Since moving to West Yorkshire fifteen years go (gulp, that’s gone quick!!) I’ve hardly made a visit to the centre of Sheffield, though have regular fortnightly visits to Hillsborough and regular visits to my BB company in Gleadless. So, as I had a BB meeting and was calling at Hillsborough on the way, I thought I’d aim for the centre and see what was different.
I wanted a car par which was easy to get to so aimed for Arundel Gate, the NCP was a rip-off at £3 an hour but there was one on Charles Street which was a Q-Park, and cheaper. Strangely I couldn’t actually remember a car park on Charles Street, and considering what I found it’s no wonder!
This amazingly designed car park (the inside is as impressive as the out) is on the site where the old ‘egg box’ section of the Town Hall used to be. I knew they’d built a museum/gallery and 2 hotels but I’d not realised the extent to the development. It reminds me of the developments by the waterfront in Leeds near the armouries.
The first thing I wanted to do was the go to the new (well to me anyway) Winter Gardens and the Millennium Gallery, again next to the Town Hall and Peace Gardens. The design of the winter gardens is attractive and the planting very well looked after:
If you notice from this last picture, the entrance to the Gallery (http://www.museums-sheffield.org.uk/museums/millennium-gallery/home) is within the Winter Gardens. Main galleries include the Ruskin Collection which is mainly natural artwork and Italian style frescos; small but interesting, and next to that a wonderful exhibition celebrating the cutlery and steel heritage of Sheffield. This latter section is seriously impressive! There are other short-term exhibitions as well.
The Peace Gardens were heaving today, full of children playing and people socialising and relaxing, this is a shot towards it from the entrance to the Winter Gardens.
I then decided to have a round-about tour down Pinstone Street and up Cambridge Street past Cole Brothers (John Lewis now . . .) as the gold postbox celebrating Jessica Ennis’ gold medal is up there next to the City Hall. Compared with the really great new development near the Town Hall, the area around Cambridge Street is a right dump. Some serious regeneration work needed here.
John Lewis had a seriously big picture of Jess Ennis on the side of it’s front wall:
And I managed to see the postbox, though couldn’t take a picture as there were loads of people in front of it. This picture is courtesy of my mum who took a snap the other week:
After taking in Barkers Pool I walked down Fargate to the Cathedral. Since I last visited the new section with the glass ceiling had been redone, and the light and colour is glorious:
Overall a very enjoyable trip back to the centre of Sheffield, and definitely worth a trip again. The cafe at the Millennium Gallery is also excellent, and is where I’m writing this post with a pot of tea!!
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