'What will happen after Christmas, I don't know': Sheffield publicans face up to life in Tier 3
The Ship Inn, a handsome tiled pub on the edge of Sheffield's Kelham Island, has navigated some troubled waters over the past 200 years.
It has made it through Luftwaffe bombs in the Second World War, the Spanish Flu and the Great Sheffield Flood of 1864, when a nearby dam burst inundating the surrounding area.
Now a new tsunami is heading its way – the impending Tier 3 lockdown across South Yorkshire from midnight on Saturday. And manager Connor Recknall admits he doesn't know whether it will survive.
In a bid to attract the last legal drinkers on Friday night, a chalkboard outside lists beers at knockdown prices as the pub attempts to drain its final few kegs. It is forlornly titled "closing down sale".
"People have lost jobs, and that will be the case right across Kelham Island," says Mr Recknall. "It is not about now, but what happens later."
Until Covid-19 struck, Kelham Island was a jewel in the crown of the Steel City, an award-winning regeneration project in the former industrial quarter that has led to it becoming one of the most desirable areas of the north.
Established as a man-made "goit" on the River Don to power the water wheels of the old 19th century steel and cutlery workshops, by the 1980s the old industrial quarter was suffering badly as the work came to a halt. Its transformation over the past 20 years has been led by hospitality, with independent businesses setting up shop among the old converted mills.
Last year, a milestone was seemingly reached when Historic England removed Kelham Island from its at risk register due to the investment coming in. Now, however, those who work here are once again facing a bleak future.
Behind the bar of the Kelham Island Tavern – a two time winner of the Campaign for Real Ale's prestigious national pub of the year – landlady Louise Singleton admits she doesn't know whether she will be able to keep going beyond Christmas, putting eight jobs at risk.
Despite carefully abiding by all the rules imposed on the hospitality industry in recent months, she will not be allowed to stay open from Saturday because she does not serve food. She also does not yet know whether she will be able to serve takeaways, as she did in the first lockdown.
Even under Tier 2 rules, takings last week were down £9,000 on the previous year. "It is devastating for us," she says. "This is a regeneration area, and we are trying our best – but what will happen after Christmas, I don't know."
Keith Killick, a 67-year-old retired transport worker and regular for the best part of 15 years, is among those to have called in for a final pint. "If the Government is not careful, then three to four million people will get thrown on the scrapheap," he says.
The Fat Cat pub, whose exterior wall is adorned with a mural of Jarvis Cocker, one of Sheffield's famous sons, is another pub to have made the transformation from catering for steelworkers pouring in from the mills, to a more diverse clientele.
Nowadays, young hipsters rub shoulders with an older, well-heeled crowd, who come on the weekend to marvel at the Bessemer converter attached to the side of the Kelham Island Museum – one of just three of its kind left in the world.
John Rannigan, 70, his wife Joan, and friends Kay and Terry Tiller have visited the pub garden for one farewell pint together (Tier 3 rules ban drinking or eating with other households indoors or outdoors). The Rannigans moved to Kelham Island from Devon in 2008 after he secured a job as an NHS programme manager. Since then, the pair say, the transformation of the area has been wonderful to see.
“A lot of young people trying to run their own businesses have worked really hard to set up in the area, and we are just sad about what might happen now,” Joan says.
Like many Sheffielders, they believe the Labour Mayor of the Sheffield City Region, Dan Jarvis, was too quick to strike a deal with the Government and should have held out for better support than the £41 million offered.
Local Labour leaders of the various councils in the region of 1.4 million people have similarly criticised the deal. Chris Read, the leader of Rotherham Borough Council, described the process as "tawdry", while Julie Dore, the leader of Sheffield Council, said the enforced closure of betting shops, bingo halls and drink-only pubs was an attack on "Northern working class culture".
Sipping her pint, Kay Tiller, 60, agrees. "It seems like they just rolled over in the negotiations," she says. "They could have put up more of a fight."
The Fat Cat will at least remain open for now, even if in a reduced capacity. The pub serves food until 8pm, so will be able to continue to operate under the new rules.
Manager Duncan Shaw admits his "head has been left spinning" by the latest tightening of restrictions. "I'm fed up with arguing with people all the time trying to enforce these rules," the 43-year-old says. "And they are not even our rules – we just want to keep going."
