A recent thread on the forum about tunnels diverged a bit into the area of mysterious and sinister buildings around Sheffield.
Let's start a new thread on the subject!
I'll start the ball rolling by asking if any one knows what that great concrete block of a building at the bottom of Charter row is? the one without any windows, just vertical slots in the walls. Any suggestions

This has been discussed before and I think the answer is that it's an electricity sub station:

Ugly buildings (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?postid=60041#post60041)

Thank you Max, wasn't aware that it had already been covered, my apologies for going over old ground.

whats that big buliding next to the peace gardens?

All that ever seems to go in is money, and all that comes out is....

Originally posted by Phanerothyme
whats that big buliding next to the peace gardens?

All that ever seems to go in is money, and all that comes out is....

Laura Ashley

Nah it can't be Laura Ashley, she died ages ago.

I saw Dominic de Villepein go in and he never came out either.

It's very suspicious.

The old house (formerly a school clinic) on Broughton Road Owlerton was alwaysa a mysterious house to me, particularly when I saw a ghost there when I was a kid.

The place was empty for years, I wonder what happened to it these days.

Is there anyone out there that knows anything about the place?



Happy Days!

Does anyone know the history of the building opposite the Library on Surrey Street? (Maybe its the Surrey bar?).

It's covered in Masonic symbols - a former lodge house? Always thought that was quite 'mysterious'.

Yes it used to be the masonic lodge before they moved to fulwood

AS quoted by headup: Does anyone know the history of the building opposite the Library on Surrey Street? (Maybe its the Surrey bar?).


Take a look at this.

http://www.shef.ac.uk/~crf/pdf/tales7.pdf

Incidently before the "wedding cake" registry office was built, this building was used as the Sheffield Registry Office following the demolition of the Corn Exchange where the previous registry office had been.

I was told that the concrete sub station on Charter Row was specially designed so that in case of an explosion the roof which is weaker than the reinforced walls would lift off skywards.

I hope this info makes everyone feel safer as they pass this monstrous looking effigy to the power board.

I certainly do not feel any safer but then I will be a million miles away.

Yes it used to be the masonic lodge before they moved to fulwood

That figures .

Man power building at the moor foot.
Not allowed to pass through it, never saw anyone go in, never saw any one come out.....

Spooky...

Man power building at the moor foot.
Not allowed to pass through it, never saw anyone go in, never saw any one come out.....

Spooky...

I have walked those hallowed halls, but not for many many years.

That figures .

What made you resurrect an 8 year old thread in order to add two words to it? I'm curious.

I have walked those hallowed halls, but not for many many years.

Was there an echo ?.....:suspect:

Yes it used to be the masonic lodge before they moved to fulwoodFulwood???? That's stretching it a bit! Crosspool/Broomhill/Ranmoor maybe.

I was told that the concrete sub station on Charter Row was specially designed so that in case of an explosion the roof which is weaker than the reinforced walls would lift off skywards.

I hope this info makes everyone feel safer as they pass this monstrous looking effigy to the power board.

I certainly do not feel any safer but then I will be a million miles away.

Wouldn't fancy being underneath it when it landed, though...

A recent thread on the forum about tunnels diverged a bit into the area of mysterious and sinister buildings around Sheffield.
Let's start a new thread on the subject!
I'll start the ball rolling by asking if any one knows what that great concrete block of a building at the bottom of Charter row is? the one without any windows, just vertical slots in the walls. Any suggestions

l believe it houses entrance to undergound tunel leading to the once Shewsbury Hospital[a shot in the dark:hihi::hihi::] there is someone in the t]Town Hall has a key ARFER MO PS NOT LIVING IN SHEFILD for a god many years whereabouts is the bot of Charter row?

The old house (formerly a school clinic) on Broughton Road Owlerton was alwaysa a mysterious house to me, particularly when I saw a ghost there when I was a kid.

The place was empty for years, I wonder what happened to it these days.

Is there anyone out there that knows anything about the place?



Happy Days!

same as what happens to all lovely buildings property developers. It got converted into appartments about 7 years ago:(

l believe it houses entrance to undergound tunel leading to the once Shewsbury Hospital[a shot in the dark:hihi::hihi::] there is someone in the t]Town Hall has a key ARFER MO PS NOT LIVING IN SHEFILD for a god many years whereabouts is the bot of Charter row?

This (http://projectsheffield.wordpress.com/2010/10/31/moore-street-electricity-sub-station/) is the building mentioned by the OP. It's actually on Moore Street.

I was told that the concrete sub station on Charter Row was specially designed so that in case of an explosion the roof which is weaker than the reinforced walls would lift off skywards.

I hope this info makes everyone feel safer as they pass this monstrous looking effigy to the power board.

I certainly do not feel any safer but then I will be a million miles away.

Hi,

It may not be the most attractive building in Sheffield but believe me, the alternative would be infinitely worse. I'll explain but first you need a bit of history.

By the late 1950, the T&D (transmission and distibution) system in Sheffield was desperately in need of an upgrade. The central area in particular also needed more power - lots more power. The big question was how to get this power into town. The cheapest method would have been to bring it on overhead steel towers but you can imagine the fire-storm of critism that this would have raised.

What they did decide to do is bring it in town underground at high voltage (around 230,000 v) in oil-filled cables. A new development at the time. The power comes in overhead to Norton (not too far from the water tower ) and then it goes underground along Hemsworth Road, down Warminster Road (cant remember exactly which route it took after that but ended up on Charter Row. Just laying the cables into town was a nighmare (I lived in the middle of the digging at Norton). Getting them to work was alos a real challenge but the system seems to have stood the test of time.

Being at very high voltage, very large transformers were needed to reduce (step-down) the voltage. Its these transformers, together with lot of switchgear that is in the concrete building. The building may be ugly to some but having all the transformers and control gear outdoors, as we do in Canada, would be infinitely worse.

Regards

Hi,

It may not be the most attractive building in Sheffield but believe me, the alternative would be infinitely worse. I'll explain but first you need a bit of history.

By the late 1950, the T&D (transmission and distibution) system in Sheffield was desperately in need of an upgrade. The central area in particular also needed more power - lots more power. The big question was how to get this power into town. The cheapest method would have been to bring it on overhead steel towers but you can imagine the fire-storm of critism that this would have raised.

What they did decide to do is bring it in town underground at high voltage (around 230,000 v) in oil-filled cables. A recently new development at the time. The power comes in overhead to Norton (not too far from the water tower ) and then it goes underground along Hemsworth Road, down Warminster Road and on to Charter Row. Just laying the cables into town was a nighmare (I lived in the middle of the digging ) and getting them to work was a real challenge but the system seems to have stood the test of time.

Being at very high voltage, very large transformers were needed to reduce (step-down) the voltage. Its these transformers, together with lot of switchgear that is in the concrete building. The building may be ugly to some but having all the transformers and control gear outdoors, as we do in Canada, would be infinitely worse.

Regards

Thanks for the explanation, we always knew that it was something to do with electricity but, we never knew actually what was in the building itself. I've never admired the building as such but, it is necessary and the lighting makes it very attractive.
Now, Park Hill is a totally different matter, ugly when it was new and uglier still now.

it is or was an electricity sob power station thousands of people have wondered what it was for years a prison was one of them cause it had no windows

Away from the city, there used to be a big old house on Gleadless Common, called the Warren I think, up the hill from Durlstone Crescent, on the same side, above the bungalows. We always thought it very mysterious as children, the garden was always overgrown and we never saw anyone coming or going. Does anyone know who it belonged to? It was demolished to make way for new houses on Durlstone Drive and Grove I think

Hi,

It may not be the most attractive building in Sheffield but believe me, the alternative would be infinitely worse. I'll explain but first you need a bit of history.

By the late 1950, the T&D (transmission and distibution) system in Sheffield was desperately in need of an upgrade. The central area in particular also needed more power - lots more power. The big question was how to get this power into town. The cheapest method would have been to bring it on overhead steel towers but you can imagine the fire-storm of critism that this would have raised.

What they did decide to do is bring it in town underground at high voltage (around 230,000 v) in oil-filled cables. A new development at the time. The power comes in overhead to Norton (not too far from the water tower ) and then it goes underground along Hemsworth Road, down Warminster Road (cant remember exactly which route it took after that but ended up on Charter Row. Just laying the cables into town was a nighmare (I lived in the middle of the digging at Norton). Getting them to work was alos a real challenge but the system seems to have stood the test of time.

Being at very high voltage, very large transformers were needed to reduce (step-down) the voltage. Its these transformers, together with lot of switchgear that is in the concrete building. The building may be ugly to some but having all the transformers and control gear outdoors, as we do in Canada, would be infinitely worse.

Regards

I realise some might not appreciate me raising this thread from the dead for a second time but I just had to say thanks for this explanation.

I have always had a fascination with the electricity grid so I am baffled that I never knew this. The few times people mentioned the building in conversation they seemed to think it was to do with the telephones/telegraphs rather than power, yes had I passed by the back side of the building its readily apparent. For that matter I am surprised I never noticed any noise coming from the building, I guess I just never paid much attention to it.

Over the past few years I have had a bit of an obsession going on with trying to work out the grid layout around Sheffield and it had been rather bugging me trying to figure out why the overheads come down where they do at Hemsworth Road, rather than into the small Jordanthorpe Supergrid switching station. It was particularly puzzling when I later noticed the switching station on Warminster Road which appears to be in the middle of nowhere.

Do you know if its also true that the lonely fenced off house at the junction near the bottom of East Bank Road is also a small switching station? I had always been told it was but never seen any proof, but then what else could it be?

The more I see photos of the US and Canada, the more impressed I am at how much of the grid in the UK is laid underground. There are some truely horrendous overhead cabling jobs over there.

There was a large house near the five arches on Herries Road South which was always a mystery to me apart from scromping the apples from there.

Does anyone have any details of how old the place was and who lived there.

I think it was called Oxprings House.

Happy Days! PopT

It really amazes me that people live in this City and dont know anything about its buildings, the one in question has been there since the early sixties, its not as if its suddenly sprung up over night.

Thanks for the explanation, we always knew that it was something to do with electricity but, we never knew actually what was in the building itself. I've never admired the building as such but, it is necessary and the lighting makes it very attractive.
Now, Park Hill is a totally different matter, ugly when it was new and uglier still now.

I like the Moore Street sub-station a lot and thanks for the thorough explanation from Falls above. However I really dislike the attempt to prettify it with coloured lights. It just looks wrong.

It's not meant to be pretty and looked much better reflecting the orange sodium light of nearby street lighting. The coloured lights also cost £78,000 to install (and how much to run and maintain?) A big waste of money in these times.

Do you know if its also true that the lonely fenced off house at the junction near the bottom of East Bank Road is also a small switching station? I had always been told it was but never seen any proof, but then what else could it be?
(snippage)

the "lonely house" at the bottom of East Bank Road is a water pumping station, not electricity.

THe big old house on Burrowlee Road used to give me the creeps but I think its all been renovated now.

There was a large house near the five arches on Herries Road South which was always a mystery to me apart from scromping the apples from there.

Does anyone have any details of how old the place was and who lived there.

I think it was called Oxprings House.

Happy Days! PopT

The one near the school?! I used to go to Parkwood, and my mother went there when it was called Herries. She told me the caretaker for the school lived there, he had a daughter who was friends with my mother.

This has been discussed before and I think the answer is that it's an electricity sub station:

Ugly buildings (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?postid=60041#post60041)

I used to think it where the Daleks lived when I was a child.

its no mystery its an electric power station for years not many people new that, it came to light about 25yrs ago when radio sheffields rony robiinson took tour around various buildings, and factorys and that building was one of them

MrJ90
I doubt very much we are talking about the same house. It would have housed several families of caretakers.

The house I am talking about was a very large house standing by the railway track next to the brewery warehouse on Herries Road South.

I have been told it belonged to the Oxspring Family.