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.
retiredmartin 
It is always sad to see that sort of vandalism. How does Blake Hill compare to Steep Hill in Lincoln?
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Blake Street feels steeper, Dave. It has textured paving slabs and a hand rail nearly all the way. But it’s not as long as Steep Hill. And only one pub.
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My brother and I took the tram down to Kelham Island and back. You really don’t get how hilly Sheffield is when that’s your only measure. Steeper than Steep Hill is just this side of rock climbing. I’ll bring my ropes.
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I mean, the walk up from the Blind Monkey to the high street of Walkley is bad enough.
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I got some Hendo’s online before they got their act together with the website. The only option was a litre bottle so that’s what I got. I reckon it’ll see me out.
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A kind friend just brought a new bottle to me in Italy. She tells me that Tesco’s sell it now!
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Tesco in Sheffield or Tesco in Verona ;-0
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Not in Lerwick they don’t
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Tesco’s don’t sell it where I live but I have just discovered that Ocado do, so I will get a bottle as an alternative to Lea and Perrins.
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It’s a good alternative to L & P’s. I’ve always thought of it as Worcestershire Sauce on steroids.
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Indestructible. A bit like the German mustard in Lommies.
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Vandals could (and maybe should) be the name of a Gen Alpha version of Idles. Also, “discuss the killing of the planet over pizza” should be the title of Geese’s next album.
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I think it’s more important to save pizza than the planet, but that may be a controversial view.
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Why did you abandon your shoes?
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You’ve read the fairy tale, surely Scott ?
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Equally sad was that happening a couple of years ago to the Lichfield Brewery windows of the Fountain.
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Real ale is “woke”. It’s not vandalism, it’s political Hate Crime, I’d say.
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