Sheffield is a city built on industry. Famously, it grew around five rivers, which provided water power for dozens of grinding wheels that were used to manufacture knives. Later, in 1742, Benjamin Huntsman invented crucible steel and Sheffield became world-famous. From the 1970s, the market declined; relatively small-scale specialist steel manufacture continues, but other nowadays most of the people of Sheffield work in other industries and the city’s two universities’ are amongst the city’s biggest employers. In the twenty-first century, Sheffield has sought to rebrand not as the Steel City, but as the Outdoor City; with part of the Peak District in its boundaries and numerous parks and woodlands scattered through its suburbs, it is the greenest city in England.
This is a relatively short walk at only three miles – most of the city and large town walks we shall do in Yorkshire are, to allow more time to explore and visit museums, cathedrals and other attractions for those so inclined. Sheffield Station is not only South Yorkshire’s largest railway station, but also arguably its most impressive. Its large, Grade II-listed main building is made of Derbyshire gritstone and was originally constructed in 1870; the station has been remodelled, extended and generally tweaked over the years, most recently in 2002. It was originally named Pond Street Station, to distinguish it from Sheffield’s other stations, Victoria and Wicker; they are long gone, although talk of Victoria station reopening never goes away for long. It was later, for a time, known as Sheffield Midland, a name that still lingers locally.
Leave the station via the main entrance, pausing for a moment to view the water feature opposite; the placing of this is appropriate, since the station sits on the culverted River Sheaf and a water mill once occupied the space now covered by the station forecourt. Turn right and cross Sheaf Street, then proceed along the road in the same direction, crossing the junction with Pond Hill and carrying straight on to walk up a ramp to Park Square roundabout. Here, cross the tramlines, a fixture of Sheffield since the nineteen-nineties when the Sheffield Supertram network was opened. From here, walk down another ramp directly opposite, which crosses Exchange Place and descends to Wharf Road. Turn right to visit Victoria Quays, constructed between 1816 and 1819 and forming the terminus of the Sheffield and Tinsley Canal; the canal is one of Sheffield’s hidden gems, built for industry, later filthy and neglected, and revived in the second half of the twentieth century for pleasure cruising. Its towpath forms part of a popular circular walk, the Blue Loop”, and we shall be meeting it again on a walk from another South Yorkshire station.
Walk around the Grain Warehouse, a huge red brick Victorian edifice constructed in 1860, later disused and derelict until restored in 1994 alongside the rest of Victoria Quays. From here, bear right, then turn left and walk through a stone archway to Furnival Road, cross this and continue straight ahead along Blonk Street. Cross to the opposite side of the road and just after reaching the far side of the bridge over the River Don, turn left along a footpath running next to the river; here, look down and left to see where the mouth of the culverted River Sheaf joins the Don. This is close to where Sheffield began: whilst the Don is the largest river in the city, the Sheaf is the one which provided its name, back when Sheffield was a tiny Anglo-Saxon hamlet on the river’s banks. At the end of the path, we reach Lady’s Bridge, which carries the Wicker over the River Don; a wooden bridge existed here from the late twelfth century and the current stone one dates from 1485, although it has been widened several times since then. It derives its name from a long-vanished chapel built close by, which caused it to become known as “Our Lady’s Bridge”. Turn left to cross the bridge; on the other side, directly ahead up the hill is the old Town Hall building, opposite which is the site of the now-demolished Sheffield Market building and the remains of Sheffield Castle. The old Town Hall was actually the third town hall building in Sheffield and was built between 1807 and 1808. It is currently derelict, although an active “Friends” group continues to campaign for it to be restored and repurposed; the timing seems apt, since the foundations of the castle have recently been the subject of an archaeological excavation and are hopefully destined to become a feature of a new park.
Turn right along Bridge Street, and follow it to West Bar, then right and walk to West Bar roundabout on the other side of which a former purpose-built combined police, fire and ambulance stations, which now houses the National Emergency Services Museum. Open five days a week, it is home not only to numerous exhibits, but also to more than forty vintage emergency services vehicles. From here, cross West Bar and turn left up Paradise Street, passing Paradise Square on your right: this handsome Georgian square was built between the 1770s and 1790s and John Wesley preached there in 1779. Once residential, it has long been occupied by offices. Directly opposite this, take a short detour down Wheats Lane to Church Street to view a Synagogue built in 1872 by Sheffield’s small Jewish community. At the top of Paradise Street, turn right along Campo Street and follow it to a junction, then turn left up the hill to another junction and turn right along West Street.
Follow West Street, then turn left along Carver Street, passing Alpha House – one of the city’s many former cutlery works – on the right and a former school on the left. At the next crossroads, turn left along Division Street and proceed along it, soon passing the Sheffield Water Works Company building from 1867 on your left. It retains the Sheffield Water Works Company name, but not its function, having been converted into a popular public house. On reaching Barker’s Pool, look for its eighty-two feet-tall flagpole, actually a ship’s mast made of steel, which forms Sheffield’s War Memorial. To the left is the impressive neoclassical frontage of Sheffield City Hall, which opened in 1932 as an entertainment venue: in addition to the various performers it has hosted, it was also where Winston Churchill was awarded the Freedom of the City in 1951 and where, less happily, Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists held a rally in 1934.
Sheffield Town hall
From the City Hall walk to the Town Hall: this impressive gothic Grade I-listed building is perhaps Sheffield’s finest, and was constructed from 1890 and 1897 to replace the old Town Hall that we saw earlier. Turn right along Pinstone Street, then turn left to walk through the Peace Gardens, which are adjacent to the Town Hall and were laid out in 1934 on the site of a church demolished that same year. The graves in the churchyard remained until the late nineteen-nineties, when the Peace Gardens were revamped and an unsightly nineteen-seventies concrete annexe to the Town Hall known locally (and not affectionately) as “the egg box” was demolished. On reaching Norfolk Street, walk straight ahead and turn left to walk through the enclosed Winter Gardens, the largest urban greenhouse in Europe, which opened in 2003 and hosts a wide variety of plants from all over the world. Leave this on Surrey Street and cross this to reach Tudor Square, which boasts the largest concentration of theatres in the United Kingdom outside of London. To the right is the Central Library and Graves Art Gallery, opened by the Duchess of York during the 1930s. Walk through the square, passing the Lyceum Theatre and the Crucible Theatre, the latter not exactly Sheffield’s prettiest building, but famous for hosting the World Snooker Championships every year. The Grade II*-listed Lyceum dates from 1897 and was completely restored from 1988 and 1990.
Turn left in front of the Crucible Theatre and walk to Norfolk Street, then cross over and walk straight on along Norfolk Row (passing the Grade II-listed Catholic Cathedral Church of St Marie, built from 1846 to 1850) to reach Fargate. Turn right and follow this downhill to High Street, then on reaching the tram tracks, cross over and walk down East Parade, next to the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul, which was originally Sheffield Parish Church. Sheffield’s Anglican Cathedral (one of the city’s small number of Grade I-listed buildings) is not England’s most famous nor most impressive, but like all old churches it has seen plenty of history. Parts of it date from c.1116, although most of the current building was built in 1430 with later additions, including the divisive plain sandstone twentieth century extension completed in 1966. At the end of East Parade, turn right along Harts Head to Harts Head Square, passing the Old Bank House on your left, which is the oldest surviving brick built house in Sheffield, dating from 1728. Turn right through Hartshead Square and leave via High Court to return to High Street. Cross the road, turn left, cross Arundel Gate, and continue straight on down High Street, before turning right into Fitzalan Square, built on the site of a former beast market in 1881. Long dilapidated, the square was extensively renovated in 2003 and its central statue of Edward VII cleaned and protected from the city’s numerous pigeons. The square is dominated by the impressive former Central Post Office building, now given a new lease of life as Sheffield Hallam University’s Institute of Arts.
Sheffield Cathedral
Walk diagonally across the Square, then descend steps to Bakers Hill. At the bottom of the road, turn right along Pond Street and follow it to the entrance to Sheffield Bus Interchange. Turn left down Pond Hill, passing the Old Queen’s Head public house on your right, which is probably the oldest surviving domestic building in Sheffield, dating from the fifteenth century. Timber-framed and quaintly lopsided, this Grade II*-listed public house sits incongruously in the midst of far more modern buildings, including Sheffield Interchange. Turn right past the Old Queen’s head and follow a road to Harmer Lane, then cross straight over and follow a covered walkway back to Sheaf Street, crossing this to return to Sheffield station.
Before we head further north from Sheffield, we first head south-east, for three walks from stations on the Sheffield–Lincoln line, originally the main line of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway.
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