Report - The Cannon Brewery/ Sheffield/ 2013 - 2016

The Lone Shadow · May 2, 2016

History
The brewery was originally opened in 1868 by William Stones in Sheffield, and was a successful venture, making him one of the richest men in Sheffield by his death in 1894. Stones Bitter was brewed there from 1948 and was especially popular with Sheffield’s steelworkers. The brewery was rebuilt in 1964 complete with an underground tavern called “The Underground” later renamed “The Pig and Whistle”. Bass took over the premises in 1968 where other changes were made (Although I believe the cellars are original). In 1970 Bass advised that they considered shutting down the brewery, but the popularity of Stones Bitter continued to grow throughout the 1970’s and the distribution expanded throughout the country from the North to the whole of England. In 1985 the office block was sold off and is currently in use by an accountancy firm. The early 1990’s saw a big push in advertising and sport sponsorships, 1992 saw the commercial peak of Stones Bitter – Making the highest selling bitter in the country with sales of over a million barrels. In 1995/96 it was the filming location for “When Saturday Comes” starring Sean Bean. 1997 proved a tough year for the brewery as sports sponsorships shifted to Worthington Ale instead of Stones Bitter and caused a notably large decline in volumes of sales. The brewery was closed by Bass in 1999 making 57 redundancies.

The Explore
I have explored the Cannon brewery on 4 occasions – The first time being back in 2013 with The Devil Child and FazyUK, the second time with Session9, third time with a non member and recently was in the area with a couple of hours to burn, so a solo mooch was on the cards. This appears to be one popular destination. Nearly every time I have explored I have bumped into somebody else here; other explorers, kids on skateboards, squatters kipping in the front building. The building is a vast solid concrete structure and very sturdy, large circular spaces are on almost every floor, these were used to store beer tanks. Most of the building is very easy to access and covered in graffiti and from the roof is a glorious view of Sheffield worth toasting with some cool suds. For me though this explore really started getting good when I first went down those cellars and had loads of fun navigating underneath the building in the dark. The underground pub was something different to see as well. I very much doubt that I will be back for a 5th time though as there is rumour of demolition in the near future.

Pictures