Was Broomhall ever a "good" area

[DaveD]

my father was born in Havelock Square in 1910 ...my grandfather had moved there in 1901 and I believe they had a live in maid ..he moved out in about 1925 I believe ..Its still a beautiful area and there are some fantastic houses there mainly in private hands..the main problem now seems to be the parking ...the poor students..

[willybite]

Firstly, this is not a Broomhall bashing thread! But Broomhall is known for many things and not all of them are good so its generally thought of as a "rough" or "bad" area.

 

I walk through Broomhall every morning on the way to work and (being the sad dreamer that I am) I gaze at the architecture around there and wonder about the buildings' pasts. The Victorian houses around there are bigger than average and, at a time when a large wedge of housing would have been 2up-2down or back to back, they seem distinctly middle class with front doors opeing into inner hallways, bay windows and small front gardens. I always picture horse drawn carriages trotting up and down the wider streets and ladies with parasols in sweeping frocks promenading along the pavements. In the quiet of the morning it seems so genteel and almost of a different age.

 

So, was Broomhall once an up and coming affluent area populated by middle class professionals who were proud of their little front garden and bay window or am I just an incurable romantic? Or were these lovely houses actually doss houses full of drunks and strumpets???

 

hiya, in my time in this district 1938/61, anyone could leave their home unlocked, and this was the time when there were hundreds of small terraced houses in and around broomhall district, when i was growing up a walk up to botanical gardens from springfield school it was pointed out the number of small lodges one on park lane,another just off hanover st,one broomhall st, another corner of collegeate crescent/ecclesall rd. these in victorian times had barriers across these roads i suppose to keep the riff-raff out from some of the really big houses at that time.i think there were more two up and one down houses in the 20/30/40/50/s than two up and two down,in fact the ones i remember with two down houses would only use the front room for special occasions,in fact one of my pals used theirs for his eighteenth birthday, party that was the only time i saw it used.

Edited September 7, 2016 by willybite

[Olive]

It was clearly once a monied area. I walked through it a couple of years ago, and was struck by the magnificent houses, and wide leafy streets. There's even a beautiful, long low farm house (could it be Broom Hall?)

 

I too daydreamed about what it must have been like back in the day. I think the explanation of the steel industry, and Sheffield's rapid expansion, thus turning an outlying suburb into an inner city area,makes perfect sense.

 

Absolutely right, it's a pattern followed throughout cities in the UK and the US. When Broomhall Park was built, on land leased from Broomhall Hall, from 1840s (?) onwards, the area was open countryside, compared to what it became. It was the equivalent of a gated community for the new industrial moneyed class, complete with the gatehouses we still see there today. As the population of Sheffield grew hugely through the century, it would have become engulfed by less affluent areas. Transport improved, and the toffs set their sights on suburbs further out, the larger houses in Broomhall got subdivided and so on.

 

Look at places like Notting Hill - started in Georgian opulence, regarded as a slum for a large part of the 20th century, now a millionaires' playground.

 

I love Broomhall, love the character and the contrast. I lived on Collegiate Crescent for a while during the 90s. Apart from the odd brush with kerb crawlers (eeuugghh), it was a great place to live.

[chem1st]

Yes indeedy - imagine those selfish peasants having the temerity to object when wealthy landowners were stealing all the common land and pushing them further into poverty!

 

Ironically the lack of housing killed the area. The grand houses became flats/tenements, modern day slums. As the proles weren't allowed to have houses of their own upon the commons, they had to take over the property of the idle classes.

[Olive]

Does anyone know what happened to the original houses known as Broomhall Place? I was walking through the area yesterday which prompted me to have a look on Picture Sheffield. They were magnificent.

 

Incidentally, I found this article on Garden Suburbs

http://sytimescapes.org.uk/zones/sheffield/S13

 

Here's an excerpt:

"Broomspring and Broomhall character areas: The earliest phases of these developments are to be found around Glossop Road in the districts of Hanover and Broomhill. Developed from the 1820s onwards (Harman and Minnis, 2004, 247) by a variety of landowners, development included many large villas as well as more modest housing. Patterns of development in these areas tended to follow long established traditions of land subdivision; regular straight-sided enclosure and strict building lines are the norm in these areas. This regular subdivision of land produced grid iron street patterns, particularly between Broomspring Lane and Glossop Road where larger examples of terraced housing dating from before the 1864 bylaws have survived the widespread demolition of their back-to-back counterparts due to their grander proportions.

 

From around 1840 (Doe 1976, 177), the owner of the Broomhall Estate, John Watson, sponsored the development of a new housing development based around Collegiate Crescent, a grand sweeping road lined with trees around which were laid out generous plots for villas - themselves approached by further curving driveways. Gates controlled entrance and access to the estate until their removal in 1916 (Harman and Minnis 2004, 256).

Lodges built to oversee these gates survive on Park Lane, at either end of Collegiate Crescent and at the junction of Broomhall Road and Broomhall Place. The restrictive access to this new picturesque utopia was mirrored elsewhere in Broomhall - at the Botanical Gardens, opened by Sheffield Botanical and Horticultural Society in 1833, where access was only granted to shareholders and subscribers (ibid, 261)."

 

They really were gated communities - some of the images on Picture Sheffield show the gates.

[sheilawragg1]

Does anyone know what happened to the original houses known as Broomhall Place? I was walking through the area yesterday which prompted me to have a look on Picture Sheffield. They were magnificent.

 

Incidentally, I found this article on Garden Suburbs

http://sytimescapes.org.uk/zones/sheffield/S13

 

Here's an excerpt:

"Broomspring and Broomhall character areas: The earliest phases of these developments are to be found around Glossop Road in the districts of Hanover and Broomhill. Developed from the 1820s onwards (Harman and Minnis, 2004, 247) by a variety of landowners, development included many large villas as well as more modest housing. Patterns of development in these areas tended to follow long established traditions of land subdivision; regular straight-sided enclosure and strict building lines are the norm in these areas. This regular subdivision of land produced grid iron street patterns, particularly between Broomspring Lane and Glossop Road where larger examples of terraced housing dating from before the 1864 bylaws have survived the widespread demolition of their back-to-back counterparts due to their grander proportions.

 

From around 1840 (Doe 1976, 177), the owner of the Broomhall Estate, John Watson, sponsored the development of a new housing development based around Collegiate Crescent, a grand sweeping road lined with trees around which were laid out generous plots for villas - themselves approached by further curving driveways. Gates controlled entrance and access to the estate until their removal in 1916 (Harman and Minnis 2004, 256).

Lodges built to oversee these gates survive on Park Lane, at either end of Collegiate Crescent and at the junction of Broomhall Road and Broomhall Place. The restrictive access to this new picturesque utopia was mirrored elsewhere in Broomhall - at the Botanical Gardens, opened by Sheffield Botanical and Horticultural Society in 1833, where access was only granted to shareholders and subscribers (ibid, 261)."

 

They really were gated communities - some of the images on Picture Sheffield show the gates.

 

I was born on Ecclesall Road and took papers round the area in the early 60s, I remember the gated area at the top of Sunny Bank it was occupied by lawyers, surgeons and other such wealthy people, you didn't get a tip from these at xmas though. The lovely houses on Broomhall Place were made into bedsits ets. then pulled down to make way for :better housing !!!:

[boyfriday]

Yep - take a walk through Firth Park and you'll see some beautiful Victorian properties that at one time must have been highly desireable, but now are little more than doss houses.

 

I blame decades of well meaning but hopelessly misguided socialist councils (you know the kind - capitalism bad, property bad), seeking to rehouse the poorest elements of society into the more affluent areas - the trouble is, it doesnt raise the standards of living of those moved to these areas, it just creates ghetto's which spread across the city.

What a load of tosh. The affluent simply move to more desirable and fashionable areas. IN the case of Sheffield they have simply kept pace with the expansion of the city. The poorer elements moved to areas like Firth Park because that's where the space was. The same thing happens in every city in the world!!

 

That's spot on, the rich, just like everybody else want to improve their lot, urban Sheffield was growing up around the gentrified Broomhall, so those who could afford to simply sold up and moved outwards.

 

Ironically the stigma once associated with living in Broomhall has gone now that city dwelling has become fashionable. The large Victorian properties, many turned to flats have, become highly sought after by people who regard the ability to walk to work/into town as a prized feature.

[Farfielder]

Sounds like the area is not at its best (I wouldn't know-haven't been back in nearly 20 years.)  My grandfather was born in Broomhall over a hundred years ago. His father had his own shop  (was where the ring road is now ) but also part of  a large family, so not a lot of extra money to go around.  Still, my grandfather managed to become a chartered accountant, setting up on his own after getting his start at Firth Brown's.   He lived in Broomhall all his life, not far from St Silas church.

 

  I think the area was always a bit of a mix. It certainly was when I knew it. I loved their house (one of those Victorian terraces.)  The neighbors were mostly professional people.  A few were profs at the Uni. My grandmother also knew some rather grand older people who lived on Park Lane, so I remember being invited to tea there as a child. Lots of wood paneling, a lovely old staircase and a large hall with a very shiny floor is what I recall.  And an enormous garden. 

On the other hand, we knew not to walk the other direction past all the old run down places. Not a good idea for a little blonde girl to walk on her own down that way.  Even when we were with my grandparents it felt like walking the gauntlet.  Lots of people with serious fros (was the 1970s) glaring at us from their front steps.  Although there was one black family that we used to stop and talk to.  They didn't have a front garden full of weeds and garbage like the rest.  They had a meticulously tended rose garden and railings painted a cheerful mauve. As far as the Exeter flats, they were never luxury,  but I never felt unsafe walking through there on my way to the Moor in the 70s and 80s.  Used to stop and have a go on the slide in the little playground in the middle when we were kids.  

Oh,  and yes, the little gate houses. I remember the one at Ecclesal Road/Collegiate crescent (I think? )  was a card shop in the early 90s.  

 

[pjo77]

On 09/09/2020 at 20:37, Farfielder said:

Sounds like the area is not at its best (I wouldn't know-haven't been back in nearly 20 years.)  My grandfather was born in Broomhall over a hundred years ago. His father had his own shop  (was where the ring road is now ) but also part of  a large family, so not a lot of extra money to go around.  Still, my grandfather managed to become a chartered accountant, setting up on his own after getting his start at Firth Brown's.   He lived in Broomhall all his life, not far from St Silas church.

 

  I think the area was always a bit of a mix. It certainly was when I knew it. I loved their house (one of those Victorian terraces.)  The neighbors were mostly professional people.  A few were profs at the Uni. My grandmother also knew some rather grand older people who lived on Park Lane, so I remember being invited to tea there as a child. Lots of wood paneling, a lovely old staircase and a large hall with a very shiny floor is what I recall.  And an enormous garden. 

On the other hand, we knew not to walk the other direction past all the old run down places. Not a good idea for a little blonde girl to walk on her own down that way.  Even when we were with my grandparents it felt like walking the gauntlet.  Lots of people with serious fros (was the 1970s) glaring at us from their front steps.  Although there was one black family that we used to stop and talk to.  They didn't have a front garden full of weeds and garbage like the rest.  They had a meticulously tended rose garden and railings painted a cheerful mauve. As far as the Exeter flats, they were never luxury,  but I never felt unsafe walking through there on my way to the Moor in the 70s and 80s.  Used to stop and have a go on the slide in the little playground in the middle when we were kids.  

Oh,  and yes, the little gate houses. I remember the one at Ecclesal Road/Collegiate crescent (I think? )  was a card shop in the early 90s.  

 

Hi. It looks like we came in too late for most of this discussion and I'm over a year after you! I thought, however, that I would say hello. I was born and brought up on Upper Hanover Street near St Silas .  I  later moved to nearby Clarke Street. I may have known members of your family. The discussion about the houses in the area is interesting. I remember rows of back to backs and the magnificent houses in the Collegiate Crescent area too.  I could ramble on but won't in case the discussion has been completely  abandoned by everyone else.

[Jim117]

I lived on Exeter Drive for a couple of years in the 90’s and I personally had no problems. I’m a little confused about a previous poster mentioning an influx of Somalis in the 70’s as they arrived when I lived there. A few faces at first then I came home from work one day and heard a bit of a commotion on the fieldnext to the tower block. A full fledged battle was taking place between the local black and white lads against the Somalis. Prior to that I hadn’t seen any trouble even though I used to drink in both of the pubs on there. Moved out soon after so I don’t know what became of the area afterwards.