Castlegate Indoor Market is great for fresh produce and has the atmosphere that makes a city.

I love castle Market, only gripes i have is that i always get lost and the variety of fresh fish isn't that good.

It seems crazy to shop in supermarkets where the quality and choice is not as good plus more expensive.

I used to love shopping in the market but I allways worry about being robbed

the market is alot safer now than it used to be honest!!

Yeah there is a great store for incense at the market. I think that there is a piercers too but it always seems to be closed!

What planet are you living on,this area is a disgrace to the City of Sheffield it is a meeting place for no hopers and the sooner it is redeveloped the better.Lets move on and join Leeds and Nottingham in the 20th century.

The hell are you on about? I actually live in that area thanks very much! It isn't a meeting place for no hopers. It is one of the last remaining markets in Sheffield, something which has been part of city life for generations.

What do you suggest be built there? Ten block of luxury "city apartments" perhaps, which the general Sheffielder can't afford anyway?

Its alright slagging things off but come up with a plausable alternative first!

Is it just me or has anyone else never seen an ‘ambassador’ in or around Castle Market. If people are too scared to shop their (and you should, I've just enjoyed a plate of the tastiest and cheapest strawberries, two boxes 50p) why do they not regularly patrol that area?

Originally posted by robo
What planet are you living on,this area is a disgrace to the City of Sheffield it is a meeting place for no hopers and the sooner it is redeveloped the better.Lets move on and join Leeds and Nottingham in the 20th century.

What do you mean by joining Leeds and Notts?

They both have big markets.

Viccy market is very similiar (but with awesome mushy peas) while Leeds market is huge with much better fish.

Although I used to go to the castle market every weekend with my mum when I was a kid I have to admit I don't like that area much. I live 5 minutes away next to the Don so often walk past the castle market; yes there are people outside who appear to be drunk and yes there are lots of other unpleasant types around there.
I will miss the market when it's gone but it does need a good clean up around that area.

Originally posted by robo
What planet are you living on,this area is a disgrace to the City of Sheffield it is a meeting place for no hopers and the sooner it is redeveloped the better.Lets move on and join Leeds and Nottingham in the 20th century.

Leeds has an excellent indoor / outdoor market site just between the bus station and the main shopping centre. It's bigger than the Sheffield one and in my experience has similar types of people there to Sheffield's market area, so I doubt 'moving to teh 20th Century' will get rid of the people.

I'd be interested to know what you mean by 'no hopers'. I see just as many no hopers worshipping at the temple of consumerism called Meadowhall or wandering around other parts of Sheffield, Leeds or Nottingham (though it's a while since I lived in the latter).

Joe

To be honest I don't really know what you guys mean by 'no hopers'. I don't really notice to be honest.

I have to admit that the pub beside the market is a dodgy place full of buttholes. I've never had trouble in the market but I've had trouble from there.

Do the ambassadors patrol this area???

Originally posted by Disco_Cat
Do the ambassadors patrol this area???
Nah, It's far too far away from the Winter garden where they all seem to live

.

i love the castle market, started going every sat morning vb early before i teach. its great! especially if you eat a lot of fruit and veg like me, great for my smoothies! saved so much money"

look how popular leeds are, not very so why would we want to join them?

i love the castle market, its been part of my life for as long as i can remember & some of my best clothes have come from their. there is only one thing, i've never been below (as i've been told you can) to go & see the old castle ruins, i'd really love to do that.

Originally posted by dansufc
look how popular leeds are, not very so why would we want to join them?

Leeds market is good. I'd choose going there than Sheffield any time. And i'm a Sheffielder, so imagine what non-Yorkshire tourists would do.

The market in Leeds is so much better than Sheffield.

I would love to say different.

But this is the case.

I use the markets quite often, I find the meat and fish section great for picking up a bargin. Never see the Market security though, if they were a more visible presence then maybe people wouldn't be as scared to go in.

ive just seen this on a website. It looks likes some plans for the new market. But it isn't on the moor. It looks more like its in the exsisting market grounds.

Take a look. http://www.studio1architects.com/retail-markets.html

sheffields markets are the pits. and should be shut down.

Originally posted by 367squadron
ive just seen this on a website. It looks likes some plans for the new market. But it isn't on the moor. It looks more like its in the exsisting market grounds.

Take a look. http://www.studio1architects.com/retail-markets.html

That white building on the right looks like the central library, or could it be the old telephone house ?

Originally posted by 367squadron
ive just seen this on a website. It looks likes some plans for the new market. But it isn't on the moor. It looks more like its in the exsisting market grounds.

Take a look. http://www.studio1architects.com/retail-markets.html

I agree, the white building looks like the travel exec building next to the old sheaf market. Also Carillion have the contract for that area too.
Looks ok though.

I wen there 2 days ago and I was amazed by the number of producers and the number of places thazt sell fresh quality food !
Why go to Tesco's/Sainbury's when Castle Market sells GOOd and fresh food for far less, and has the added bonus of beeing right in town !

Walk down Fargate, down High Street and you're in a bustling modern city. Turn left level with Fitzallan Square and something happens, it's like stepping into another country!
If you don't feel this change, you must be some kind of robot.
I defy anyone to walk down there past Wilkinsons towards the market and not feel that it's a refugee camp for the dregs of society.
I first went round the markets in the early sixties and was a regular shopper there until I realised it had been given over to the drunks, druggies, pickpockets, gangsters and was a pretty dangerous place.
I used to love shopping there, the fruit, veg, fish and meat were the best quality I ever saw with prices to match.
As I had done with my father years before, my kids developed a love for cockles and mussels from the seafood stalls (they never understood my love of tripe, though!) and we'd stand at that cafe in the corner, me with a sandwich and a big scruffy mug of strong dark tea. Here I'd often simply 'people watch' - observe those around me, enjoying the bustle...little old ladies, young married couples, the street-wise and the innocent. They all mixed in and took advantage of the quality of fare on offer.
Like all social change, it came very gradually, but probabaly in the late eighties I began to notice how the place was going down hill.
My kids refused to go round t'market any more and sometimes I'd find myself in situations where I felt decidedly uncomfortable...
Last time I was there many of the old, really well-known stalls had changed, and dare I say it, I think some of the quality of the things on offer had dropped.
That whole area needs flattening - I don't know how the market could be revived...maybe that sort of shopping is a thing of the past now.
Like most folk I now shop for groceries in large, sterile faceless supermarkets and shop for most other things at Meadowhall. This place has no atmosphere, no character but I feel really safe there! sad isn't it...

Love the idea of proper markets with fresh food, but castle markets are not the answer.

Sorry to anyone who works there but the environment is so, so bad. If you were a student or young professional (as they call us) you probably wouldn't venture there and you certainly wouldn't be proud of it. In a city full of students, thats not a good thing.

Sheffield could do with a really good, proper market with high quality produce - proper framers/continental market mixed with some of what is in Castle markets, but in a nice, safe, clean environment that people can be proud of.

That entire area is truely awful.

I love sheffield but even I can't defend much about our messed up "bitty" city centre, and certainly not castle markets.

have you been downstairs in the cattle market (yes i said cattle!)

Its completely dead, with units closed up. The council has done sod all to open it up to people coming into the markets. (Tony I think has talked about stairs and shopping ith entry points on another post)

Flatten the bugger, rebuild a nice classy market, with more contained access areas, which essentially force you to move around the building, bit like a convection current :)

At the moment its a failure downstairs due to its own poor design. The fish market i cannot see how it meets Eu regs, its a disgrace.

Hmmm, I used to be one of the cockles and musses fans, back when I was about 7, me and my Dad used to get a mini plate and tuck in.
Now I know what happens in there, I wouldn't buy meat there for anyone. I know someone who used to work in the fish market as a Saturday boy and he used to piddle in the fish water. Along with other staff from the same stall. Gross.
Then there's the more recent examples of handling of meat.
It revolts me.
On a brighter note, the non food stuff can be a bargain without doubt and Bomber Graham used to do ear piercing back in the day... I feel old :-)

Originally posted by Zebra

It revolts me.


.. I feel old :-)

Me too, - I'm sure if the council were to strictly enforce the food hygene regulations they could shut many of the stalls tomorrow.

But the markets are now entirely in the wrong place - Waingate and Haymarket are just a bus station in all but name and the canyon effect seems to amplify the noise and concentrate the fumes; a real hell hole in winter. But then I suppose the situation is useful for people who have to use the bus to get to them.

The markets really need to be somewhere more central, perhaps on or just off The Moor [with an entrance on The Moor], but there is little prospect of that now with the restricted vehicular access.

I used to go to the markets with my Dad in the 1940s...and you feel old :P

I drive past Castle Market at about 7.45am most mornnigs - I'm tempted to stop in and pick up some cheap fruit etc but now I'm not so sure.

Is that place even open at that time?

Where are the fruit stalls? Inside or in the god-forsaken streets nearby?

I cant even think of any other markets in town that might open early (I imagine the Moor opens at the same time as the shops on that street?)

hmmm........ with all the things said about castle market it's hard to defend it but coz I work in there i've got to try!!
MOST of the food products sold in there are of good quality, yes i will admit that there are some bad ones but surely the advantage is that you can select your own goods? The stall i get my meat from is far better quality than we used to get in the supermarkets!
As for young professionals, well I have quite a few come to my stall as they don't want to pay high street prices so do come into the market to save money.
i have been in there for a little over 31/2 yrs and will admit that at that time it was a very risky place to visit and did attract a large undesirable selection of people but it is a far safer place to shop now and is unfortunatly located in what can only be described as a run down part of the city that is in desperate need of regeneration.

castle markets are great. you cnat gentrify an entire city centre, the markets have alot of history and are well used. for more 'upmarket' fare, the occasional continental market they errect on fargate is an alternative to the supermarkets. though in fairness, supermarkets unfortunately are the death of small retailers. the fishmongers in crookes closed down a while back, there is nowhere within walking distance of broomhill now to buy fish (apart from somerfield, which is crap for fish).

Originally posted by Zebra
Bomber Graham used to do ear piercing back in the day... I feel old :-)

I had my ear pierced in a little jewelers in the corner of the Sheaf market when I was 14, for £1.
My mum went mental and made me take it out :0(

I love the fish market, you can't realy get monkfish anywhere else in Sheffield, and they de-worm it for you.

I'm sure all the people who think it's common and dirty will be overjoyed when Waitrose opens.