Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: September 2nd, 2008 
Posted in: 
Tags for this post: 
In fact many bad signs. I’ve seen a lot of them lately, but in the last couple of weeks there have been an unbelievable number. A Great British institution might be under threat here.
To Let. Lease For Sale. Could YOU run this pub?
These aren’t the sort of pub signs I’m used to seeing.
The number of licensed premises in Sheffield that are up for grabs is amazing. Then there’s the large number that have simply closed. I suspect that the Sheffield of the near future will have a lot fewer local pubs. These aren’t all tiny backstreet boozers; some big, previously very busy and popular places have been on the market for so long that the “Lease For Sale” signs have weathered and taken on an air of permanence.
It’s not surprising, we’ve noticed the dwindling number of customers for quite a while now – a trend that started long before the ban on smoking came into force.
Is it just here, or is the same thing happening everywhere?
My local – The Banner Cross – is often like a morgue nowadays. It used to be busy every night and at weekends it was like squeezing into a mass rugby scrum. Now the proverbial tumbleweed tumbles through. However, this may have something to do with the landlady whose customer service training was, it is rumoured, at Auschwitz!