Grapes, Sheffield: Central

This is the best surviving example of a pub built by Thomas Rawson & Co, one of the foremost names in Sheffield brewing up until the Second World War. Built around 1900 it is a two-storey building of brick with lines of stone painted cream – note the carved grapes in stone above the front door. It preserves the essentials of its original layout of a central through-hallway and three small rooms off and the walls of the hallway and some in the public bar have a splendid colourful dado of Victorian tiles.

The inner twin doors have ‘The Grapes’ stained and leaded panels and the inner lobby has doors to the left and right. The right one leads to the corridor where the two exterior windows have ‘Grapes Inn’ etched and frosted glass. All down the right hand wall and on the front wall is a dado of individual tiles – the main ones being of floral symbols on a white background and surrounding them are smaller turquoise ones, some in relief, and above is a row of Art Nouveau floral tiles with rows of narrow blue and brown tiles topped off with a ceramic edging. The corridor retains its terrazzo floor, which is now covered by a carpet. The bar counter in the corridor has an old (possibly 1930s?) counter front curved at the ends with carved panels all along it and a brass strip along the top.

The front right smoke room retains its door with a modern (Tetleys) stained and leaded panel, good but reproduction of a Victorian tiled,cast iron and wood surround fireplace with an oval mirror in the mantelpiece. There is modern fixed seating around the room and the exterior windows have ‘Smoke Room’ etched and frosted windows, likely to be good reproductions of original broken ones? And a central one with the initials ‘TR & C’ on it. Three small stained and leaded top lights are original. Tetleys added three small stained and leaded windows in the wall between the room and the corridor ‘for supervision’ – the style closely matches original stained and leaded windows in the pub but have an orange colour whereas the original ones are of plain clear glass and light yellow colour.

The rear right room still retains its door with a modern (Tetleys) stained and leaded panel, there is a good quality fireplace but it was taken from a house some 40 years ago and installed here in 2010. There is modern fixed seating around the room and another set of three small stained and leaded windows in the wall between this room and the corridor ‘for supervision’.

The front left public bar has another dado of colourful tiles on the front wall and to the left of the fireplace – these tiles were exposed in 2010 having been covered by boards for many years and are in excellent condition. The curved left hand half of the bar counter is old (possibly 1930s) with similar carved panels to those on the counter in the corridor and also a brass strip along the top; the right hand section of the bar counter is modern with plain panels and may date to only c.2000 – in recent times there was a plasterboard partition in this area to which optics were affixed i.e. used as a bar back for the corridor servery. There is a modest bar back fitting on the rear wall being shelves on a mirrored back which may also be dating back to inter-war times (or maybe post-war). Rear exterior window has old stained and leaded glass; two front exterior windows have ‘Grapes Inn’ etched and frosted glass. The fireplace here was added in 2010.

December 1905 plans show considerable changes in the ground floor layout of what was then a multi-roomed pub with adjacent shop (Architect: Hall & Fenton for Messes T.Rawson & Co.Ltd.). At that time, the current left-hand public bar was a shop and the pub had five public rooms. The pub took over the shop, the bar was installed, and the ground floor was reconfigured to provide the current layout of three public rooms.

There were further alterations in 1988 when the ground floor tenant lounge and kitchen became inside toilets. Previously, the Gents' urinal was in the rear terrace with the Ladies' on the ground floor, in the current position of the lobby entrance to the Gents'. At the same time, the bar was slightly reconfigured and the left-hand smoke room slightly extended, between them encompassing a larder (Architect: Shepherd, Fowler & Robinson for Joshua Tetley).

On 13th June 2003, the Grapes hosted the first ever gig by the Arctic Monkeys. They delivered a 25 minute set which included, the sole performance ever of the bootlegged, ‘Curtains Closed’. This upstairs function room is now part of the licensees accommodation.