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General pubbing

The best beer garden in Sheffield

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The Dam House in Crookes Valley Park

Best beer garden in Sheffield? It’s probably the Kelham Island Tavern, isn’t it. But where do you go if you’re slap bang in the middle of the city, the urge overtakes you for some alfresco pint, and you can’t be arsed walking out there?

The Rutland Arms is one of few city centre pubs around these parts with a good beer garden. But the other day I met some work buddies for some teatime refreshment in the garden of the Interval café bar at the University of Sheffield’s students’ union. And do you know what? It was bloody wonderful.

(And so was the beer: Acorn Hoptathlon. It still perplexes me how the Acorn brewery isn’t getting mentioned in the same breath as Thornbridge and what have you. Smaller marketing budget, maybe.)

A few days earlier I’d done likewise at the Dam House (pictured above). Indoors, there’s something insurmountably sterile about this place. Outside the summer months I will never go near it. But on a nice day, perched on the patio, you can enjoy your pint with a sumptuous vista of Crookes Valley Park chaser.

OK, maybe those aren’t quite in the city centre. But what do you reckon? Where are your favourite beer gardens – in town, elsewhere in Sheffield, or in other places entirely? Shout up and share in the comments section. We need to make the most of this sunshine while it lasts.

Photo: Jose M Vazquez (cc by-nc 2.0)

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About Pete Green

Poet and musician. Sheffield. Maps, coastlines, walking, whisky, and potentially dangerous levels of wist. Grimbarian. Pedestrian. King of the impossible. Big girl's blouse.

Discussion

6 thoughts on “The best beer garden in Sheffield”

  1. Yeah, Interval’s alright outside of term time! Is it from 4pm or 5pm that they do special offers? Always seem to go there just before or just after happy hour.

    Posted by Knoob | 11 August 2012, 11:37 am

  2. Hi Pete, I follow your blog regularly and just wanted to mention the University Arms garden just on the edge of the city but on a summers day or night it’s fantastic & the beers not bad either!
    Cheers
    Tom

    Posted by Tom Delaney | 13 August 2012, 8:38 am

  3. Hello Knoob, hi Tom, thanks for commenting. Agree about the Uni Arms – really nice garden. I can take my little ‘un in there as well and there’s plenty of room for him to have a little run around!

    Posted by Pete Green | 13 August 2012, 4:56 pm

  4. Hello, not intending to troll here but…

    While it has a great range of ales and I’ve never had a bad time at the Uni Arms, I could never feel comfortable having it as a reegular watering hole. Always get the feeling it’s more of a social club for uni staff and post-grads who’ve outgrown the student union but not the cosseted academic life.

    As for The Interval, see above but for undergrads.

    In short, dare I say, how about some proper pub beer gardens?

    PS: Tom, are you the same Tom Delaney that’s listed as the Uni Arms’ landlord/manager?

    Posted by Sing | 14 August 2012, 11:03 am

  5. Hi Sing. No, I wouldn’t really regard the Uni Arms as a regular place to go out either. This post was more about those occasional moments when the sun’s out and you fancy a bit of fresh air with your pint. As much as I enjoy the Uni Arms, if you look through my posts about it on the blog, I tend to agree with you about the not-very-diverse clientele. Still nicer than the not-very-diverse clientele in some other places though! 🙂

    Posted by Pete Green | 14 August 2012, 11:09 am

  6. Not been sheffield for years, it has all changed so much over the last few years. I use to go to the town centre a lot at one point.

    Posted by Lee jones | 22 May 2014, 7:49 pm
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