The Broady To Be Re-Born - Refreshing
14th Oct 2011
I received an interesting email a couple of days ago from a pub landlord in Sheffield who owns a bunch of successful pubs in town. If you’re from Sheffield, or ever visited Sheffield climbing and were here on a Thursday during the late 90’s and into the Millennium then you’ll no doubt remember the Broady. As a matter of fact, back in 2001 I ran an online survey and the Broady was the joint second favourite climbers pub in the country along with the Old Dungeon Ghyll and beaten to the top spot by Govan’s Inn in Pembroke. On a Thursday night there were ususally at least 50 climbers in there, often more. There were pictures of Yosemite on the wall and Joe Simpson played snooker there. Things have changed over the years and it’s now pretty much a no-go pub. Anyway, to the point, the email I received was from the new owner of the Broady and he wants to put it back on the climbing map.
He called today – always a good sign when somebody is being proactive – and we had a really positive conversation. He’s keen to hold regular film nights and lectures there, once a month throughout the winter, possibly at no cost depending on who the speaker is or how big the film is. There was talk of extending the bar to enable them to put on as many local real ales and interesting lagers as possible as well as a whiskey from every distillery in Scotland. When I mentioned that climbers tend to not hit the pub until about 10pm when the walls shut and that they are hungry, he said they would consider keeping the kitchen open until 10.30pm and serving their own home made sausages and pies. He was keen on regular exhibitions of climbing photos, a lack of big screens for footie matches. Most impressive of all was the fact that he was keen to hear from people as to what they want in their local pub. Which is why I’ve posted this online. The current owners leave and the pub closes down on Oct 21st and they are planning to re-open the first week in December. I’m hoping to work with him to provide some entertainment through the winter and am most definitely looking forward to re-visiting the place after a long time away. I’m sure he’s watching this discussion so please voice your thoughts… Oh, his name is Kane. And it’s actually called the Broadfield.