John KellyTen years ago, Steve Holt and John Kelly found humour in adversity when a photo of them drinking pints in the beer garden of their flooded pub went viral.
The pair’s business, Kirkstall Brewery, was a victim of the devastating flooding of the River Aire in the autumn and winter of 2015.
The Bridge Inn in Leeds was badly affected – but when the two men met the BBC a decade on, they said the premises have not been submerged since thanks to major investment in defences.
“Everyone thinks we did it for publicity, but it was just stupidity,” said Mr Kelly.
“There weren’t any responsible people around. I think we just kind of capitulated that the river was going to win and there was nothing we could do.”
The brewery owners had waded into the rising waters to try and save the pub’s picnic benches, which were floating down the Aire, the river that runs alongside the Bridge Inn.
“I think there’s still a picnic bench in a tree somewhere, further down the river,” said Mr Holt.
“I called John and said, ‘put some old jeans on, we need to wade out and stop these benches floating away down the river’.
“The current was very strong – we could easily have been put into the river, which some people criticised us for as well, but we were in control.
“So we thought the best thing to do is just let it happen. We were already wet so let’s just get a beer and sit down and then someone took a photo of us from the bridge and the next thing we knew they became a sort of viral kind of thing.”
Not long afterwards, Mr Kelly was being asked to do interviews on Brazilian radio and they were featured on Have I Got News for You?
“It was quite amusing, really, and everyone sort of thought it was great, two Yorkshiremen sitting in the river having a pint,” remembered Mr Holt.
“Dickie Bird, God rest his soul, said we were the finest Yorkshiremen that ever existed. I’m not from Yorkshire. I took it anyway,” added Mr Kelly, who is originally from Durham.
Sitting in the water had a long-term effect on the men, especially Mr Holt who said his knees “have never been the same” since.
“In fact, I’ve had two knee transplants. I’m not blaming the river for that but you never know, I don’t think it made it any better.”
“We were going to have our dinner out there, but Steve’s wife came down and told us off, so we had to get out,” added Mr Kelly.
The November 2015 floods were followed later that year by the Boxing Day floods, which saw nearby Kirkstall Road “run like a river”.
“We had about two inches of silt everywhere, from the car park, in the pub, it was just devastation,” recalled Mr Holt.
“We actually had to close the pub but the community rallied around, so the day after Boxing Day we probably had 50 people helping to clear the car park.
“We were really concerned because we weren’t covered on flood insurance. It’s very difficult to get flood cover when you’re so close to the river, so we had to fund it ourselves and it was it was expensive putting everything right but we did manage to get open for New Year’s Eve.”
“I think the way we built Kirkstall Brewery initially was around the community and the community really came back and helped us and it was lovely to see.”
Despite a few “close calls” over the past 10 years, the river has been kept at bay by the Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme, which was funded by the city council and the Environment Agency.
The £200m scheme was completed in 2024 following several phases of engineering and infrastructure work. More than 4,000 homes and 1,000 businesses in the Aire’s catchment have now been given protection.
The first phase was the creation of new moving weir gates across the river at Crown Point and Knostrop, and the merging of the Aire with the Aire and Calder Navigation canal. The weirs can be raised and lowered to control water levels.
The second phase covered 14km of river from Leeds Station to Apperley Bridge and included defensive walls, embankments, flow control structures and the removal of obstructions.
A controlled flood storage area was also built near Calverley, which can hold the equivalent of 720 Olympic-standard swimming pools.
The scheme enabled land previously prone to flooding to be opened up for the building of developments in the Wellington Street and Holbeck areas.
The flood was just two years into Mr Holt’s tenure at the Bridge Inn, which he bought in 2013 as it was close to the brewery site that had opened in 2011.
Now the brand owns 10 pubs, including a taproom about half a mile down the road from the original brewery.
“Everyone thinks Kirkstall is a huge business now, but we’re a small independent local business, mainly involved in the community in our backyard,” he said.
