Lost Pubs of Sheffield: The Albert

Happy New Year and welcome to my first post and first edition of 'Lost Pubs of Sheffield'. To kick us off I'd like to draw your attention to a historic street that is currently undergoing major redevelopment and will become what is known as the 'Cambridge Collective'. Despite this, the pub I'm featuring was lost some time ago but played a big role in people's lives from a bygone era. The plot on the corner with Division Street, now occupied by Yates', was previously a Georgian pub known as The Union Hotel.

The Albert (www.picturesheffield.com, photo ref. no. y01291) in 1953.

The pub was owned by Sheffield brewers The Tennant Brothers.

Built in 1797 when the street was known as Coalpit Lane, it was one of many that served the cutlers and light trades workers of the surrounding area and, given its name, offered rooms to travelers visiting the city. When Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, died in 1861, the pub changed its name to the Albert Hotel. The pub was damaged during the Sheffield Blitz, the scars of which can still be seen in surviving monuments of the Cenotaph and the City Hall at Barker's Pool. Although this damage would ultimately lead to the pubs downfall, it still had a roll to play in Sheffield's music scene. The Star reported that the upper rooms, previously used as guest rooms, were let to artists such as Joe Cocker and guitarist Frank White amongst others. It was also the go-to place for concert goers who may have watched acts such as Louis Armstrong, Buddy Holly, Ella Fitzgerald, The Beatles and the Rolling Stones at the City Hall. When the pub was deemed structurally unstable in 1980 it was demolished.

The Albert (www.picturesheffield.com, photo ref. no. s21723) in 1978,

owned by Whitbread's.

Romantically, from the rubble sprouted lemon balm herb, a plant that had grown wild around Barker's Pool for four centuries and yet had laid dormant beneath The Albert for 190 years. Sadly this was short lived and the area was cleared for a car park before the present day Yates was erected in 1999.

The Albert had been a public house attached to Sheffield brewers The Tennant Brothers of the Exchange Brewery. They had acquired the inn 7 years after it had changed name from the Union Hotel and it remained a Tennant pub until Whitbread's of London bought the brewery and its attached taverns in 1961.

Yates' on the corner of Cambridge Street and Division Street, built in 1999.