Picture House Social, Sheffield

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Walking down Abbeydale Road, your eye is easily caught by the grand, if somewhat shabby, facade of the former Abbeydale Picture House - a striking grade II listed building dating back to the 1920's when it served as a cinema, billiards hall and dance hall among other things. The cinema closed in 1975 and spend many years as a furniture showroom before more recently being brought back to life as a cinema, offering infrequent screenings and undergoing an incremental restoration process. Part of this project was the opening of the Picture House social, a modern basement bar offering craft beer, basic food and various games and events. The bar is situated in the former ballroom, accessed by a flight of stairs which lead you into a large main bar area with dark floorboards and a smart traditional servery along the right hand wall. The bar counter sports some attractive panelling whilst the bar back has various mirrors and a canopy with period light fittings. There's lots of standing room opposite the bar, in what feels like it must have been the old dancefloor, and there is a suggestion that this space is occasionally used for live music nowadays. On the left hand wall there are a series of banquette booths of varying sizes, with more dated looking banquettes running along the rear wall. These make up all of the seating apart from some hard benches in front of an alcove on the front wall which looks like the space where a stage would be set up if indeed they were putting on live music here. The wall here is covered with mirrors, but elsewhere there is a white and purple colour scheme, including lots of white tiles, which isn't entirely unpleasant. Through a door to the rear, you reach a small back room with an open kitchen of sorts to the left dishing out decent value pizzas, with a row of padded benches and a few high tables to the right for you to perch on and eat at. Opposite the kitchen, another door leads into a side room which is deceptively large and seems to act as some sort of games room, with three table tennis tables, retro arcade machines, table football and a large TV screen all noted. A few people were enjoying a game of ping-pong in this unusual space and I spotted some very pleasant stained glass doors to the back of the room, but didn't investigate further for fear of interrupting the games. Out the rear of the building, there is a scruffy terrace garden, with a split level decking area offering a rather uninspiring side view of the crumbling building.
There were three ales on the go when I arrived for a midweek evening visit - Abbeydale The Beat Goes On, Blackout Porter and Tapped Mojo - with the latter setting me back £4.20 a pint, which felt pretty steep for suburban Sheffield. I also stopped off to try their pizza which was very tasty and good value with the midweek 2-4-1 offer. The staff at both the bar and pizza counter were very friendly and there was quite a good vibe throughout the place from the predominantly younger crowd.
This is a worthy project that has made an interesting old building accessible to the public after a long period of closure. I enjoyed wandering around this place, even if it isn't perhaps as striking inside as the exterior might suggest. The pricey drinks and lack of pubby feel will be a put-off to many, but I can see the appeal and was certainly glad I stopped off to check it out.

On 7^th December 2018 - rating: 6
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