Castaway on Kelham Island

Guest blogger and urban castaway Anne Greaves, @annefgreaves, explores Kelham Island in Sheffield for us.

Kelham Island is a former industrial area to the north of Sheffield city centre, now an intriguing blend of derelict factories, new-build and converted flats, artists’ workshops, music studios and half a dozen outstanding real ale pubs. The area is very much on the up and several new businesses have popped up here and on the fringes during the last couple of years including The Grind café, The Nichols Building art and antiques centre and CADS Creative Arts Development Space.

The island itself was created in the 12^th century when a goit was built to divert water from the River Don to a nearby mill. This manmade island forms the centre of the wider Kelham Island area and contains a museum, an events space, design and PR agencies and a modern apartment complex.

Kelham Island Museum (above) tells Sheffield’s industrial story and is home to several important collections and the most powerful working steam engine in Europe. It holds a variety of events such as the popular Victorian Christmas Market, Vintage Summer Fayre, murder mystery nights and most recently, a pop-up cinema. Next door is The Chimney House, an award-winning meeting and events space in a Grade II listed factory building, while a little further down the island is the modern Kelham Riverside complex of apartments and retail units.

Adjacent to all this is Kelham Island Brewery, a local business with a national reputation. A recently-opened brewery shop is on one side while the Fat Cat is on the other, a cosy real ale pub with a fabulous beer garden. Look out for marks on the outside of the building that show the height of the flood waters in 1864 and 2007.

Beer is a bit of a recurring theme in Kelham Island and the Fat Cat is one of eight real ale pubs in the immediate area – not forgetting The Milestone which is more of a gastro pub / restaurant but still tends to have one or two local ales on tap. You can spend a very enjoyable afternoon hopping from one pub to the next and in addition to the Fat Cat mentioned above, I’d recommend the following:

The Harlequin – this friendly pub on Nursery Street is one of my favourites. The staff are lovely, the music is good and the drink selection is great! Unlike some pubs in the area, The Harlequin doesn’t just specialise in real ale and they have an enviable selection of gin and rum plus a variety of bottled beers. They also serve home-cooked food and have regular live music nights.

The Riverside – the most rock’n’roll pub in the area is more popular with punks than with CAMRA members. The Riverside is a charity owned pub with a laid-back vibe, good food and drink and one of the best beer gardens in Sheffield. You’ll also find cool local art on the walls (inside and out), live music, sports, BBQs and a few pub dogs – a pretty eclectic mix by anyone’s standards.

Kelham Island Tavern – the Tavern regularly picks up local, regional and national awards both for the pub itself and for the garden. Although this is slightly surprising in a city with so many good real pubs, there’s no doubt that it’s a lovely little pub with an excellent choice of beers and an interesting and well-kept interior.

Shakespeares – not strictly in Kelham Island but only a couple of minutes from the Tavern, this former coaching house is definitely worth a visit. It offers a regularly changing real ale selection, plenty of bottled beers, dozens of whiskies and if you get there at the right time, 60p sandwiches! The pub has lots of interesting features, both original and decorative (look out for the French grandfather clock) and a cracking cobbled beer garden.

Take a look at my map of pubs in Kelham Island and Sheffield city centre for further information and a couple of suggested ale trails.