The way things used to be .

[Albert smith]

Oh to walk up the Moor on a sunny Sunday afternoon, in the early 50s, all those new white limestone buildings with big shop windows selling all t' rage, suits and watches with wide sidewalks that made it all look so much bigger.

 

THAT was the future we thought we were getting!

 

Instead, that big government building that cut off historic London Road at the bottom of the Moore was a fitting symbol to the real future of Sheffield!

And guess who has moved into that pile of Architectural crap????.

The Planners

[trastrick]

And guess who has moved into that pile of Architectural crap????.

The Planners

 

Imagine somebody trying to put that up across the main thoroughfare in Paris or Prague or Rome!

[Albert smith]

Imagine somebody trying to put that up across the main thoroughfare in Paris or Prague or Rome!

Or Barnsley ,Rotherham or Chesterfield:hihi:

[trastrick]

Or Barnsley ,Rotherham or Chesterfield:hihi:

 

Amazing how easily they managed to kill, a busy viable London Road, AND The Moor, in one fell swoop.

 

That had to be planned!

[soft ayperth]

Character ,Sheffield had real character at one time ,it was a kaleidoscope of back alleys . cut throe's, hoyles int roooads , rackling trams to Intake , Crookes and Darnall with all stops inbetween .

 

It had a Market area that spread from Park Hill to Exchange Street ,at the bottom of Dixon Lane was the Rag and Tag where a Sheffielder could buy owt from a tea service to a coal shovel , a settee to a chimney pot.

The stall holders would shout ,"a tanner a pound " or "get your knickers here two bob a pair" and so on.

 

As you climbed Dixon Lane the barrow boys and lasses would bend your ear to try their best Guernsey tomatoes or potatoes from Jersey or Boston in Lincolnshire .

At the top of Dixon stood big Ada who stood no nonsense from any one be they Teddy boys or silk scarve wide boys from the Bull and Mouth or Mucky Duck.

 

Just below this wonderland of Street life was the proper Markets , The Norfolk with its smashing Architecture pulled down to make way for the much loved Castle Market were you get any thing from a pair of jeans to a wedding suit or even a three piece one .

 

All the areas are now dead as a door nail pulled down or poached by the Universities in the name of progress .The Street life, the sounds, the smells the nostalgia gone so as we can pretend that our City is just as forward looking as Leeds, Manchester or Liverpool when the fact is that we were unique in our own inward looking ways , we were different, we were contenders .

 

That's the Sheffield I remember before I moved to Canada in 1969. A bustling downtown core with so much activity and excitement, full of character and characterS. On my infrequent trips back to the city of my birth, I am always disappointed to see what has become of it. Flyovers, monstrous roundabouts, trams that in no way resemble those of bygone days, cheap discount stores, betting shops and easy money loan shops. Buildings of architectural beauty and significance left to rot away, e.g. the old Court House, GPO for the longest time. Few people. It is so sad what the city planners have done to a city centre that was once so thriving.

Edited February 9, 2018 by soft ayperth

[trastrick]

That's the Sheffield I remember before I moved to Canada in 1969. A bustling downtown core with so much activity and excitement, full of character and characterS. On my infrequent trips back to the city of my birth, I am always disappointed to see what has become of it. Flyovers, monstrous roundabouts, trams that in no way resemble those of bygone days, cheap discount stores, betting shops and easy money loan shops. Buildings of architectural beauty and significance left to rot away, e.g. the old Court House, GPO for the longest time. Few people. It is so sad what the city planners have done to a city centre that was once so thriving.

 

I spent 4 summers co-managing an ESL summer school in Poland.

 

All the buildings dedicated to Communism after the U.S.S.R. took over were eyesores. Reminded me a lot of new progressive Sheffield. Same decaying sterile flats, same decaying sterile government office boxes!

 

Fortunately the Poles got rid of the commies, and re-built the beatiful old cities of Warsaw and Krakov.

 

They fought for and kept their heritage!

[Albert smith]

I spent 4 summers co-managing an ESL summer school in Poland.

 

All the buildings dedicated to Communism after the U.S.S.R. took over were eyesores. Reminded me a lot of new progressive Sheffield. Same decaying sterile flats, same decaying sterile government office boxes!

 

Fortunately the Poles got rid of the commies, and re-built the beatiful old cities of Warsaw and Krakov.

 

They fought for and kept their heritage!

Take a walk up Cambridge Street and see the state that Leahs yard has been allowed to get into while waiting for the so called Sheffield Retail Quarter to be built (is 20 or 30 years in planning who knows).

This historic facia is held up by scaffold that spreads out into the middle of Cambridge Street ,the scaffold alone must be making the company that owns and erected it very rich. Meanwhile on the retail sections main corner outlook the building being erected is ------ a bank with a small section of retail frontage.

What a way to plan a City.

[trastrick]

Take a walk up Cambridge Street and see the state that Leahs yard has been allowed to get into while waiting for the so called Sheffield Retail Quarter to be built (is 20 or 30 years in planning who knows).

This historic facia is held up by scaffold that spreads out into the middle of Cambridge Street ,the scaffold alone must be making the company that owns and erected it very rich. Meanwhile on the retail sections main corner outlook the building being erected is ------ a bank with a small section of retail frontage.

What a way to plan a City.

To paraphrase Shakespeare, first we kill all the planners.

 

You don't need planners to tell you that Main Sreet needs a butcher, baker, greengrocer, grocery, beer off, at least 2 pubs, and a fish and chip shop!

 

And maybe one of the following take-outs, chinese, indian, kebabs!

[Albert smith]

To paraphrase Shakespeare, first we kill all the planners.

 

You don't need planners to tell you that Main Sreet needs a butcher, baker, greengrocer, grocery, beer off, at least 2 pubs, and a fish and chip shop!

 

And maybe one of the following take-outs, chinese, indian, kebabs!

And when the Moor was open to buses that actually brought people into the main shops and pubs then we had Street life ,day and night ,Street life that brought all the sounds and smells that make a City vibrant.

[trastrick]

And when the Moor was open to buses that actually brought people into the main shops and pubs then we had Street life ,day and night ,Street life that brought all the sounds and smells that make a City vibrant.

 

As captured beautifully by Cunningham and his prints. Sheffield really was like that, alive, helpful, cheerful and optimistic about the future!

 

Now I have no family in Sheffield, its the very last place of all the places I've lived I'd ever want to go back to.

 

Pork pie shops and fish and chip shops, excepted!