The Albert Pub, Division Street, Sheffield
I read an article the other day about the inherent dangers of underage drinking and the consequences that will befall those in later life who start drinking alcohol at an early age. Well after a bit of thought I have decided to confess that when I was 15, I started drinking beer. I can remember the night I bought and drank my first pint of beer and it something I'm rather ashamed of even to this day. You see it was not the drinking underage that was the problem, it was that my first pint was "Whitbread Trophy." I obviously now know better but in mitigation I can point out that there was not really a great deal of choice in the late 60's with regard to draught bitter - the alternative in the Albert was "Whitbread Tankard" which was a particularly vile drink that was, and still is a joke, amongst beer drinkers. The only good news was the price, 2s -3d which is 11p in new money - those were the days as Mary Hopkin used to say
As you have gathered the first pub I had a pint in was The Albert which was at the corner of Cambridge Street and Division Street opposite the City Hall in Sheffield City Centre. And the date was Wednesday, 15th October 1969. The reason for this memory is that it was also the first time I went to the City Hall to see a concert. Appearing on the bill that night were Jethro Tull, Terry Reid and I'm not wholly certain about this, Savoy Brown.
Photograph of Barkers Pool from April 1964, with The
Albert on the far right. (Picture by C.J.Farrant)
From "Remember Sheffield in the 50s, 60s and 70s" by David Richardson,
published: 2002, ISBN: 09534267-8-5
The photo shows the Albert with Tennant's signage. I am told that Whitbread's took over Tennant's in 1962 and with it some rather good beer was replaced by Trophy and Tankard
The above photo was taken in March 1974 and shows the Albert with Whitbread signage. The main entrance to the pub was just to the left of the photo.
I know very little about the history of the pub. According to Douglas Lamb in his book " A Pub On Every Corner" it first started trading, probably as a beer-house" in 1797 when it was known as the Union. Its address was 2 Coalpit Lane (an earlier name for Cambridge Street). It's name was changed to The Albert as a mark of respect for the Queen's husband and Consort Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha at sometime in the nineteenth century.
In his book Sheffield Public Houses, Michael Liversage, remembers the pub as "dank" and "depressing" but to be truthful I have rather fond memories of the place. I used to go to a lot of concerts at the City Hall in the 1970's and the Albert beforehand was just a regular part of the night out. The back room had a rather good jukebox and in the front bar, a dartboard hung over the fireplace. I should add that it was very much a Formica and lino pub.
It closed in 1980 as it was reckoned that the building had become unstable. I read one report that maintained that the instability was due to a German bomb that had exploded near to the pub during the Sheffield Blitz of December 1940. (You can still see the damage on the City Hall). Others put the instability down to mining subsidence Anyway demolition proceeded soon after, and for many years after it remained as waste ground and then a council car park.
The top of Cambridge Street taken from the corner of Balm Green. The Albert by this time was demolished 1985
In the late 1990s, the site was redeveloped and Friday 13th August 1999 a new bar was opened by the name of RSVP. The name may have changed but the owners hadn't - Whitbread.
Photo taken November 2006 - the Albert was sited where RSVP is now
In January 2008 I received an e-mail from a person who obviously knew the Albert fairly well.
"the manager at the time it closed was Dave Pycroft, who I know well and still see now and again in Wadsley Bridge WMC. On the day it closed he took me up to the attic and showed me a broken oak beam about 18 inches square that was broken in half and resting on another beam of equal size that had cracked under the strain, he told me that a bomb had hit the roof during the war but had not exploded! My friends and I always drank in the back room directly under these beams so I suppose we are lucky they didn't come through. Incidentally I remember listening to Joe Cocker and Frank White practicing in the upstairs room before Joe made the big time"
And so it looks as though the Albert's demise was hastened by a German UXB and not an explosion
Notes
Previous landlords of the Albert were
Albert formerly Union,
2 Coal Pit Lane, S1 became Cambridge Street
1797 - 1988 191years
1881 Mrs Hannah Naylor (Cambridge Street)
1893 Robert Gill
1901 Arthur Jackson (2-4 Cambridge Street)
1905 Robert Hynett
1911 John Picken
1919 John Picken
1925 Mrs Agnes C Mahony
1948 George William Swinburn
1951 George Booth
Sources
Remember Sheffield in the 50s, 60s and 70s" by David Richardson
Sheffield Public Houses by Michael Liversage
A Pub On Every Corner - Douglas Lamb
This page was last updated on 31/07/08 13:48