A last look at Sheffield

Tomorrow (Friday) is my last day on the Sheffield based project. I go on holiday for three weeks on Monday and while it is not certain where I will be working when I get back it is unlikely to be in Sheffield again, so now seems like a good time to say "goodbye" with some final thoughts.

The lasting impression of the part of Sheffield that I am staying and working in is of poverty, neglect and dereliction. There are quite a few new building in the area but most of them have "for lease" or "for rent" plastered all over them.



But there are some good parts too so let's think about them instead.

The area around my hotel (the Hilton) and office is very attractive. Sheaf Quay shows off it's industrial past with pride and the old buildings are converted and in use.

One of the arches under the former rail line to the quay is now home to Stumpy's which has possibly the best range of sandwiches that I have seen anywhere. Today, for example, I had hummus with wild roquet and vine tomatoes on ciabatta bread with sun dried tomatoes and a drizzle of olive oil. This large and very tasty feast was under £3. I wish I could do that in London!

Next to where I live and work is an area called Wicker which all the locals warned us away from. Luckily we ignored them and so discovered a superb low-market curry house. I've been there the last two nights and had a vegetable vindaloo with pilau rice and two poppadoms both times, and paid less that £9 too.

I am not sure that I'll particularly miss Sheffield once I've left but it did enough to make the last few weeks here comfortable and interesting.

Sheaf Quay, Sheffield

Sheffield is very much a mixed bag with a great deal of dereliction and a large amount of redevelopment, most of which seems to be unoccupied. Sheaf Quay, on the North side of the city, shows this contrast quite well. The bits that have been redeveloped, such as this former warehouse that is now flats, look splendid but the buildings nearby are run down, empty and uninviting.

Sheffield offers a face that is trying to improve and I am happy to give it that chance but at the moment there is much of it that shows the despair of the past rather than the hope of the future. I hope the future wins.

Poetry in Sheffield

So far in my fairly limited explores of Sheffield I have managed to find two poems among the many public works of art.

The first one that I came across was actually three poems by Benjamin Zephaniah (Minds, Question and Heroes) which are on the New Student Residences in Division Street (in one of the many student quarters).

The words from these three poems are cut into the window grilles with just a few words at each window so you have to stand back a bit to get sufficient vantage to read the complete poems.

The other, more prominent, poem is What If? by former poet laureate Andrew Motion, and it compels you to read it as you climb the hill up from the station to the top of the town.

Public poetry like this strikes me as being a good way to reintroduce people to poetry, assuming that they dabbled with it and were put off it at school.

First thoughts on Sheffield

It looks as though I will be spending most of the next few weeks in Sheffield and I am looking forward to exploring it as I have only been here once before and that was for one day the better part of thirty years ago.

It is pretty harsh to judge anywhere after just a couple of days but here are some initial thoughts on Sheffield anyway!



The public spaces in the centre of the city are plentiful, large, surrounded by impressive buildings old and new, are packed with urban art and are largely devoid of people.

In fact the whole of the centre feels like a scene from a post-apocalyptic film (think 28 Days Later) with the few people that are to be seen sheltered in the buses and trams that cross the city.

There are lots of hotels. These are also empty but somehow manage to charge around £100 a night.

There is plenty of urban art and this is a good mix of the majestic, such as in Peace Square shown above, and the subtle. One of my favourites is this multi-story car park that is clad in shaped steel squares to hide its purpose.

There is also quite a lot of street furniture (benches, bins and barriers etc.) which seems to have been procured at different times as there are several distinct styles in use across the city centre. I particularly like the bins and barriers that look like extra terrestrial armoured warriors.

The restaurants that I have found so far tend to be Mediterranean in nature and while I have managed to eat both Indian and Chinese these took some finding and I have, so far, only found one of each.

This is my only my third day in Sheffield with quite a few more to come which will be spent working hard then wandering around curiously with camera n hand. More views of the city in pictures and words will follow.