The Rawson Spring (Lloyds No 1), Sheffield

With a tram stop and a bus station (the Hillsborough Interchange) opposite, this branch of Wetherspoon's was a convenient place to start a crawl of pubs to the north of Sheffield city centre. Housed in the former Hillsborough Swimming Baths, there is a large central room, with a number of smaller rooms to the front of the building. The bar itself is long and in the main central room. The usual 'spoon's real ales were on - Greene King Abbot, Ruddles Best & Sharp's Doom Bar, along with 7 guests - Brain's SA, Cairngorm Nessie's Monster Mash, Pheasantry Excitra, Green Jack Lurcher Stout, Arkell's Kingsdown, Loddon Dragonfly & Thornbridge Jaipur. Bag-in-the-box ciders were Weston's Old Rosie & Broadoak Moonshine. As Wetherspoon pubs go, this one is above average. As pubs in Sheffield go, there are many better.

A pretty good Spoons, as has been mentioned before housed in the splendid building of the former Hillsborough Baths. The long rows of tables in the main room are a bit regimented, but apart from that it ticks all the required boxes and several more besides, with a good selection of ales (5 or so guests), a large outdoor area and even a ground floor (and quite palatial) gents. Most importantly, you can step off the tram straight into the front door!

I have been to the Rawson Spring at least twice previously, once in 2015 and again in 2017. It was on my way out last time that I noticed the entrance to the beer garden, so as it was a nice sunny day yesterday while I was in the area I decided to check it out. Ten hand pulls at the bar (split across two banks), offering at least three dark beers and a cider in addition to a few guest pale ales and the Spoons holy trinity. Service was efficient and pleasant (unlike on my previous trip) and I was even asked if I wanted a top up even though it clearly wasn't necessary (and quite possibly not physically possible). I had the Little Critters Coco Nutter, £2.15 for a pint (£1.08 for a half). This was a nice 6% coconut stout in decent condition and can't knock the value for money aspect. The beer garden was bigger than expected and made for a nice sun trap. It looks like there may be an outdoor bar in the lower section too. No sign of any TV sports at the time of my visit, nice and quiet in that respect.

Official site of The Rawson Spring (Lloyds No 1) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Official site of The Rawson Spring (Lloyds No 1) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

This hopeless Spoons is a Lloyds No 1. As noted below it's a swimming pool conversion with a few smaller areas at the front. The hideous shed further back was totally dominated by a huge projector screen showing rubbish sport plus countless other TV screens. What it must be like when the nearby team are at home doesn't bear thinking about. The bar has two banks of five hand pumps which had the JDW Trio Of Doom, a cider, Spitfire, Daleside Monkey Wrench, Kelham Island Singing The Blues, RCH East Street Cream, Caledonian Edinburgh Castle and Bradfield Farmers Blonde. I went for the Monkey Wrench (£2.30) which was reasonable. I'm glad to report that this is no longer GBG listed and it gets a point or two for not having any available soon, duplicates or blanks. Happily a fair number of Lloyds No 1s have been lost in the recent JDW offloading of outlets.

Apart from a couple of small seating areas just inside the entrance, the seating is to be found in the large rectangular bar area beyond (once a swimming pool). Unfortunately, no use has been found for the former balcony so that is just wasted space. Eight of ten handpumps in operation, with a fairly dull selection (of which, Adnams Barley Mow was the best bet). Very loud early on a Saturday night, with groups glammed-up in readiness for an evening out in the city centre.

This large Wetherspoons pub, converted from the former Hillsborough Swimming Baths is located right next to the Hillsborough tram stop, making it easily accessible and very popular when Sheffield Wednesday are playing at home, as they were on my visit. The layout of the pub reflects the building’s former use, with a large rectangular open plan room where the pool would have been and a viewing gallery running around three sides of the room, although it doesn’t appear to be open nowadays. The servery runs along the right hand side of the room and moving from right to left from the bar there are rows of high tables and stools, standard tables and chairs and finally booths along the left hand wall. The ceiling is very high and has a number of skylights as well as some very large lampshades. A large screen was on showing the early kick off in the Premier League, which could also be viewed on several TV’s mounted along the balcony. Appropriately there are a number boards near the front of the pub detailing the history of Sheffield Wednesday with pictures of some of their more famous players. There was something in the range of 10-12 hand pumps on the bar dispensing a mixture of ‘Spoon’s regulars and guest ales. I tried a pint of the Millstone APA which I thought was past its best and certainly served far too cold – a bit disappointing for a GBG listed pub. Given the huge crowd at the bar, I expected a bit of a wait to get served, but it was frustrating to see that they had staffed the bar with plenty of people to deal with the queues only for them to be very slow and bumbling when dealing with the orders. I only had a very brief visit here before heading off to the match, but in spite of the dubious pint and sloppy service, I was generally impressed by the place and although I would prefer to stop at the Hillsborough Hotel for a pre-match pint, I still think this is a decent alternative that will suit a lot of people.