Shakespeare’s, Sheffield

The traffic on the A61 at the back of Shakespeare’s large beer garden roars on by, the sound of modern urban life. How times change. When this former Georgian coaching inn was built, regulars supping from their pewter mugs were no doubt more used to the thunder of horses’ hooves and the drawn-out notes of the coachman’s horn.

You can’t help thinking of history when visiting this popular staging post on the Sheffield beer scene. There are five rooms, warren-like in concept, all decorated with beer and brewery ephemera – metal pub signs, framed collections of beer mats from long-gone breweries and faded metal trays that once did service when friends bought a round. There is also the “Bard’s Bar” upstairs for live music.

As well as this atmospheric ambience, Shakespeare’s has a reputation for its libations, offering eight keg and nine cask choices from the likes of Cloudwater, Northern Monk and Turning Point. I go for North Riding’s US IPA, an amber beauty, whose nose brims with tropical fruit notes, while the finish has a bracing dry bitterness. For those who eschew the juice of the barley, there are artisanal ciders, more than 100 whiskies, 30-plus gins and 15 rums.

As the massive psychedelic-looking grandfather clock in the parlour ticks away towards 1pm, thirsty locals filter in. Friends greet each other and weak jokes are exchanged. You can only get away with such poor humour in the pub – and perhaps in a Shakespearean comedy.

After ordering another glass of North Riding’s IPA, I talk with the licensee about the stained coloured glass at the front of the pub, advertising another long lost brewery, Ward’s – “It was a decent pint,” he recalls with a straight face. “But it smelt horrible.”

Meanwhile, as more pints are ordered and stories swapped, I get the sense that this joy of a pub is at the centre of a magnificent scene, both social and historical, devoted and dedicational. No wonder the ghost that reputedly haunts the cellar doesn’t want to leave.

Adrian Tierney-Jones

Gibraltar Street, Sheffield (0114 275 5959; shakespeares-sheffield.co.uk).