Gardeners Rest, Sheffield

Still a good place to start the Valley of Beer trails in Sheffield, and it still serves good ale both from Sheffield brewery and a good variety of guest ales. We enjoyed White Rose Blondish, Fox Golden Bullet and Sheffield Millowners Ale this visit. Interesting garden overlooking the river Don, and a lovely conservatory.

This is yet another decent real ale pub seemingly in the middle of nowhere, hidden away in an industrial area to the north of the City, but, based on my recent visits, well worth a bit of detective work to track down It’s a red brick building, evidently of Victorian origin, which has been a pub since 1871. Inside the pub, we find a two pub, consisting of a cosy lounge bar on the left hand side which is usually deserted and a larger, more modern, main bar on the right hand side. The main bar has something of a light, airy feel, particularly around the bar area where we find a modern looking bar counter with spotlights up above on the ceiling. The walls are adorned with some eclectic modern artwork that is advertised for sale. Notably, despite this, it still feels like a proper traditional drinkers pub with a good band of regulars ( despite the location ) and, notably, an old bar billiards table. Various flyers and posters advertised live music for Friday and Saturday nights In one corner sits a rather life like looking mannequin with blond hair which a rather raucous group of crawlers sat down close to for a considerable period of time before finally realising that this was not in fact a real customer. My latest visit was also memorable for a very rare sighting of some Pubs Galore calling cards on a window ledge just inside the entrance, presumably left previously by a fellow PuG reviewer. At the back of the pub there’s a smallish conservatory, the walls of which feature some rather faded old black and white photos of the area. This conservatory leads out to a rather scruffy looking garden area at the back where, inter alia, we see an old Whitbread pub sign, indicating former ownership. This conservatory looks out over the River Don and, looking down below at the river from the fence at the bottom of the garden, it’s hard to believe that the river rose sufficiently high, causing flooding and necessitating the pub to close for a considerable time period. The pub acts as the brewery tap for the Sheffield Brewery, with 8 pumps usually offering either 4 or 5 Sheffield Brewery beers, supplemented by other micros. On my most recent visit, 5 Sheffield beers were on with Forgemasters ( £ 2.60p ) and Crucible Best and Champion ( both at a very reasonable £ 2.28p ) all proving to be decent pints in fine form. Pleasingly, oversized glasses are used Other micros on were, notably, from further afield than is normal for Sheffield pubs and included beers from New Lion Brewery in Totnes and also a beer from Dawlish. A very moreish pint of Hoxne Smoked Porter from Hoxne Brewery in Suffolk was also on. The pub is in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide for 2014. This is another pub worth seeking out, but note that it doesn’t normally open till 3pm in the afternoon during the week