The Old Queens Head: Incredible 548-year survival story of much loved Sheffield pub
David Walsh
·2-min read
The Old Queens Head on Pond Hill has seen a lot of changes - even in the 39 years that separate these photos, from 1983 to today. (Photo: ,)
The timber-framed boozer at 40 Pond Hill reportedly dates back to 1475. It has dodged the wrecking ball since then, despite every inch of surrounding land being redeveloped several times - including now. Enjoy these pictures of the Old Queen with her head held high.
The Old Queens Head in 1983 stood alone on Pond Hill, with Park Hill flats visible behind. (Photo: .)
Sheffield's oldest residential building is dwarfed by its newest - £27m office Endeavour under construction on Sheaf Street, which BT is set to move 1,000 workers into. (Photo: Dean Atkins)
This is the boozer in 2018 when another neighbouring office block - Acero - was under construction just behind. (Photo: Dean Atkins)
Just up the road, £20m Vista student flats are under construction on a narrow plot sandwiched between Pond Street and Flat Street. (Photo: Dean Atkins)
The Vista site is next to the Sheffield Hallam Institute of Arts building in the old Central Post Office on Pond Street. It will be 16-storeys with 228 en-suite rooms and 13 studios. (Photo: Dean Atkins)
The earliest known record of the building is in a 1582 inventory of the estate of George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury. It was then called "The hawle at the Poandes" or "Hall i' th' Ponds". It may have been a banqueting hall for parties hunting wildfowl in nearby ponds that formed where the Porter Brook meets the River Sheaf. (Photo: .)
By the beginning of the 19th century the building was being used as a house. In 1840 a pub called the Old Queen's Head was opened next door. Sometime after 1862 the pub expanded into the former Hall i' th' Ponds. (Photo: Dean Atkins)
The Queen in the pub's current name is likely to refer to Mary, Queen of Scots, who was imprisoned in Sheffield from 1570 to 1584. The building has been Grade II* listed since 1952. (Photo: .)
The ponds are now gone, but gave rise to the local names Pond Street, Pond Hill (formerly Pond Well Hill), and Ponds Forge.
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