Although begging has now become something chavs do once they've spent all their giro on lager and crack, there did used to be some great tramps & buskers on the Sheffield circuit...

Under the subway between Flat Street and Norfolk Street there was the guy who seemed to play George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" in repitition for most of the 80s.

There were the two old blokes who came up to you saying "Hello Miss World" or "Hello Mr Man", before offering you a seemingly free (albeit ****e) felt-tip pen. However, should you make the mistake of taking one, they'd then demand money and get really irate.

Obviously I should mention the old Peace Gardens, or 'Blue Hotel' (so called because the residents were often found dead during the winter months). What a ****-smelling minefield that used to be as a kid. You'd walk through because it was the quickest way to Pond Street, but on the way you'd have to dodge the advances, be they criminal or sexual, of muck-covered hobos, all of whom looked like understudies to Robbie Coltrane in Harry Potter.

Of course there's a different kind of tramp in the Peace gardens now. Thanks to some clever design by the powers that be, Sheffield scum now have somewhere to go for a wash on a summers day. There's nothing I like more than watching the glint of cheap gold, as thirteen year old mums chase several swearing infants around, much in the same way they probably chased each of their individual fathers before being impregnated under a bridge somewhere.

But I digress...

So anyone remember any Top Tramps?

Originally posted by smedley
There's nothing I like more than watching the glint of cheap gold, as thirteen year old mums chase several swearing infants around, much in the same way they probably chased each of their individual fathers before being impregnated under a bridge somewhere.


Each to their own but I'm sure you can get arrested for watching children in swimsuits.

Who mentioned swimsuits? Aren't they nromally soaked to the skin in fake burberry and shell-suits, the only warmth they ahve being the Lambbert & Butler hanging from their mouths?

Originally posted by nick2
Each to their own but I'm sure you can get arrested for watching children in swimsuits.
we better make sure the police raid Ponds Forge then - loadsa law-breakers there i guess!
back to tramps - anyone know anything of the guy that hangs around peace gardens/endcliffe park etc. proper homeless guy, and the only one ever not to have asked me for money for coffee (cheap cider) or a big issue (crack). he looks to wear about 10 jumpers all at once, and has various bags with him.
i sometimes want to give him a few quid, but don't really know whether to. don't want to get to know him or anything, just feel sorry for him as probably the only genuine homeless person in sheffield. the other homeless people somehow manage to have a clean shaven face, clean jeans, and a residential address when getting free needles etc in boots west street.

Apparently, the Peace Gardens is the no. 1 paedophile hang-out in Sheffield.

i remember pond street nora she used to hang around the old bus station there and used to swear alot . and a tramp called cyrel he was found dead in the wicker they were both harmless tho steve...

Originally posted by richynomates
don't want to get to know him or anything, just feel sorry for him as probably the only genuine homeless person in sheffield. the other homeless people somehow manage to have a clean shaven face, clean jeans, and a residential address when getting free needles etc in boots west street.

If you go round town late at night or realy early in the morning the people sleeping in doorways and on benches outside the cathedral are genuinely homeless too.

Originally posted by bigrods
Apparently, the Peace Gardens is the no. 1 paedophile hang-out in Sheffield.

"Apparently"!? On what evidence do you base this statement?

Nomme

Originally posted by nick2
If you go round town late at night or realy early in the morning the people sleeping in doorways and on benches outside the cathedral are genuinely homeless too.

But the majority are probably late night casualties. when gatecrasher was on weekly, there were allsorts sleeping in doorways!! I've lived in town and seen next to no homeless doorway sleepers. apart from the blokey i mentioned.

Originally posted by richynomates
we better make sure the police raid Ponds Forge then - loadsa law-breakers there i guess!
back to tramps - anyone know anything of the guy that hangs around peace gardens/endcliffe park etc. proper homeless guy, and the only one ever not to have asked me for money for coffee (cheap cider) or a big issue (crack). he looks to wear about 10 jumpers all at once, and has various bags with him.
i sometimes want to give him a few quid, but don't really know whether to. don't want to get to know him or anything, just feel sorry for him as probably the only genuine homeless person in sheffield. the other homeless people somehow manage to have a clean shaven face, clean jeans, and a residential address when getting free needles etc in boots west street.

A very ignorant post. You don’t get free needles from boots and you don’t need an address to get them anyway. They're free, and its an anonymous service.

Clean shaven? There are drop in centres in Sheffield were people can do washing, have a shower, have a shave etc. Also there are homeless hostels, the Sal. Army….

Sorry, but most of what you said seems ill informed and that you've got your own conclusions from thin air.

Originally posted by richynomates
But the majority are probably late night casualties. when gatecrasher was on weekly, there were allsorts sleeping in doorways!! I've lived in town and seen next to no homeless doorway sleepers. apart from the blokey i mentioned.

again...ill infomred and untrue....where do you get your facts from? There are alot of people who live rough around the cathedral.

I don't know... I spent a few nights ******-up, sleepin in town, too drunk to walk home, to skint for a taxi...

Slept on Park Square, slept in Midland Bank at the bottom of Fargate, at the Cathedral, in the park behind the Standard...

Of course, this was all back in the day. Now I ahve a credit card, so when drunk, I can pay outrageous prices to sleep in a hotel.

Oh, and surely no-one coming out of Gatecrasher actually sleeps for at least a few days!

Originally posted by boyface
again...ill infomred and untrue....where do you get your facts from? There are alot of people who live rough around the cathedral.

ermm.. i get my facts from what i've seen. who are you to tell me that i've never seen any bench sleepers?? i am aware of what i see, and as for your other post, i happen to be in boots a lot, and when these "spare any money for the homeless" brigade are waiting for their needles, they arrange to meet at each others' gaffs, and swap mobile numbers.
Excuse me for being "ignorant", but i'd say having a mobile would be that last thing on my mind if homeless..
i wonder if endcliffe park man has a mobile? i doubt it....

having a mobile isnt exactly a luxury! You can just get somebodies old one!....to put £5 credit on now and then isnt exactly going to make much difference is it? Its hardlly a deposit on a house?

Ive worked with homeless people, and yes, people have drug problems, drink problems, mental health problems, but each case is individual, and its easy to take the moral high ground.

Tonight, and its bloody cold, why dont you have a look around the back of the cathedral? Or have a look at the people waiting to be let in for food in the morning. They arnt there for fun or a laugh, theyre genuine homeless people.

i don't want to get too off track, and there are plenty of threads on here about individual people, but the majority of people asking for money "because i'm homeless" are in fact not homeless, and a lot of the people that go to the Archer Project for breakfast are part of this brigade.
I only wanted to find out about the old man in jumpers as i feel sorry for him!

You've both got fair points, but there are more people scamming the system thatn there are being failed by it.

I too have done my fair share of work with the homeless and addicts of varying descriptions. There are no bigger conmen.

With regards to your comment about mobile phones, I have to agree that they're not a necessity, and £5 credit could be spent on a lot better things.

I think if you offered a genuinely homeless person a fiver, he/she could think of a lot better ways to spend it than a top-up card.

Originally posted by richynomates
i don't want to get too off track, and there are plenty of threads on here about individual people, but the majority of people asking for money "because i'm homeless" are in fact not homeless, and a lot of the people that go to the Archer Project for breakfast are part of this brigade.
I only wanted to find out about the old man in jumpers as i feel sorry for him!

Fair enough, fair enough.

I know the old guy you mean, seen him around Sheffield as long as I've been here.

I dont think it was that uncommom in the past for there to be general hobo kinda people that just moved from place to place. I reckon he'd the last of a dying breed and has settled in Sheffield.

I can find out about him, but then that's confidential I guess, so couldnt post it.

He must be bloody warm in the summer tho'

Originally posted by richynomates
i don't want to get too off track, and there are plenty of threads on here about individual people, but the majority of people asking for money "because i'm homeless" are in fact not homeless, and a lot of the people that go to the Archer Project for breakfast are part of this brigade.
I only wanted to find out about the old man in jumpers as i feel sorry for him!

How do you know their not homeless, do you follow them home ?

People like to think their not realy homeless to make themselves feel better for not giving them any money.

... and I thought I'd just start a light-hearted chat about Sheffield's eccentrics.

Oops.

Originally posted by nomme
"Apparently"!? On what evidence do you base this statement?

Nomme

A girl I used to work with had/has a friend who is a social woker who works with paedo's etc, and said that's the area of choice - all the kids in swimsuits with the "bonus" of being able to look inconspicuous I guess.

why not have a mobile? It could be a lifeline - if you require treatment, or need to confirm an appointment with a clinic/carer etc...

If they can scrape a £5 topup now and again, I'd imagine it could be one of the most valued possesions - since they can't exactly get a land-line!

I know the man with 10 jumpers. His name's Albert and he's a very friendly chap. You have to stand a few yards away while talking to him though because he has an unfortunate habit of spitting while talking. He never asks for money or anything... well not as far as I know anyway!

Oh come on... Ten years ago there were still addicts and tramps, but none of them carried mobiles around. Half of the bloody population don' need them, let alone people who can't really afford them.

What I'm saying is the genuinely desperate and needy would use the money for necessities, rather than phone calls.

Originally posted by smedley
So anyone remember any Top Tramps?

Being an incomer, I'm going to insist on playing this one nationally. Worcester wasmy teenhood local town, and it boasted one of the toppest tramps of all, in terms of media coverage. Chicken George wasn't technically a tramp, in that it was rumoured he had a council house somewhere. But he bore all the hallmarks - lunacy, leftfield dress-sense, no inhibitions around strangers. He haunted Worcester for much of the 70s, 80s and 90s, but had returned home from WW2 in no great shape mentally. He was one of those peole who didn'thave a proper mental disorder and so never got homed. Just wandered around slowly working himself into the oddball weft of Worcester life. Thinking of him I found this on a google search:

"And of course Chicken George of Worcester (my home town) He was allegdly very rich (aren'tthey all?) and would dance by buskers. If you told him the japs were coming he would chase you with his stick."

I don't recall his alleged wealth, but he used to come and dance when the orchestra I was in as a kid busked in the precinct. Was always done up in a raffish sort of tweedy way. At Christmas he sometimes conducted our carols with his stick. Marvellous man, nowadays I hear most aged and being looked after by the community. A top tramp, and a cut above the rest of this sleepy Cathedral and porcelain town's high street life.

Is anyone going to raise me with a topper tramp? I reckon George scores a Seven.

I CANT BELIEVE SOME OF THE REPLIES THAT HAVE BEEN POSTED ON THIS SUBJECT.YOU CAN SPOT THE JINKIES

Sorry about that folks.You can spot the junkies and wino's a mile off, but for gods sake there are a lot of people out there in terrible desperate need of help.And for a lot of them there is nothing else.Who knows what tradgedy led these people to such cicumstsnces.All i know is,that most people(myself included) find themselves in desparate need of help at some point in our lives.

I was lucky enough to have the help i needed, but i could never poke fun of any of these people, cos lets face it none of us would want to swap places with them would we?

AS FOR THE PEDO'S IN THE PEACE GARDENS THEY WANT TO BE BATTERED SKINNED ALIVE SPIT ROASTED AND FED TO THE OTHER PEDOS LOCKED UP TO SAVE US ALL THE FOOD BILL OF KEEPING THEM IN THE NICK>

Originally posted by boyface
A very ignorant post. You don’t get free needles from boots and you don’t need an address to get them anyway. They're free, and its an anonymous service.

Clean shaven? There are drop in centres in Sheffield were people can do washing, have a shower, have a shave etc. Also there are homeless hostels, the Sal. Army….

Sorry, but most of what you said seems ill informed and that you've got your own conclusions from thin air.
Too young to remember Sheffield gaining it's reputation for 'begging tourism' are we? Uz generous Sheffield residents made such easy pickings that in the late '80s/early '90s Sheffield became a magnet for those wishing to supplement their dole cheques. The police survellance (?help) videos were shown on the TV, of people geting out of cars and dressing down for their day job.

I always wondered what happened to the organ player in the hole in the road. He had obviously decided that he would be losing money to sit at home and learn this new skill, so treated his 'adoring public' to every painful note he practiced (with the three blind mice book open infront of him). He was right, and it was great passing him day in and day out and hearing the improvements. Where is he now? I think I first saw him about '89/'90. Perhaps he makes a better living than all of us?!

Originally posted by Strix
I always wondered what happened to the organ player in the hole in the road. He had obviously decided that he would be losing money to sit at home and learn this new skill, so treated his 'adoring public' to every painful note he practiced (with the three blind mice book open infront of him). He was right, and it was great passing him day in and day out and hearing the improvements. Where is he now? I think I first saw him about '89/'90. Perhaps he makes a better living than all of us?!

He's had a good long while to hone his keyboard skills. Maybe he's got a record deal nowadays, or works as a session musician? Or understudies for Candy Doyle in Pulp?

Just as long as they didn't fill in the road hole on top of him, because after all nobody likes ignorant censorship, by tarmac or any other means.

Originally posted by Strix
Too young to remember Sheffield gaining it's reputation for 'begging tourism' are we? Uz generous Sheffield residents made such easy pickings that in the late '80s/early '90s Sheffield became a magnet for those wishing to supplement their dole cheques. The police survellance (?help) videos were shown on the TV, of people geting out of cars and dressing down for their day job.

I always wondered what happened to the organ player in the hole in the road. He had obviously decided that he would be losing money to sit at home and learn this new skill, so treated his 'adoring public' to every painful note he practiced (with the three blind mice book open infront of him). He was right, and it was great passing him day in and day out and hearing the improvements. Where is he now? I think I first saw him about '89/'90. Perhaps he makes a better living than all of us?!

…please…not that old chestnut. They get out of a bmw, live in a mansion, earn thousands a day…..come on. This is probably about one person in a million.

You sound like the bloody Daily mail….get real.

And the organ player,.,.you want to get the definition between begging and busking sorted out.

Actually, back when I stopped being a student and decided stint on the dole would be beneficial, I used to see a bloke begging near norfolk street...

Unfortunately for him, I used to also see him getting out of his brand new mondeo, draped in shiny ratners gear, cashing his giro at the same post office as me!

Now maybe he was the one in a million, but if that's the case, how come I don't ahve the same luck on the bloody lottery?

you cant get lucky twice in one day....count yr blessings ;)

Originally posted by boyface
…please…not that old chestnut. They get out of a bmw, live in a mansion, earn thousands a day…..come on. This is probably about one person in a million.

You sound like the bloody Daily mail….get real. Calender news actually, and it was a vauxhall cavalier. They were from Barnsley. The police had a crackdown and found the racket was run along similar lines to prostitution, same structure.

Originally posted by boyface
…And the organ player,.,.you want to get the definition between begging and busking sorted out.
Got problems with punctuation have we? Two separate paragraphs, two separate stories

Originally posted by Squiggs
why not have a mobile? It could be a lifeline - if you require treatment, or need to confirm an appointment with a clinic/carer etc...

If they can scrape a £5 topup now and again, I'd imagine it could be one of the most valued possesions - since they can't exactly get a land-line!

Bit of a *ugger when the battery goes flat though!

i used to be assist manager of the showboat on flat street two blokes that used to hang around there were well weird one of the was a scruffy looking bloke that always carried a large ruck sack...he used to push on all the walls as if to see if they were safe..just walking up and down the gallery doing it to all the walls,if anyone ever spoke to him he didn't acknowledge them at all,when he's finished he'd go in the bins outside the chippy get some scraps and just walk off eating them.

The other one was an asian guy he used to wear a mucky blue nylon suite and white womens shoes,he'd come onto the gallery every day and get chips out of the bins,one day i went and bought him a tray of chips i offered them to him and he told me to **** off.:confused: :confused: :confused:

Originally posted by bigrods
Apparently, the Peace Gardens is the no. 1 paedophile hang-out in Sheffield.

Oh great! So when I stop there to enjoy a pasty on a Saturday afternoon, every one thinks I'm a paedophile?

Perhaps if I had a woman with me, people wouldn't think that.....Moira Hindley for instance?

Are you sure this is fact, or just in your own mind....

what happend to pond street nora?

'Twitchy,' -The Tramp is quite cool.

His fave pastime is collecting greasy chip wrappers and tab-ends in his Aldi carrier bag.


He's my best mate!

lol

Angel x

Originally posted by x_angel
'Twitchy,' -The Tramp is quite cool.

His fave pastime is collecting greasy chip wrappers and tab-ends in his Aldi carrier bag.


He's my best mate!

lol

Angel x

not that much of a parafin lamp then....real tramps have netto bags:)

what did they call the tramp who looked like hagrid in the 80is