Well its three years or so since the "new" Town Hall extension was demolished. I always thought it was an interesting looking building, not the eye-sore that many claimed to to be.

Page about the demolition (http://www.lucas-digital.com/sheffield/guide/eggbox.html)

Photos of then and now (http://www.lucas-digital.com/sheffield/guide/before_after.html)

So lets hear it, what did you think of it?

Originally posted by lucasdigital
Well its three years or so since the "new" Town Hall extension was demolished. I always thought it was an interesting looking building, not the eye-sore that many claimed to to be.

I'm glad to see the back of it. I guess it was kind of an interesting design,but it was still very fugly,it just looked to much out of place for people to except it. When you compare it to the original town hall it looked kinda stupid. Once all the building work down there is done with i think the area will look a lot better.

I worked in the 'egg box for many years. It didn't look that big from the outside but was huge inside, I think that was part of the design. I thought it looked a lot better when the new Peace Gardens had been build, it seemed to blend in nicely.

I am sure that the design was innovative, when the designer first put pen to paper, and put it forward etc,

However, it did look like a spaceship that had set down in the peace gardens, didn't it? let's be honest....

The design was also a bit "non-environmental", and wasteful, if truth be known.

The egg-box windows, placed as they were on the "sticky-out bits", meant that very little natural light could get into the building, so the hordes of lights had to be kept on all day in order for it to be light enough to enable the staff to work. there was little natural air movement, so it was stuffy and airless.

I remember everything being designed around sort of hexagonal "pods", internally.

I have mixed feelings about the building; I thought it was ugly, and that it could have been designed with better access (eg the frontage could have been "dropped" by about four feet -or however high the flight of steps was to the frontage) but I also miss seeing it there on the edge of the peace gardens, because it was there for so many years. It was a part of the city centre.

Pt

I was fortunate to have a guided tour of the town hall in the 80's whilst at junior school, remember going across the walk way from the old building into the egg box and was totally amazed by the roof top garden complete with lawned turf.

I liked it and beleave knocking the place down was simply a PR stunt.

Sure, the egg-box looked exciting from the outside...but did anyone who mourns its passing ever go inside

I've never been to prison, but if I did, I imagine it wouldn't look any different to that place.

The inside was dark and gloomy; the toilets were absolutely filthy.

I love Sheffield history as much as the next person, but I'm glad to see the back of the old thing.

Abdul I worked in the egg box for many years, and don't recognise your description of the inside.

I was in there a few times for meetings when I worked for the Council, but I was never based there. I never liked being in it, it was dingy, poorly lit, and the shape of the rooms didn't seem to lend themselves to easy working space.

Originally posted by sanman
Abdul I worked in the egg box for many years, and don't recognise your description of the inside.

I hope that's because you've erased the memory from your mind ;)

Seriously though, when I had to pay my council tax in there the ground floor was dark and gloomy.

And as for the public access toliets...they were in such a state of disrepair, I'm amazed they worked. I'd like to see environmental health take a look in their own back yard :D

Originally posted by Abdul
I hope that's because you've erased the memory from your mind ;)

Seriously though, when I had to pay my council tax in there the ground floor was dark and gloomy.

And as for the public access toliets...they were in such a state of disrepair, I'm amazed they worked. I'd like to see environmental health take a look in their own back yard :D


I see your point Abdul. I remember going in to pay my council tax, it was certainly gloomy and drab inside.

However, {drifting off his own topic} they had the town planners model of the city centre which was fab to look at. I suspect they use a 3D CAD model these day. I think the model is now in the old town hall.

yes it was awful. after all, the useless bloody council ran it.

Has anyone got a picture of the old peace gardens? Only been in Sheffield since 2000 so never seen it before it was revamped! Apparently it looked shocking ( Between that and the egg box I dread to think!!)

Try these links.

The first one is an awesome photo of the present gardens, the second is one from before the revamp.

http://www.redsnapper.biz/peace___winter_gardens__sheffi.html

http://www.francisfrith.com/UK/search/addprod.asp?NegNumber=S108012&pagetitle=Photograph+of+SHEFFIELD,%20THE+TOWN+HALL +C1955

It wasn't awful at all, just a very different space. Much greener, with lots of nice flower beds and trees.

There was a tall, maybe 10 foot, wall along the back edge of the Pinstone St pavement that made it a little oasis from the street, and the bus shelters were made of wood.

Ah yes... and a dozen drunks most of the day. :)

There was actually a Newbury Bypass style tree top protest when the time came to cut down the trees for the new Peace Garden work.

Originally posted by markham
Try these links.

The first one is an awesome photo of the present gardens, the second is one from before the revamp.

http://www.redsnapper.biz/peace___winter_gardens__sheffi.html

http://www.francisfrith.com/UK/search/addprod.asp?NegNumber=S108012&pagetitle=Photograph+of+SHEFFIELD,%20THE+TOWN+HALL +C1955

cant see much but thanks anyway:thumbsup:

Originally posted by Abdul
Sure, the egg-box looked exciting from the outside...but did anyone who mourns its passing ever go inside

I've never been to prison, but if I did, I imagine it wouldn't look any different to that place.

The inside was dark and gloomy; the toilets were absolutely filthy.

I love Sheffield history as much as the next person, but I'm glad to see the back of the old thing.
i got married in there december 94
divorced now lol:P :P :P :P :P :P :P

Originally posted by panda79
i got married in there december 94
divorced now lol:P :P :P :P :P :P :P

that is puzzling, panda,

the register office has only just transferred into the town hall, and has never been in the egg-box. are you confusing it with the "wedding cake " building?

PT

Originally posted by Tony
It wasn't awful at all, just a very different space. Much greener, with lots of nice flower beds and trees.

There was a tall, maybe 10 foot, wall along the back edge of the Pinstone St pavement that made it a little oasis from the street, and the bus shelters were made of wood.

Ah yes... and a dozen drunks most of the day. :)

There was actually a Newbury Bypass style tree top protest when the time came to cut down the trees for the new Peace Garden work.

Tony, I was one of the protesters who were there, me in my wheelchair....

I was interviewed for calendar news and everything. (however the beggars edited my comments and made it look as if I was saying something I wasn't.)

I was not a treetop protester, naturally, as my chair would not get up there, but, meh!

I was part of the protest, as I was Horrified at the arbitrary way the mature trees were being riped out,: I was ofended because a lot of the trees were planted in memoriam to things like the hiroshima victims, and the korean war veterans, amongst others.

I felt that the trees could have been taken up with the roots intact, and that the trees could have been resited, within the redeveloped gardens

The original plans had hardly any green space in them:- the design was a stone-and-concrete dust bowl

I am glad that they have increased the graseed areas as it is much fresher.

I liked the amount of green-ness there was in the old peace gardens, and i ws not happy to see the green space lost. I also did not like the plans for teh sunken area, as I felt that the steps would discourage elderly and disabled people from using the gardens.

I also felt that there could have been a sense of feeling trapped in the sunken area too, and that there was not a good "escape route" if there was trouble, and someone was scared of getting attacked.

I think that they do look quite pretty, now; much better than the original plans.

However,in all honesty, I do not feel as tempted to stop, and sit a while, these days as much as it felt inviting to do so in their "old " (1970's/80's) format. (maybe that's because of the lack of seats compared to the old design, i don' know)

PT

A mate of mine worked as a bricklayer when building the egg box and drove a dumper truck into the footings.
They were unable to get it out and so it was left there as part of the foundations.
Wonder if the demolision guys managed to get it and if so would be a good museum peice.

Originally posted by Plain Talker
that is puzzling, panda,

the register office has only just transferred into the town hall, and has never been in the egg-box. are you confusing it with the "wedding cake " building?

PT yes i was a very confused panda when i wrote that one:loopy:

The answer's YES! A carbuncle of the first order.

Ugly, out of character with its surroundings. Badly designed, bland in appearance and aesthetics.

An eyesore. Horrible.

Demolishing it? A cracking idea and presenting an opportunity to have a building of some stature, grandeur and 'look-at-me' status.

Yes, the building which REPLACED the eggbox (No 1 St. Paul's) - as ugly as ugly could be I thought at the time - wants reducing to rubble and consigning to the dustbin.

Sheffield City Council gave us the eggbox. Incredibly, utterly unbelievably, they managed to knock that down and find something even more bland, ugly and unsuitable for the landscape.

That takes some effort.

Was the 'Egg box' completely paid for by the time it was demolished?

I used to work there too, on the second floor, for about 8 years. The toilets were never filthy as reported in a previous post. However, working in a constantly air conditioned environment spread lots of colds, sore throats etc. The temp was never right in winter, either too cold or too hot. I suffered with sinusitis for years until I left there!

Originally posted by barclay
Was the 'Egg box' completely paid for by the time it was demolished?
You are still paying the loan - another 30 years to go I heard. Seems daft dunnit?
Nuf_said

Originally posted by barclay
Was the 'Egg box' completely paid for by the time it was demolished?
I can't answer that question, but I do remember a furore at the time it was built because the red tiles covering all the walls in the rates hall were very expensive, at least a fiver each as I remember, and the Council's reply was that the old Town Hall had stood for over 100years, and this new one would do the same! 30 years later.....? :loopy: I can't say the outside was particularly good to look at, though it blended with the old Town hall as much if not more than the buildings that replaced it. It was an innovative plan though. The windows didn't open, the air being circulated throughout the building. It came a cropper when the council got more and more strapped for cash and began cloising other offices and cramming the staff into the eggbox, resulting in all the systems becoming overloaded as they were specifically designed for a certain number of people. The lawn on the roof had to be laid twice. The first one was made of a sheet of polystyrene impregnated with grass seed. It grew OK, but the wind got underneath it and blew it off!

should never have bin torn down, was all about gainin votes I recken..

Originally posted by Ousetunes
Ugly, out of character with its surroundings. Badly designed, bland in appearance and aesthetics.


My mate's dad knew the family of the architect of the eggboxes.
And the main problem was the materials which the building was designed to be finished in were vetoed as being far too expensive and they used a cheap concrete material instead. This had the effect of ruining the character shape and beauty of the original building as it was designed.
And thus the building was seen by much of the population as a little bizarre and even ugly.

Once again the blame lies with the Council, who instead of investing in a world class modern building, cut the corners in a short term penny pinching way.

Not the designer and architect who designed what he was asked for and had his design meddled with.

Originally posted by lucasdigital
Well its three years or so since the "new" Town Hall extension was demolished. I always thought it was an interesting looking building, not the eye-sore that many claimed to to be.

I thought it was an excellent piece of architecture and the roof garden outside the canteen was brilliant. I spent many happy hours sitting out there eating my lunch back in the 1980s.

BIG mistake demolishing it.

Originally posted by algy
The windows didn't open, the air being circulated throughout the building. !
The windows did open if you knew someone with a special key. You werent supposed to open them, but at times, it got stifling, and we persuaded the key person to open ours just a little bit!

The windows were cleaned by turning them inside out. The cleaner would hitch himself to a special harness on the wall, use the key to release the window and it swivelled round to clean.

In hindsight the "Egg Box" blended with the new Peace Gardens a damn sight better than the monstrosities that are being erected now, but thats Sheffield for you.

indeed!, fully agree

Originally posted by hagardriley
I thought it was an excellent piece of architecture and the roof garden outside the canteen was brilliant. I spent many happy hours sitting out there eating my lunch back in the 1980s.

BIG mistake demolishing it.

I agree, it was a Sheffield landmark and a shame to loose it. Just like the wedding cake.

I personally think the Old Peace Gardens was far superior, but not sure about the town hall extension. It was far better that that ugly hotel thing that has sprung up, now THAT is foul and it does not blend or fit with anything at all.


If you look at that section of the city centre now it looks like someone has cut bits out of various city centres and stuck them randomly together and shoehorned them all in. Ghastly.....