Hole In The Road Thread with Pics

[bluebird62]

I have been told that there used to be some sort of shopping area, around where is now HMV/Boots/Cathedral... which was filled in before the trams got put back in (around 1995?) Apparently you could see the sky from it, but it was lower than the normal street level. Sounds all very intriguing.. surely anyone who's lived here since before 95 or so should know whether it's true or not?

 

Hi HollyO.

yes , the hole in the road did have some shops as i worked in one, - C & A MODES- which had lower ground floor or basement, this was called the "clockhouse" a youngster shop and the menswear department was even lower than that as there was another set of steps to enter the mens dept. In the subway we had windows which displayed the goods on offer in C& A.

[alevans]

i think you mean the hole in the road as everybody called it. it was a small underground with a few shops and a large fishtank set in the wall ...... your not missing a lot it was usually full of drunks and tramps and stank of pee

It was a major attraction when first built, especially the fish tank, I was as shocked by its demise as I was that of Redgates (see other thread)

[alevans]

Sounds amazing.. and weird... why was it underground? Did it lead anywhere. Do you think it's still there under the ground/tram lines. Are there any pictures of it anywhere?

It did have some shops, but thinking about it they may have just been display windows.

[alevans]

Actually apart from the shops and the fish tank, it wasn't vastly different to the one presently at the bottom of London Road (well somewhere around there.)

[Anj1364]

I remember countless times we ran up from the hole in the Road at the side of what used to be the Marples pub to the number 4 bus stop and the bus driver thinking it hilarious to drive off as we ran towards him. We then used to run down to the next bus stop across from the markets in the time it took the bus to drive up Commercial Street, round the hole in the Road and back down Commercial Street. We made it 9 times out of 10:D

[Shazbat]

I was explaining to the boyf just how much ground you could cover underground, when you think where the subways started and ended. I ran thru it on many a night after work from Fitzalan Square/Marples to Angel Street or High Street, and there was nothing worse than hurling yourself up an escalator to see your bus pulling away ... And thinking back, to be honest, I was never intimidated or frightened of going thru there on my own. Today I'd probably be petrified

[Jillykins]

This makes me feel very old!!!! Years ago in the early 70s when I was a teenager I was in the school band(Hi to any Newfield school band members reading this) we stood in the freezing cold playing Christmas carols to "entertain" the shoppers. Poor them. Any ex Newfield stalwarts remember Mr Pye the Music teacher sadly no longer with us?

 

It is weird looking at photos of Sheffield from only 30 years ago so much has changed since then, the city centre is definitely looking much nicer these days, the Moor could do with a bit of a spruce up though.

 

Any other oldies remember going down the Moor on a double decker to see the Christmas lights?

[Andy]

Nicked from another thread:

 

ODE TO HOLE IN THE ROAD

 

When the hole was first thought of it caused such a stir

 

A hole in the road ? Why ? How much and where ?

 

The council debate raged to and fro for o’er three year,

 

Many thought the idea was daft, a bit queer.

 

But, at last it were decided - an ole we shall ‘ave

 

The Council knows best said t’Mayor, and agreed to the scheme

 

Madness said some, and so it did seem.

 

And so in due course, it came to pass, after two further year

 

The largest bloody hole in the road in the whole of South Yorkshire.

 

Nobody liked the hole. No decent shops in it, no lavs, no character or sole.

 

What did thee expect said t’ Mayor – its only a hole.

 

 

 

And now, ee you would never guess

 

They’ve dug up the hole and moved it to a new address!

 

Where is it now ? –Nobody knows and nobody cares,

 

What a terrible, terrible state of affairs.

 

If they had only left it there where it was – now just think on………

 

they could have dumped the new Town hall in it – that’s another thing that’s gone.

[poppins]

Daft question, but how did they fill in the hole anyhow ? did everyone bring their junk and chuck it in ?

[Wattsy]

Yeah i remember the Hole in the Road, it was a good meeting place i.e the fish tank. You could get access to C & A shop and there were other little shops under there.