Fagan's Sheffield: Tom and Barbara Boulding confirm retirement plans after 37 years running pub

The couple, who have run the city centre pub for the last 37 years, have confirmed their plans to retire next year as the search for the next landlords begins.

They took over at Fagan’s in 1985 and plan to hand over the reins of the famous pub at some point in 2023 to someone keen on cheap accommodation, free city centre parking and, of course, running a beloved, long-standing pub in the heart of Sheffield.

Barbara said: “We’ve made some wonderful friends over the years from every walk of life. Thank you for the memories.”

When they took over from previous landlord Joe Fagan, the pub was officially called The Barrel, but Tom and Barbara quickly changed it’s name.

Barbara said: “We renamed the pub after Joe on November 10, 1985. Everybody knew it as Fagan’s as there was The Barrel on London Road, so people just called it Fagan’s. It was just the natural thing to do.”

Joe Fagan ran the pub from 1947 and was immortalised when Tom and Barbara officially renamed the pub after him, but having now served the pub for 37 years, the couple shot down any chance of the pub being renamed again.

"We don’t want it renamed as Boulding’s,” said Barbara, “It’s known around the world as Fagan’s.”

Whether it was The Barrel or Fagan’s, the pub is one of the oldest in Sheffield, with it believed to be the longest-running license in the city and is used most by the people who worked nearby.

Barbara said all the organisations in the area would make use of the pubs surrounding them, adding: “There was The Three Tuns at the time, there was Moseley’s Arms, Shakespeare’s, The Crown, which is now The Crow and The Old Queen’s Head, which is now becoming flats.”

Fagan’s has had a number of famous guests over the years, including musician, Richard Hawley and Sheffield artist, Pete McKee, who painted the famous mural on the side of Fagan’s.

Hawley regularly goes into Fagan’s to enjoy some down time, and Tom said: “We’ve known Richard for a number of years as we were his local. The famous ones aren’t treated any differently here and that’s why they come here.”

Tom and Barbara regularly hold music sessions within Fagan’s, with all sorts of artists, big and small, having played there.

Tom said: “People think it’s just folk music but it’s not. It’s whatever you want to play. All the genres are tributes to the thing that is music.”

"One lunchtime a woman came in and said will you read this thing in an Irish accent. Then I had a phone call saying you had won the audition for the Irish landlord in The Virtues on Channel 4.

"It was really really fun to do.”

Tom and Barbara’s retirement will mark the end of a fantastic era, but the pair are staying local.

"We’re just retiring, we’re not dead,” Tom joked, “We will still be in Sheffield and we hope to see everyone around the diggins.

"Thank you for the pleasure of your company.”