Whats the ONE thing that the council could do (in your eyes) that would improve sheffields image to outsiders?


i know there are many things that need to be done but i was just wanting a snapshot of what people think is wrong?

one big, imaginitive piece of iconic architecture so that people can associate something modern with sheffield. Something like the angel of the north or b of the bang. I like the idea of turning the cooling towers into a modern form of art

Originally posted by scottf
Whats the ONE thing that the council could do (in your eyes) that would improve sheffields image to outsiders?



Hurry up and finish all the building. The city centre is one massive construction site. That's the image we're presenting at the moment. There's so many buildings that are covered in scaffolding or surrounded by roadworks.

Town hall, the area around the peace gardens, cathedral, station, City hall, Barker's Pool, The crossing of Arundel Street by the Yorkshire Grey...

Hurry up and get some of it finished!

Originally posted by scottf
Whats the ONE thing that the council could do (in your eyes) that would improve sheffields image to outsiders?


Undo everything ruined and destroyed since 1986. It all started with the demolition of the Gaumont cinema, a wonderful peice of architecture, and led to senseless demolition of historic buildings and areas in force ever since that day. Bring back the hole in the road, The Museum pub, The STonehouse Courtyard bar, and ged rid of all the horrible architectural filth like KINGDOM NIGHTCLUB building, MEADOWHELL and ORCHARD SQUARE.

No apologies to anyone....Sheffield was a FAR better City prior to 1986 and had some genuine landmarks everyone knew about. The Hole in the Road WAS Sheffield....a monument to great 70s architecture and planning.

Sincde 1986 the Council have vandalised most of the City centre in pure bulldozer mentality. Most of our great 19th century buildings that were standing 20 years ago have been flattened by the Council with horrible already dated and hideous modern architecture.

It all got bad with orchard Square in 1987, a horrible concept that destroyed many many fine and historically important buildings that were actually in tip top condition. The only thing we have now of note is the tram, the ONLY thing I would not change now......

Its all very well modernising a City Centre to some extent, but to brutally sweep away over 100 buildings of our previous Victorian age is a dreadful crime. I am not an architect, but they actually knew how to build things 100 years ago and make them elegant and attractive, unlike the AWFUL Millenium Gardens which I bet will be gone in less than 20 years!!!!

Originally posted by goldenfleece
No apologies to anyone....Sheffield was a FAR better City prior to 1986 and had some genuine landmarks everyone knew about. The Hole in the Road WAS Sheffield....a monument to great 70s architecture and planning. That's why Park Hill is listed! And how monumental is it? I'm looking forward to it's facelift, but I'm fairly certain that the council won't have addressed the social problems within it's walls by the time it's habitable again.

does anyone have any pictures of these fabulous 19th century buildings that were in tip top condition? cheers

Originally posted by jazz
does anyone have any pictures of these fabulous 19th century buildings that were in tip top condition? cheers
Picturesheffield.com is probably full of them

And google 'citysnapper'

Originally posted by Strix
Picturesheffield.com is probably full of them

And google 'citysnapper'

Do you know any names of the buildings to aid my search? Any particularly nice ones?

Originally posted by jazz
Do you know any names of the buildings to aid my search? Any particularly nice ones?
No, I'm from Liverpool, so I just browse through them and relate what I can from the info provided with the pics.

There's some handy threads with maps in if you go digging through our 'history and ex-pats' section.

Originally posted by scottf
Whats the ONE thing that the council could do (in your eyes) that would improve sheffields image to outsiders?


A reasonably priced travel ticket that would allow freedom of movement between bus/tram companies. This should be together with bus companies being forced to provide the service advertised.

Originally posted by goldenfleece

No apologies to anyone....Sheffield was a FAR better City prior to 1986 and had some genuine landmarks everyone knew about. The Hole in the Road WAS Sheffield....a monument to great 70s architecture and planning.

It all got bad with orchard Square in 1987, a horrible concept that destroyed many many fine and historically important buildings that were actually in tip top condition. The only thing we have now of note is the tram, the ONLY thing I would not change now......

Its all very well modernising a City Centre to some extent, but to brutally sweep away over 100 buildings of our previous Victorian age is a dreadful crime. I am not an architect, but they actually knew how to build things 100 years ago and make them elegant and attractive, unlike the AWFUL Millenium Gardens which I bet will be gone in less than 20 years!!!!

Didn't the hole in the road smell of wee and have a mugging problem? I'm not entirely convinced that 70's architecture was particularly attractive or well thought out either.

Though I agree that there are few beautiful building designs these days, I think that's always been the case. I'm sure that 200 years ago a lot of the buildings probably looked pretty rough too, it's just that the good ones lasted the test of time and didn't get knocked down. I think if Sheffield had just been left the way it was, it would look pretty rough by now and would be in danger of becoming a relic. The city, like most cities needs to keep up to date to have any chance of becoming a great place. Mistakes will be made along the way, but hopefully headway will be made as well. At least if we try, we will have a chance of one day living in a world class city. If we sit down and stop then so will progress!

The so called planners of the city should be forced to sit on a train and then on a coach and view the city as though they were a visitor coming for the first time. Park Hill should be painted in jazzy colours like Byker Wall in Newcastle, the cooling towerrs could have a big mural on them or even a smilie face. As has been said before the old Fiesta building and that complete area between the city and the railway station should be redeveloped into a public thorough-fare with lights, glass display panels and a decent information point for visitors, the possibilities are endless. Either remove the bus station altogether or relocate it along Arundel Gate and make sure the buses use it.
I know this is more than one thing but I wouldn't want the city planners to design anything for me they're mostly hopeless dimwits.

The hole in the road had that fish tank though, it was grubby and murky, and the glass on the front was magnified so the fish looked bigger than they were.

Loved the Hole, once saw Bruce Dickinson on the escalator coming out onto the high street.

Originally posted by scottf
Whats the ONE thing that the council could do (in your eyes) that would improve sheffields image to outsiders?


They should make Pond St, Flat St, Fitzalan Square, Haymarket and Waingate totally out of bounds to visitors. How a city with any sense of civic pride can allow this sort of tatty dereliction to continue is beyond me. :rolleyes:

One thing to improve the image of Sheffield (and suburbs in the less affluent areas)? Simple! KEEP IT CLEAN and WELL MAINTAINED.

It's not rocket science is it?

Rather than throwing good money after bad knocking buildings down, re-building, forever changing the road layouts - just make what we've already got clean and decent.

If any visitor to Sheffield wants to use a public toilet where do they go? Those at the Railway Station are a health hazard, and those on the Moor are even worse - what impression does that give anyone?

The most beautiful cities in the world look awful when they are full of litter, grafitti and constant roadworks, faulty street lighting etc

Originally posted by fox20thc
The hole in the road had that fish tank though, it was grubby and murky, and the glass on the front was magnified so the fish looked bigger than they were.

Loved the Hole, once saw Bruce Dickinson on the escalator coming out onto the high street.

I've heard lots about this hole in the road but never enough to find out what or where it actually was. Does anyone have any photos? Where was it? When was it filled in? What was it's reason for being there?

http://www.picturesheffield.co.uk/cgi-bin/hpac.pl?_cgifunction=form&_layout=picturesheffield&keyval=sheff.id=989

ah, the HOLE IN THE ROAD. WHat a great award winning design that was. Basically it took the idea of a roundabout at street level so the traffic could flow around the junctions at that point of the City, but underneath it created a pedestrian walkway and mini shopping centre. Actually the shopping centre aspect of it was mainly basement entrances into the lower ground floors of the surrounding department stores, but you see my drift. The "hole" aspect was a huge open hole in the middle of the 'roundabout' revealing the sky to the pedestrians below in the underground area. It was revolutionary in England in the early 70's, and won numerous awards and was hailed as Sheffields best known landmark for many years.

of course it did get very grotty in the 80's, and dirty and dark and a bit on the smelly side. It was also a bit of a muggers paradise in the latter years of its life, where half the lights didnt work, the escalators were all broken, etc. A few murders happened there in the mid 80's.

However, its clever layout meant that escalator access was provided to street level on all 4 pavements of the junctions approaching the roundabout, so you could move from one side of the roundabout to the other without crossing the road (which was a hole in any case so you couldnt walk across it). It was good that you could also get access to any of the department stores from underground as well. There were built in 'windows' with carious promotional stuff for the department stores, and even if I recall correctly some shop units built in as well. The aquarium was a bit too small and never had any fish in it when I ever saw it.....but what a great idea.

Well I miss it anyway......oh and it is now buried beneath the Tram stop at the bottom of the High STreet. That tram stop once formed some of the 'hole' itself, the the area to the right of the tram stop as you look towards commercial street was the rest of it, all filled in. and the road layout has all been changed, before it was a standard roundabout with 4 roads leading into it and not the odd restricted access arrangement it is now. SUre to be some pics somewhere but I dont have any to hand....


I think I posted this before but I was one of the last peop,e to walk around the underground section before it was completely filled in and sealed up. It was a drunken night after a bit of a **** up at Roxy Rock Night, and along with a few tramps and others who had climbed over the fencing, had a final look around the subways and 'hole in the road' before the many tons of rocks and cement arrived the next morning........

i think Sheffield doesn't have enough graffiti! So your project this week is to go out there and paint something BIG:thumbsup:

I think that the council should try to do something about thre litter problem! there is far to much litter layin around in sheffield and there are not enough bins spread around so ppl tend to drop their litter on the floor! I think it's about time they acted on this instead of leaving it to build up! It makes everywhere look scruffy and it doesnt appeal very well to visitors and it doesnt give them a good impression!!! I recently visited France and the whole time i was there i didn't notice one piece of litter layin on the floor! i think that sheffield should be like this!!!

Originally posted by XxGemmaxX
I recently visited France and the whole time i was there i didn't notice one piece of litter layin on the floor! i think that sheffield should be like this!!!

i am originally from France and can confirm this, for some reason we have no litter and rarely are buildings ever abandonned like they are in this country!

clean it up and get rid of tramps/winos from Moor. Hardly a pleasant shopping experience.

They could turn the existing roundabout/underpass at the bottom of Ecclesall Rd into the hole in the road mkII!

When all those new posh apartments are built, they're gonna need an easier/cleaner way through that underpass.

I'm sure, if done right it would be fantastic!

Originally posted by jazz
one big, imaginitive piece of iconic architecture so that people can associate something modern with sheffield. Something like the angel of the north or b of the bang. I like the idea of turning the cooling towers into a modern form of art

This is GO Sheffield here. We've run a competition to turn these cooling towers at meadowhall into our very own angels of the north. We've got a special edition of GO out at the moment, so keep your eyes peeled.

There is an exhibition of all the entries at the Lescar, Sharrowvale rd, s11 from May 12st. Or you can see them all online at www.gosheffield.net

Peace

Keep on top of graffiti, sweep the city centre of litter regularly [ like Rotherham does] and prosecute graffiti artists. The cretin who called himself FISTA should have been nailed to the wall. I believe he was some sort of in-bred imported from Barnsley.

Originally posted by goldenfleece
Undo everything ruined and destroyed since 1986. It all started with the demolition of the Gaumont cinema, a wonderful peice of architecture, and led to senseless demolition of historic buildings and areas in force ever since that day. Bring back the hole in the road, The Museum pub, The STonehouse Courtyard bar, and ged rid of all the horrible architectural filth like KINGDOM NIGHTCLUB building, MEADOWHELL and ORCHARD SQUARE.

No apologies to anyone....Sheffield was a FAR better City prior to 1986 and had some genuine landmarks everyone knew about. The Hole in the Road WAS Sheffield....a monument to great 70s architecture and planning.

Sincde 1986 the Council have vandalised most of the City centre in pure bulldozer mentality. Most of our great 19th century buildings that were standing 20 years ago have been flattened by the Council with horrible already dated and hideous modern architecture.

It all got bad with orchard Square in 1987, a horrible concept that destroyed many many fine and historically important buildings that were actually in tip top condition. The only thing we have now of note is the tram, the ONLY thing I would not change now......

Its all very well modernising a City Centre to some extent, but to brutally sweep away over 100 buildings of our previous Victorian age is a dreadful crime. I am not an architect, but they actually knew how to build things 100 years ago and make them elegant and attractive, unlike the AWFUL Millenium Gardens which I bet will be gone in less than 20 years!!!!


I agree with your comment re old 19th century buildings but 50s/60s/70's archatecture was a complete discrace - nasty concrete slab looking grim slums! Nowt wring with the millenium gardens!!!!!!!!!! You must be avi a laugh! Sheff was a sh*t hole in the 80's!

The council should embrace outside investment as with the proposed Ikea. I think we should be insulted that Doncaster was chosen over Sheffield for this and will have a proper airport - after all we are the largest European city without an international airport (I think).

It seems the council's attitude is 'this is not for the likes of us' to any proposal and this is why Sheffield is often seen as a bit of a joke city to outsiders and will often scare away investors with its republican image. It is time the council welcomed new businesses and ideas as it is Sheffielder's that will ultimatly benefit.

Originally posted by dudu
Sheffield is often seen as a bit of a joke city to outsiders and will often scare away investors with its republican image. It is time the council welcomed new businesses and ideas as it is Sheffielder's that will ultimatly benefit.

Top voting labour then we can drop this ****e republican image!

Originally posted by NJMUK
Top voting labour then we can drop this ****e republican image! STOP even....

[QUOTE]Originally posted by XxGemmaxX
[B]I think that the council should try to do something about thre litter problem! there is far to much litter layin around in sheffield and there are not enough bins spread around so ppl tend to drop their litter on the floor!

Surely the problem lies with the peasants that drop the litter. I have sons who have always put litter in bins or brought it home with them. We instilled a bit of responsibility in them that has carried forward to this day. Unlike the idiots that cause the problems for everyone else. Worse still are the morons that chuck stuff out of cars. No matter how many bins you put out, they won't use them as it's ten seconds out of their way to put rubbish in a bin.

bglodge is spot on. I saw a lass standing by a bus stop the other day (I was on a bus which stopped to pick up passengers). I saw her finish eating a bar of chocolate, and throw the wrapper on the ground - whilst standing next to a litterbin!

I think the cooling towers are an eyesore - would love them to be demolished.

I'd voter for a stunnning pieceof architecture, as already suggested. I'd place it on the ridge at Sky Edge, where it could be seen from many parts of Sheffield.

The hole in the ground was just that - a hole! You couldn't bring it back now as the trams run over the spot. Thank goodness.

Whats the ONE thing that the council could do (in your eyes) that would improve sheffields image to outsiders?


tear down all of the area towards meadowhall, all the old steel works..part of Sheffields heritage but a bloody great eyesore

A football team in the Premiership.

Cycle tracks that don't just stop after 2 meters please! Sheffield city centre seems to actively discourage cyclists by making the roads a death-trap.
And while I'm on the subject consideration by the black BMW's on West St, (you know who you are) not to beep their horns when cyclist are forced to cycle in the tram lines, due to narrow road space, you are only going to go straight into a red light anyway (losers!)

Get rid of all the vandalised graffiti covered bus shelters,[and the chav scum usually found in them]

Better road links into the City from all directions not just the Parkway...

a good place to start would be to clear up ALL the litter everywere particulary on the roads leading into sheffield (has anyone been down dyche lane recently at jordanthorpe)

Originally posted by craigmason
a good place to start would be to clear up ALL the litter everywere particulary on the roads leading into sheffield (has anyone been down dyche lane recently at jordanthorpe)

i live down there but theres hardly any litter only from the school kids at dinner and home times!!! lol.

Originally posted by goldenfleece
Undo everything ruined and destroyed since 1986. It all started with the demolition of the Gaumont cinema, a wonderful peice of architecture, and led to senseless demolition of historic buildings and areas in force ever since that day. Bring back the hole in the road, The Museum pub, The STonehouse Courtyard bar, and ged rid of all the horrible architectural filth like KINGDOM NIGHTCLUB building, MEADOWHELL and ORCHARD SQUARE.

No apologies to anyone....Sheffield was a FAR better City prior to 1986 and had some genuine landmarks everyone knew about. The Hole in the Road WAS Sheffield....a monument to great 70s architecture and planning.

Sincde 1986 the Council have vandalised most of the City centre in pure bulldozer mentality. Most of our great 19th century buildings that were standing 20 years ago have been flattened by the Council with horrible already dated and hideous modern architecture.

It all got bad with orchard Square in 1987, a horrible concept that destroyed many many fine and historically important buildings that were actually in tip top condition. The only thing we have now of note is the tram, the ONLY thing I would not change now......

Its all very well modernising a City Centre to some extent, but to brutally sweep away over 100 buildings of our previous Victorian age is a dreadful crime. I am not an architect, but they actually knew how to build things 100 years ago and make them elegant and attractive, unlike the AWFUL Millenium Gardens which I bet will be gone in less than 20 years!!!!


The Millenium Gardens do not even exist to be gone in 20 years!

Originally posted by craigmason
a good place to start would be to clear up ALL the litter everywere particulary on the roads leading into sheffield (has anyone been down dyche lane recently at jordanthorpe)

Even better would be to give the lazy so & so's more fines for dropping rubbish in the first place.