retiredmartin

March 2026. Sheffield.

We have more honoured guests arriving next month, so we used Sunday to do a risk assessment on the nearby streets leading to pubs, starting with the toughest of them all.

Actually, the Blake Hotel isn’t too bad to reach from ours, you just wouldn’t want to run up it from Upperthorpe half an hour before closing.

Some sod has put a brick through those gorgeous windows !

I’m not particularly sentimental about pub heritage, but this makes me sad.

We don’t use the Blake as much as you might think, given it was 38% of the reason we moved to Sheffield (8% was Hendos), but I feel very protective towards it,

and the beer is still high quality NBSS 3.5 stuff.

Always a mixed crowd, too, gentlefolk in suits and students.

Which is also true of our local, 10 minutes up the hill past the abandoned shoes.

I still reckon the Blind Monkey had the best exterior, particularly at dusk,

The cask (Blue Bee and Roosters) is probably just above average at the moment, the music as eclectic as ever,

and I still haven’t seen the same person in here twice, Tonight, two women play cards and an earnest family (it is Sheffield) discuss the killing of the planet over pizza.

I wonder if Mrs RM feels guilty about killing the planet. She doesn’t.