Varsity, City Centre, Sheffield

A large modern bar on busy West Street. The glass front certainly sets it apart from the other bars here. You'll have to queue at weekends and the prices are not too great!

Varsity Pub Reviews

I frequent the Varsity on West Street a lot! I know all the bar staff, and I also know how much pressure they are under to ask for ID. I also know they receive plenty of training and refresher training on how to ask, and what forms if I.D. are acceptable, these are guidelines set down by the Home Office and South Yorkshire Police.

They now have to operate a system called Challenge 21, this means if a customer looks under 21 they must ask them to prove that they are over 18. Bar staff are under constant threat of police cadets entering the business to purchase alcohol underage, if caught out, the member of staff is cautioned and fines £80 by the police.

None of the students working at varsity have spare amounts of cash or they wouldn't be giving up their time to work behind a bar being abused by people who don't carry ID to prove their age.

If you are over 21 please take it as a compliment that you are asked!

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR UNDER-30s.

Although the name suggests they're student-friendly, all this shows is that you shouldn't necessarily go by a pub's name!

As a lecturer, I went to the Varsity with a large group of colleagues and postgrad students. They arbitrarily picked on two of the group and refused to serve them on the grounds that "they didn't look old enough" - even though they happily served others in the group who looked far younger. To add insult to injury, one of the two only wanted a fruit juice! But he was told he wasn't even allowed to stay on the premises.

Like I say, these were POSTgrads, not fresh-faced new arrivals. They had credit cards on them, as well as University ID cards complete with photographs. And they even had their supervisors with them to vouch for the truth of the matter. Unfortunately, the Varsity has clearly never heard of common sense.

Obviously, having an age-check is a good idea. But it only makes sense if bar staff are properly trained in recognising customers' ages. In this case, the staff looked noticeably younger than the customers they were refusing to serve, and had clearly NOT had adequate training.

New arrivals in Sheffield are therefore strongly advised NOT to go to the Varsity. There are plenty of very good pubs on West Street, most of which serve better beer at lower prices - so try one of those instead.

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