The steel's gone, but the beer's here
By Kate Simon
Don’t get me wrong, I like Manchester (even if it rains all the time). It’s home to my favourite football team (United, of course), where I first saw the Buzzcocks, and, more recently, where my son went to university – just a few reasons why I feel an affection for the place. But is it really the only UK city worthy of inclusion in Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2023, up there with the likes of Sydney, Kuala Lumpur and Montevideo?
This year, the publisher decided to craft its list around our reasons for travelling, because, it says, we are “…craving more meaningful experiences and are being much more intentional with how [we] select the places [we] want to visit”.
Undeniably, Manchester has earned its place in the sub-category titled ‘Learn’. It’s steeped in industrial, architectural, cultural and social history and has got lots of interesting stuff coming up this year – the opening of the Factory International arts venue, the new sky park on the historic Castlefield Viaduct, the renovation of the Manchester Museum, and the expansion of the Manchester Jewish Museum.
Lonely Planet has also ditched separate lists for countries, regions and cities. So, Manchester sits alongside New Mexico, El Salvador, Dresden, Marseille and the only other entrant from the UK, Southern Scotland.
Why not? This is Lonely Planet and it can do what it likes with its annual list. Whatever the reason for putting Manchester in the top 30, the city’s burghers are delighted because it will attract even more visitors.
Here at British Beer Breaks, we can’t claim to be as influential, but we’re just as good at defining our own reason for an award. And that is, what’s the best city in the UK for beer? Manchester is a strong contender. But we decided to head to the other side of the Peak District to Sheffield.
Phil gives his beer reasons below. As for in between the pints, Sheffield, just like Manchester, is all about urban renewal. Old foundries and mills are now places to shop, drink, dine, and embrace culture, nowhere more so than Kelham Island, the graveyard of Steel City. The Kelham Island Museum keeps the memory of Sheffield’s industrial heritage alive here, too.
Sheffield’s Metalware Collection of flatware and holloware – one of the finest they say – is kept at the city’s Millennium Gallery, where there’s also a permanent exhibition of work by the Victorian artist and writer John Ruskin. It’s one of several free museums, another of which features a pair of local boy Michael Palin’s pants (Weston Park Museum). Put Site Gallery, Cupola Gallery and Fronteer Gallery on your itinerary, too, and keep an eye out on the street for art by Phlegm, Pete McKee and Kid Acne.
The Crucible, perhaps best known for hosting the snooker, is a nationally regarded theatre, with upcoming productions including Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Szechwan (11 March-1 April 2023). And if you’re in the city between 14 and 19 June 2023, you’ll have timed it right for the UK’s leading documentary festival, the annual Sheffield Doc/Fest. Sheffield’s music legacy – Human League, Def Leppard, Pulp, Arctic Monkeys – lives on in venues such as The Leadmill, Corporation, and The Greystones.
Among the foundries and forges there’s a 1,000-year-old cathedral and a Victorian town hall to see. Although, it was the train station that caught the eye of the writer Simon Jenkins, who put it in his book Britain’s Best 100 Railway Stations. My friend Marcus reckons architecture fans should take a walk around the recently refurbished Park Hill estate, an iconic modernist worker housing development from the 1950s.
And there’s no suppressing nature here. This is one of the UK’s greenest cities and you can meander through its parks, woodlands and open spaces, including the Botanical Gardens, with a little help from the Tube-style Sheffield Greenground Map.
For 2024, perhaps Lonely Planet should make the journey across the Pennines?
Phil’s beer notes
Sheffield is simply a great city to drink beer. It boasts more breweries per head than almost any city in the UK and plenty of pubs and bars where you can find local brews.
Too many to list here, but you have to start on Kelham Island, where Sheffield’s oldest independent brewer, Kelham Island Brewery, has lately been saved from closure. Drink its beers next door in the Fat Cat, one of the finest pubs in the land.
Abbeydale Brewery hasn’t been going quite as long but it’s been a consistent performer for many years. Its pub, the Rising Sun at Nether Green, is the local Camra’s Pub of the Year.
Among the newer brewers on the Sheffield scene, check out Heist and St Mars of the Desert. Both have tap rooms. And before you head home, don’t forget to call in at the Sheffield Tap inside the station building. It’s worth missing a train for.
Photo: Kelham Island Museum © Shane Rounce