Sheffield 3: around the city

72 Comments

Time for a look round Sheffield’s city centre. If you follow the World Snooker Championships on TV you will know the Crucible Theatre which has hosted them since 1977. The theatre opened in 1971 so it was still very new when I arrived as a fresher in Sheffield in 1975. Students were able to purchase tickets for 50p so I spent a lot of time there – at that price, I could afford to see just about every production.

Round the corner is the Graves Art Gallery which sits above the Central Library. I spent a lot of time there too (no prizes for guessing that).

Graves Art Gallery
Central Library

I liked the art work in the stairwell connecting the two institutions – Blue Bird (2007) by Seiko Kinoshita.

Blue Bird by Seiko Kinoshita
Blue Bird by Seiko Kinoshita

Sheffield Cathedral isn’t spectacular from the outside – it looks like the parish church it was until the Diocese of Sheffield was created in 1914 and its status was upgraded. It’s interesting inside though. The Steel Nativity by Brian Fell honours Sheffield’s major industry.

Sheffield Cathedral
Sheffield Cathedral
Sheffield Cathedral
Steel Nativity by Brian Fell

As a Methodist, I didn’t often attend the Cathedral. I went to Wesley Church in Broomhill, a large, dark building which took up the entire corner now occupied by a more modern church and a block of flats.

Flats and Broomhill Methodist
Broomhill Methodist

Back to the city centre – just behind the cathedral is the beautiful 18th century Paradise Square, quite different from all its surroundings.

Paradise Square
Paradise Square
Paradise Square
Paradise Square
Paradise Square

Heading back in the direction of the university is the City Hall where I graduated in 1978. Here I am on the steps with my family after the ceremony.

Sheffield City Hall
Graduation 1978

Two new features outside the City Hall are the golden post-box and the Women of Steel Memorial. All Team GB gold medal winners at the London Olympics in 2012 were honoured with a gold painted post-box in their home towns. This one is for Jessica Ennis who won the Women’s Heptathlon – the only other one I have seen is Andy Murray’s in Dunblane. Women of Steel by Martin Jennings also dates from 2012 and celebrates the women of Sheffield who worked in the city’s steel mills and factories during both world wars.

Jessica Ennis post-box
Women of Steel

Of course, talk of churches, theatres and libraries is all very well – but students like pubs too! Sad to relate, many of the hostelries we remember have disappeared. The Stone House was a spectacular pub – the room at the front was an ordinary bar, but if you moved through the back you found yourself in an “outdoor” courtyard with painted stone walls and a night-sky ceiling. Now it appears to be housing.

Stone House
Stone House

I don’t remember Harrisons, but John does (it’s near the Engineering Department). It caught my eye though because I like the way it has incorporated the original function of the building into its name: W. E. Harrison – Steeplejack of Nelson Column fame.

Harrisons
Harrisons

The Beehive and the Green Room are both near Victoria House, the flats where we lived as postgraduates. In those days, the Green Room was a wine bar called Mr Kite’s. We had some of our earliest dates there, thinking ourselves impossibly sophisticated as we shared a bottle of Hirondelle (a cheap wine of uncertain origin). On my last visit to Sheffield 25 years ago, Mr Kite’s still existed and had the same wine list painted on the wall, though it was historical by that time, Hirondelle having deservedly vanished into oblivion. The Green Room menu looked good, so we went there for lunch one day in the hope of rekindling romantic memories. The food was good – when we got it: service was atrocious. Bring back Mr Kites!

Green Room
Green Room
Beehive

One pub which remains as good as it was is the Fat Cat – but that will have to wait till my next post when we head for Kelham Island.

England, UK

72 Comments »

  2. I’m not familiar with Hirondelle, but we certainly drank Blue Nun and Black Tower wines. Also, a bubbly confection called Baby Duck. Somehow we survived it all and went on to better things.

    Jude

    Like

  3. Very interesting Anabel – I was born in Sheffield but we moved away from the area when I was only a few months old and I certainly don’t remember it! Nor do I think I’ve ever been back there despite growing up in Yorkshire (we lived in Silsden near Keighley then Leeds). Love the graduation photos with your family – very special! 🙂

    Like

  4. That same brilliant blue showed up here at Paradise Square that was on the Fat Cat. Is that colour a ‘thing’? I love it and it’s just not something I have noticed here.

    Like

  5. Hi Anabel, I am delighted to discover your site through Liesbet’s Roaming About posts. Your photos are really interesting, especially the mix of current and 40plus years ago. Sheffield Cathedral is beautiful on the inside. I really like the Women of Steel memorial. I will likely not travel to Sheffield so I greatly appreciate you sharing your past and current experiences here. I look forward to reading more:) Erica

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Sheffield seems to have a really nice vibe to it from the traditional to the modern. It seems like it was great fun to go to Uni there. Love your graduation photo!

    I laughed at your story of thinking yourselves impossibly sophisticated as you shared a bottle of Hirondelle at the now-defunct Mr. Kites. I had a friend who for YEARS thought that she hated wine because of the far from top-shelf Carlo Rossi that I used to serve proudly at undergrad parties.

    The gold post-box idea a lovely commemoration for the 2012 athletes.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. My Dad used to light up at the sound of that snooker music, Anabel. In fact they played him out to it at his funeral- raised a laugh! 🙂 🙂 The hours he spent watching snooker from the Crucible! Always makes me nostalgic.

    Like

  8. I really like the Steel Nativity, and Blue Bird is also rather lovely! There’s a gold post box in front of my local Sainsbury’s, but I can’t remember who it’s for. I think there’s another one elsewhere in Wimbledon too.

    Like

  9. Not much here that I know, other than the Crucible Theatre as we used to have lectures in the basement of a building opposite or nearby (possibly the library I guess) and pop in to have a coffee at break. And the city hall which is where I saw a few bands in the early ’70s and also had my graduation ceremony in 1992. Two gold post boxes I have seen are in Penzance (Helen Glover) and Lincoln (Sophie Wells).

    Like

  11. Hirondelle wine, now that takes me back! It seemed so much more sophisticated than the Blue Nun produced by parents on special occasions. I imagine it was cheaper too.
    I have been following your blog for over a year and this is my first venture into a comment. Many thanks for the interest and enjoyment

    Like

  13. Sadly, I have never watched the World Snooker Championships. (Sometimes I seriously think that I do live under a rock)! 🙂 I love the new features outside of City Hall – especially The Women of Steel Memorial. Thank you for sharing this.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. How fun to wander through old stomping grounds! I remember going back to my first university and looking for the student union – what I recall as a sort of gothic wonder. I loved it. I could see the spires, but could never quite find the building. Thwarted at every turn. At last, I sadly realized they had built a modern monstrosity in its place, retaining only the spires somehow.

    Like

  16. Nice post. The Harrisons sign is amazing. The ‘Of Nelson’s Column Fame’ bit tickles me. The only gold post box I’ve seen is on Hanover Street in Edinburgh, in honour of Chris Hoy, if I remember rightly.

    Like

  17. Hi Anabel – interesting to see what you remember and what’s changed … Paradise Square looks interesting. I’m glad they’ve remembered the steel workers … and thanks for showing the Crucible from the outside … a good facade. Gold Post Box – there’s one for Helen Glover (Backshall now) in Penzance … and I’ve seen another somewhere else – where is anyone’s guess! Lovely that you and John were able to look around old haunts or see the new ones that have sprung up years later! Cheers Hilary

    Like

  19. Love all your pictures of the area. I found it interesting to see the modern boldly in front of the old buildings like in your first picture. It must have brought back fond memories. As for the servers…they might need to have a fire lit under their feet

    Like

  23. The Crucible Theatre – now that’s a blast from the past. As an adolescent I was glued to the screen every year for the World Snooker Championships but have prob not seen it for 25 plus years now….I am not sure why I stopped watching snooker but I did .. I guess other things took its place..

    Like

  26. I haven’t seen any of those gold painted post boxes before: what a lovely tribute. I’m loving your nostalgic posts from Sheffield: it sounds as those you made the absolute best use of your time there as a student!

    Like