Our History
The Cutlers Hotel that you see today is built upon the site of one of Sheffield's oldest clubs, with a history that we can trace back to the 1800's.
The site where The Cutlers Hotel now sits was once home to a beautiful eighteenth century mansion house. The original building was opened in 1847 as ‘The Athenaeum,' one of Sheffield's first clubs.
At a time when national and international reading materials were not necessarily easy to come by, The Athenaeum had extensive newsrooms and libraries. They quickly established themselves as central to the burgeoning cultural and intellectual development of the city. The first president of the club was Dr Mariano De Bartholome a prominent local doctor and ex head of the British Medical association. We have named our restaurant / bar Mariano's in his honour.
In1900 we know that the building was refitted at a cost of £3,500, we have copies of the plans drawn during the works. By the 1920's accounts in the local archive show the club was thriving.
By the 1940's Britain was at war. Sheffield was a major centre for steel production, and was aggressively targeting for bombing campaigns. The beautiful George Street mansion house did not survive the blitz in 1941, and we have since discovered photographic evidence of the building burning. These pictures made the front page of the Sheffield Star newspaper.
The Athenaeum relocated and merged to form the St James club after this point. Until 1964 the site remained derelict the current building was the constructed. The first inhabitants were The Sheffield Club another members club who had lost their premises due to war damage.
The Sheffield Club remained here until the early 1980's when they relocated to The Cutlers Hall.
We are very proud of the history and culture that surrounds our site. For any further information please do not hesitate to contact us.
