Top 10 festive pubs in the UK

The Sheffield Tap, Sheffield

Train stations are rarely as convivial as they are at Christmas. People are heading home for the holidays. Giddy colleagues are parting after long, boozy afternoons. Many are, basically, “in their cups” and far happier and chattier than normal. There are few better places to soak up this atmosphere than the Sheffield Tap, a beautiful Edwardian Grade II-listed refreshment rooms on Sheffield station, now reborn as a craft beer hub. Beyond its tapped beers – brewed on-site on a small gleaming copper kit – the Tap tends to focus on the best new-wave northern breweries. It is particularly tight with Derbyshire’s Thornbridge. Don’t blame us if you miss your train. Or the next one.
• Pint from £3.20. 1B Sheffield Station, Sheaf Street, 0114 273 7558,sheffieldtap.com. Open Sun-Thurs 11am-11pm, Fri-Sat 10am-midnight