Having driven through a rough council estate we wondered if getting out of the car was such a bright idea.
This was the South Central of Sheffield where you could be mugged, knifed, or beaten for simply glancing at someone for a split second too long. We were not natives and felt vulnerable to such a hostile environment.
Outside “The Ball Inn”, left to rot since 2012 we hesitated to move. The pub has been put on the marketplace for a paltry £450,000 and has had no takers. That valuation would likely buy the whole estate and give the purchaser a decent pocketful of change.
...'The Ball Inn (2008); it looks deceptively safe but from what I read that's just an illusion and created to pull you in where you would be offered drugs and be persuaded to ingest them'... - Source
Thanks to @lpff who always supplies me with a large dose of history, I picked up on this terrifying independent review of “The Ball Inn”.
"It's rather like a Wild West saloon only not as peaceful. The dress code is pretty simple, as long as you have a visible tattoo you can get in (although a broken nose is required for the VIP area). Generally, dogs are welcome as long as they are pit bulls, rotties, or a cross between the two (the 'no muzzle' rule is strictly applied for both dogs and customers).
There are bouncers on the door who will search you for drugs and anyone found not to have any will be supplied them at a reasonable rate".
Source
“Should we have brought baseball bats, and hidden knives”, I mentioned to @anidiotexplores who was reaching for the door. He paused before getting out, applying his hoodie. Damn, why didn’t I wear one, preferably black in colour.
Hoping my car would not be fire-bombed I followed and quickly made for the back as we were otherwise visible to the local Rottweilers; that would not be good.
A possible entrance? Only if you can leap like Superman and have a good aim. It’s still a long drop otherwise.
"The Ball Inn" was not being accommodating, and other than the upper window with a vertical slit you can see (below), it was surprisingly well secure.
Fortunately, there was a semblance of a roof we could climb on and we tentatively made our way across. The entrance through the slit was a little awkward and that roof was not exactly stable.
When you arrive at a room such as this you know it's all been worth it.
Does that mattress mean someone has been sleeping rough in this room?
There are sleeping standards even for the homeless and that doesn't usually mean, broken glass all over you as well as a howling wind coming through a huge gap where the window once was.
Those are sizable holes in the floor, the type I generally distance myself from. It was evident there had been some arson antics up on the top floor.
For Sheffield, that’s terrible quality graffiti.
The stairs were surprisingly intact and we had little problems descending into the pub proper.
It is…, was a pub, what would you expect to see?
Steve Black attempting to welcome people into “The Ball Inn”. The tin stack of 'Strongbow Dark Fruit' was unsurprisingly lacking content.
Carling Black Label; it always sounded good to me as a youth but tasted like swill, as well as most of those other crappy lagers from the past.
Inside was slightly better than expected considering the eleven years of rot this pub has had to persevere. Not everyone is willing to climb on the roof to get in such a shithole, and though trashed I have seen worse.
Not a fantastic line-up, I would probably go for the bottle of Coke above the rest of those.
Working out in “The Ball Inn” likely consisted of you getting chinned and falling to the floor, that’s decent exercise I would say.
The pump wires are still there, I thought they might have been nicked. The barrels could still hold some feisty old frothy beer, complete with a nice topping of stale mould.
Beer mats, I used to collect them as a ten-year-old and had a sizeable collection of this useless cardboard.
The cellar area was pretty grotty and we decided to head back up to the bar.
Leather recliners look a little out of place in the middle of the main bar area. They could have been for the locals after taking a needle full of hard drugs, after the optional starter of garlic bread.
I stared at the bar and played back that review again - "It's rather like a Wild West saloon only not as peaceful".
As the Wild West was far from peaceful, just how many makeovers had this place been through during its working years?
Handy empty bottles just waiting for you to pick and glass someone. Ambulances must have been a regular here.
We exited via that dodgy roof access point and made our way down. A short jump was necessary, and I remember @anidiotexplores landing on some dog-shit or something equally slippery, which resulted in him falling on his arse.
I tried to stifle a laugh, and then thought about my car and what was about to become of the matted flooring. Ah..., Erm....
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Wow, what a crap hole. It's no wonder nobody has bought it. You'd have to have an exorcism first and then just bulldoze the place.
It might well get demolished in the end. The local councils take a dim view of eyesores, especially ones that are accessible. This is why they are constantly being boarded, and then un-boarded.
That seems like it makes it even more of an eyesore than if they just took it down!
A black hoodie is a great way of blending in in any scheme. You must get one!
Oh I have, but I don't want them torn to shreds. My clothes get battered with all the climbing and scraping underneath fences I do.
Right enough, get a shonky Primark one for the exploring/disguise!! 😀😀
Wear once and throw away, Matalan are the champs of that. I used to go there before meeting @bingbabe, and wear cheap-arse stuff.
Hehe, A girl I worked with who wore a ridiculous amount of fake tan used to buy her stuff there for a night out and then bin it the next day. Think she thought she was a pop star :OD
Haha, Tanfastic, I tried it in the 80's.., it's the only time I ever looked remotely brown!
Useless fact: the US "wild west" was not very wild at all. Hollywood does not reflect reality.
Hehe.., not my words in this instance, just some bloke who lived to tell the tale of an outing down at the pub. 😀
You’re really making me get scared of Sheffield right now, lol. This place looks scattered and somehow making be have s feeling that those who left didn’t leave in good terms…
Looks like they loved beers a lot too
Sheffield is not a bad city, but like all of them has it's rough areas, this is one of them.
It must have been The Ball Inn, a beauty in its heyday, seeing it in ruins is so vast, so many needs in the world for housing and business and there are still ruined places like this. Very good publication. From Venezuela I wish you success.
It looks respectable if you look at the shot from 2008, but inside seems like another story. That thread I linked in has more than one comment about the pub being 'rough'.
Glad to see you are still out there rambling! Love your content and think your longevity is impressive.
Thanks, I dribble it out, but there's plenty left in the tank.
Wow this really looks like a great place for a movie scene 😍😍
Most of them do, some make for better scenes than others.
Absolutely Slobber, you're most definitely an expert and experienced.... Your stories are just very awesome and the locations make me wonder how big the world they said was small is 💯❤️
The Ball Inn picture in 2008 looks decent and it is where I would love to visit. The main reason it is still in the market is because it is rough and with a little bit of renovation it should sell faster
Are you sure, the outside might look nice, but how about the villains inside?
Interesting looking place you got there, I reckon a photo or two of the inhabitants would bring it into perspective
There were a few neighbours poking around, but as I said.., don't look them in the eye or you could end up in hospital.
Sounds like a mild version of one of our council areas in QLD, AUSTRALIA. After all, we are your jail overflow colony
I don't like to mention that, crime is not necessarily hereditary or your nation would cease to function.
There wasn't a lot of interesting art in this one, but I was really surprised with the beer wires. I didn't know how the setup was in bars, so it was interesting to see that that was how they worked.
I have seen many beer keg setups in these old pubs, some more intact than others. I figured everything might have been ripped out in this one.
I bet that mattress was there for the smooth landing.
If it was on the ground floor, then I could understand that!
My gosh! Why would you even investigate that place? It looks scary being abandoned and haunted😣
For the lavish views of course! 😀
I see, makes sense😄
You have some balls to break in that shithole !LOLZ
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Jeez, you took this to the next level! I always found quite strange some pubs but getting to walk into one that was of criminal activity known, is crazy!!
It's only hearsay, some bloke's ramblings on a public forum, but comes from more than one source. Just a dodgy pub, very rough when it was open.
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In its heyday, the place must have been a beauty, with all its comfort, which must have been enjoyed by its visitors. Which does not explain why this place, which had such excellent scenery, declined.
Ability to scale into these places...? Perhaps time for ball and chain remedy for you two! 🙃
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This part is pure gold!
Well, at some point, dog or human could be very similar to what concerns the physical characteristics of reduced friction... Muhuhahahaha
I’m glad this wasnt a put in a video, it would have been more scary.
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