As an ex-pat, I am concerned. Every time I look at this site I see Sheffield folk running Sheffield down. Why, what's changed? Didn't use to be like that. It's like slashing your own wrists!

When I was a kid I use to look forward to Calendar or Look North running stories on how good a city it was. Such as:
- Best and cheapest bus service
- Most public park space per head
- Lower than average crime figures
- Biggest modern housing developments
- First fully electrified main railway line (Manchester via Woodhead)
- Best steel in the world
- Finest cutlery
- and a lot more

I was ( and still am) proud to have been born in Sheffield. I'm bringing my wife (a Glaswegian) and kids (who hardly know the place) to visit in May. Why should they and all the other visitors go away unimpressed.

Go on, tell me (and them) the good stuff.

Well the parks are still there----I think.

if you want to think its gone to **** then go for it

IMO its better than ever

figures mean ****,its all about whats in the heart

Originally posted by THCAyle
if you want to think its gone to **** then go for it

IMO its better than ever

figures mean ****,its all about whats in the heart

THCAyle... What's in your heart? I don't think it's gone to (whatever) but it seems that some people do. Or is it that they are just a bucnh of saddo's. I'd just like to see folk mention the good bits. Something I can turn round to my wife and say 'Hey.. look.. this is where I was born and brought up... ain't it great'

Maybe I'm asking too much. Whadd'ya think?

i see where ur comin from

but i probably see sheffield differently than most people

the nightlife is at a great level

graffiti is back up again

people are havin fun

the city centre is being hugely redeveloped and there are huge plans to crack down on yobs n drunken idiots

police are cracking down on violence

everywhere you look there is green,be it a tree or a park,a rarity in most citys..

the buses are good,but not as good as they used to be,it is still easy to get about tho,espeacialy with the trams

the steel is still here tho dont worry ;)

Originally posted by superCol
As an ex-pat, I am concerned. Every time I look at this site I see Sheffield folk running Sheffield down. Why, what's changed? Didn't use to be like that. It's like slashing your own wrists!

When I was a kid I use to look forward to Calendar or Look North running stories on how good a city it was. Such as:
- Best and cheapest bus service
- Most public park space per head
- Lower than average crime figures
- Biggest modern housing developments
- First fully electrified main railway line (Manchester via Woodhead)
- Best steel in the world
- Finest cutlery
- and a lot more

I was ( and still am) proud to have been born in Sheffield. I'm bringing my wife (a Glaswegian) and kids (who hardly know the place) to visit in May. Why should they and all the other visitors go away unimpressed.

Go on, tell me (and them) the good stuff.


I don't think Sheffields changed much, maybe the people have, olso the computer world brings out peoples views more so now,

well i for one am feircely proud of sheffield, i'm forever banging on about it to my internet friends, i just love the place.

yes it has its problems but where doesn't? its a city and it will have a higher volume of pretty much everything and that includes the good. i hate to see it put down. look at all the good things.... we have excellent facilities, boast two football teams (ok, so ones a good un;) ) supertram, meadowhall, ski villiage, don valley, the arena, the list is endless....

i'll never put the place down, born and bred and proud as punch!:clap: :clap: :clap:

Some people seem to live under the misconception that problems are unique to Sheffield.

Especially some of the car drivers that moan on this site - you'd think that Sheffield was the only city to have bus lanes, traffic lights, one way systems, roadworks, traffic jams, difficulty parking in the city centre etc etc etc.

Oh, and the council isn't perfect - you'd think all other cities have perfect services and pay a few pennies in council tax.

Personally I love the place - nearly everywhere I've lived in Sheffield you can see for miles - live in most cities and all you can see is the other side of the street.

So stop looking at the pavement and broaden your horizons (some of you).

I've moaned and moaned about the state of Sheffield, you know you come back from yr hols or a trip somewhere and all you'd see is the dingy state of Sheff, the greyness, the graffiti, the rubbish on the streets etc; but.......I've realised that the grass in NOT greener on the other side!
I'm in Preston now, in a quiet place just on the outskirts, nice houses, crime rate is significantly lower here than in Sheff, but OMG what a dull place it is! The city centre has it's nightlife but it's very limited, you get the same binge drinking, fighting etc that you'd get anywhere, but overall it's very quiet, too quiet for me in fact.
I suppose I've become accustomed to having a large choice of pubs, shops and recreational centres, so to come to a much smaller place and then find that there are not so many choices as to where to go, what to do, well I've been bored bollockless, not that I've got any :lol:
I've been coming back for odd wk/ends and oh how I hate getting on the train to go back to Preston.
I used to be the first to moan that I hated Sheff and couldn't wait to leave, but now I'm the first to brag about being a Sheff lass and proud of it and I can't wait to come back to live there, I'm bidding like buggery for properties - council willing and able to provide a property of course :thumbsup:

PS: I've never been into the footy stuff in Sheff, Blades & Owls etc, but now when I hear about 'em on the local news, well they're now MY teams. I even watched a recent Blades match on telly and when the crowd started singing "you fill up my senses" it brought a tear to my eye and lump in my throat 'cos I felt immensely homesick!!

As an adopted Sheffielder, I don't find that Sheffield folk do run Sheffield down. I find Sheffielders very proud and loyal. I think we spend a lot of our time defending the place against all the "grim up North" and "Full Monty" stereotypes which still persist despite all the years of investment and regeneration.

Some of my friends in London were completely unaware of the National Centre for Pop Music when it opened, and even the Millennium Galleries seemed to pass them by. It's like anything north of Birmingham doesn't merit attention.

Here's something cheerful - Sheffield doesn't seem, as yet, to have got one single vote on that "Crap Towns" website, and it doesn't appear in the book either! So London, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham can stick that up their collective you-know-whats! :)

i agree that sheffield people seem to think the problems are unique to sheffield. I don't live in sheffield anymore, i live in newcastle which is at the moment the 'place to be'. Newcastle is a great city but it is only a few years ahead in the investment ladder which in the long run is nothing. It lacks many of the great things that sheffield has i.e. the best sports facilities in the country and there is not one nice public square in the centre, wheareas by this summer in sheff there'll be about 10!! I check this website so that i can keep up with whats going on in my plae of birth and it seems like such an exciting time in terms of regeneration and development. Sheffield is an awesome city and i would choose to live there over just about anywhere else in england.

p.s. i am also one of those people who gets extremely defensive when i get people going on about how its a dump cos they've seen the full monty.

p.s. i am also one of those people who gets extremely defensive when i get people going on about how its a dump cos they've seen the full monty. [/B]

No film has ever shown SHEFFIELD to be an attractive place to live. Full Monty portrayed ist a dark, derelict and grim: THREADS....well it was a nuclear war so it was not going to look its BEST was it? Harold Smith film....also full of terraced houses and grim views of the City streets...

It would be so nice for a film company to show Sheffield as bright, affluent and full of hope for the future....

Originally posted by superCol
When I was a kid I use to look forward to Calendar or Look North running stories on how good a city it was. Such as:
- Best and cheapest bus service
- Most public park space per head
- Lower than average crime figures
- Biggest modern housing developments
- First fully electrified main railway line (Manchester via Woodhead)
- Best steel in the world
- Finest cutlery
- and a lot more


All these things made Sheffield great back in the 70's. Unfortunately it rested on it's laurels and got left behind.

I think it happens everywhere. Manchester is currently a tremendous vibrant city, as is Leeds but ten years ago they were complete holes.

Thankfully, Sheffield is now coming out of the doldrums, but still has a long way to go.

well said dannyboy!

Originally posted by DannyBoy

Here's something cheerful - Sheffield doesn't seem, as yet, to have got one single vote on that "Crap Towns" website, and it doesn't appear in the book either! So London, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham can stick that up their collective you-know-whats! :)

Only because so many people forget it even exists. :mad:

There is some funny stuff on that Crap Town website, like this :

I kid you not - it was like walking through a 21st century embodiment of a f**king Hieronymous Bosch painting. God obviously can't see Blackpool. If he could, he'd burn it.

Originally posted by t020
Only because so many people forget it even exists. :mad:

Mmmmmaybe. Not sure. The "Crap Town" votes tend to come from citizens of the towns and cities themselves. Even one vote gets the town/city a mention on the site, so my point is that not one person has as yet thought Sheffield "crap" enough to vote for. I find that encouraging. (At least, they hadn't when I last checked it, but then it doesn't get updated very often).

You're right, though, in general we do get overlooked as a city.