield’s strong beer heritage.

Pub heritage officer Dave Pickersgill said: “We are very pleased to see that the only two Sheffield pubs which appear on the Camra national inventory of pub interiors now have this added protection – congratulations to all concerned.”

The news comes not long after a University of Sheffield report decided the city was the beer capital of the world.

Sheffield Camra has so far put 19 applications to Sheffield Council to list pubs as ACVs. Of those, six have now been successful. Alongside The Bath Hotel and The Sheffield Tap, the Castle Inn in Bradway, The Plough in Crosspool, The Cremorne in Highfield and The Three Tuns in the city centre are also protected.

The ACV status at The Plough, which is closed, is likely to be tested soon, after Sainsbury’s revealed plans to convert it into a shop.

A number of applications have not yet been passed. But Camra is looking forward to seeing more pubs listed in the near future after discussions with the council on what constitutes a ‘community’.

This is reflected in the council’s comments on The Sheffield Tap, which note the pub is not only popular with rail travellers and residents, but also attracts a wider community who visit for ‘beer tourism’.

n Take more care of our heritage: P14-15