The Hop Wakefield
Polly Checkland Harding
A unique real ale house, The Hop is also a great spot for live contemporary music in Wakefield. Boasting an intimate front bar and large outdoor courtyard filled with benches and planters, The Hop also has a weekend ‘alter ego’, with live DJs on Saturday nights spinning the very best chart, disco and party tunes for the after work crowd. There are two for one cocktails on Friday evenings, as well as award-winning drinks from independent Yorkshire brewery, Ossett Brewery; the company’s Taproom in the nearby town of Ossett is also a popular spot for real ale enthusiasts.
Real ale is beer brewed from traditional ingredients and using a secondary fermentation process that results in its signature depth of flavour. This is the drink at the heart of The Hop, with the bar’s permanent ales including Yorkshire Brunette, Excelsior, Yorkshire Blonde and Silver King. Here, over 50 years of brewing experience and 35 years of knowledge of the music industry have combined to deliver a venue that’s serious about what’s going on behind its bar, as well as on its stage. There’s an acoustic showcase every week, featuring the best local and international talent unplugged, with popular live cover bands taking the stage downstairs to perform music from across the decades. The Hop opened in 2008, and its core combination of traditional real ale and live acts has proved so popular that sibling venues in Leeds and York followed in 2013.
Wakefield’s iteration is blessed with a cobbled street out front, and carefully chosen decoration inside: an ornate bar, stained glass windows, exposed bricks and distressed wooden panelling all add to the atmosphere. Around the corner from the Theatre Royal Wakefield, The Hop is a great spot for a pre-theatre drink; alternatively, it’s the ideal location to sit back and relax after a day spent exploring Wakefield Cathedral, with its many treasures including fine medieval carvings and the most complete collection of stained glass by Charles Kempe in the world, the Gissing Centre, the former home of an author whose popularity once rivalled Dickens’, and Wakefield Museum – full of fantastic local artefacts and surprising facts about the city.
