I love Sheffield and have never wanted to live anywhere else. But, today, coming home from town to Hillsborough on the bus, I was embarrassed and pretty disgusted by the state of things. On that particular bus route I passed road works, several demolition sites, buildings with scaffolding all around them, boarded up buildings and shops a plenty. The only saving grace was the beautiful daffodils on the grass banks of the Langsett Estate.

My 8 year old son turned to me and said "I can't wait until I am grown up so I can leave Sheffield 'cos it's a right mess!"

I have to agree with him, it is a mess. I am not one for moaning about this and that, and as I said, I love Sheffield and where I live but it really saddened me to see it in such a mess.

What is happening? Why is it such a state? How long are we expected to put up with it?

[/end rant]

it's called spending lots of spare money before the new tax year ;) and would you rather buildings get repaired or crumble? and demolishing rubbish buildings for new exciting things is good :D

I agree with fetish. They are spending so much on the city centre and nothing anywhere else. I commute through woodseats and heeley every morning and its terrible. Its saying something when you come back from china on business and think that its cleaner there!

Fetish fairy :---Sheffield seems even worse if and when you do up sticks and live in other cities , particularly abroad.
I left Sheffield in 1980 and I think it was pretty good at that time. However after living in 5 different countries and visiting a few more on holiday , you begin to realise how cold and grim Sheffield is by comparison---and getting colder and grimmer by the day !
Generally I've found that in most countries cities are full of life and colour , activity and buzz. Last summer , as an experiment I took a Turkish friend of mine round the centre of a town in the North of England-----weather was quite warm , Thursday , about 6- 7 p.m. He couldn't believe it-----nobody about ! In most good cities , you'd find cafes open , people stood around chatting , others shopping , children playing , bars open and generally a lot of street life. I went through Sheffield city centre on a bus a few years ago at about 8 p.m. on a weekday and it was very much the same----dead.Of course it's packed on Fridayand Saturday nights----all very well if you don't mind getting punched , robbed or having sick over you !
It's not new buildings or beauty that "makes" a city , a city----it's the everyday buzz and activity. Sheffield and a lot of U.K. "cities" are more like overgrown villages. Even in the daytime , Sheffield seems sleepy , half dead and run-down. There are various reasons for this and most people know what they are.
So , tell your son he's right----obviously even children know there's something missing , somewhere !

We still are a fairly post manufacturing/Industrial Northern City. We have had no investment until recently and most of the city is a mess.

It takes time and money to sort out...and unfortunately a lot of people just don't care about maintaining their area.

I dont think anyone can deny that, even in just the past few years, Sheffield has seen a huge improvement. I'm not talking about specific places, just Sheffield in general. Sure there's areas that need more improvement but that happens everywhere.

And how anyone can say that pulling down knackered old buildings and renovating others (even if it means scaffolding or piles of bricks for a few months) is a bad thing??!?!

I'm not embarrassed by Sheffield - scaffolding and building sites are there because the place is improving. Look at Sheffield now compared to 10 years ago - look how nicer West Street/Devonshire Green area are, look how much investment there has been. There's obviously still much more to do.

What does embarrass me is that you can't walk for 2 minutes on our streets without someone asking you for change, or to buy a Big Issue, or spinning you some yarn about having lost their bus fair. That's what the council need to sort out next.

you gotta make a mess and knock things down if you're going to improve them.

Although I can see the point about the lack of life in the city centre. To be fair though, this is only compaired to tourist places, where the way of life and business revolves around a slightly different timetable.

you can't make an omelette wiothout breaking eggs, as the saying goes...

cyclone is quite right, before we can build these (?hopefully?) magnificent new roads and buildings, there's bound to be some upheaval. (look at the new square being built in front of the train station, as a F'r'instance? it is a right royal pain in the ' arris, at the momnet with all the road up, there, but once it's finally done, it should look lovely)

I still think Sheffield has a lot to offer, and is a great place to live.

PT

Originally posted by Plain Talker
you can't make an omelette wiothout breaking eggs, as the saying goes...

cyclone is quite right, before we can build these (?hopefully?) magnificent new roads and buildings, there's bound to be some upheaval. (look at the new square being built in front of the train station, as a F'r'instance? it is a right royal pain in the ' arris, at the momnet with all the road up, there, but once it's finally done, it should look lovely)

I still think Sheffield has a lot to offer, and is a great place to live.

PT

thanks omelettes and eggs was exactly the metaphor I was struggling for.

The cities I mentioned , re-lively , are not tourist cities at all. Go to most cities in Europe that are the equivalent to Sheffield and you'd see more street life.
What's all the point of magnificent buildings and massive constructions ? Are they so that we can look at them and go ,"Aah" ? I thought we'd got over the "magnificent " building disease in the '70's. Park Hill and Hyde Park flats were magnificent.
I thought the whole idea was to renovate as much as possible , nowadays , and to enable people to live and work n buildings that are on more of a human scale.
Won't be long , perhaps , before they demolish Paradise Square and build a car-park there--after all it's only eggs and omelettes , innit ?

it could be down to our weather, most of europe has better weather and thus is more suited to having seating outside.

The cafe thing (in my opinion) is part of enlivening the street, and having shops opening late has to be partly down to tourists, who else would be shopping at that time.

The street culture thing is definitely a european thing. It's great abroad to wander the streets with dressed up grannies and children walking around and couples whizzing by on scooters, but it doesn't happen in Britain. I used to live in London and I assure you, Sheffield is busier at night than many parts of London. In Waterloo and the City, there aren't even any pubs open at the weekend!

Well , Cyclone----believe it or not ,local people in these foreign countries like to shop when THEY want to---and shops actually stay open to serve them ! I know it must seem remarkable if you haven't lived abroad but some countries don't have by-laws , making everything difficult and/or complicated. Bars seem to open when they wish and close when the last customer goes home.
Sometimes an elderly woman may fancy an ice-cream , perhaps at the disgraceful hour of 10 p.m. and she nips to the corner shop to buy one ----on her own !! Or a child is sent out to get a loaf of bread in the evening----hard to credit , isn't it ?
As a previous poster said , it's a real pleasure to stroll through a lot of foreign cities in the evenings or at night---thousands , milling round , having a good time----all age groups , rich , poor ; buyers , sellers.
You can't blame it all on the weather----have you ever strolled through Sheffield city centre at 11 p.m. , in Summer , and seen happy , joyful families and grannies enjoying life ?
On Fridays and Saturdays , from all accounts , you'd be safer taking a stroll through South Bronx.

Alternatively, it could be down to the fact that in other countries the shops/cafes/stalls need to stay open to make a living. I should imagine that most people, including shop/cafe/stall owners and workers, would rather be at home with their loved ones than stay open on the off chance granny wants an ice-cream.

Perhaps if we got rid of the minimum wage and raised taxes then people would be encouraged to stay open longer.

(Nice line from Al Murray about letting women work longer hours so they could earn the same as men.)

Or, perhaps we have better TV programs.

no I haven't, probably because at 11pm most families have gone home and put the kids to bed.

Walking through the city centre at a weekend evening is nothing special. It's certainly busy, and most of the people will have had a drink, but that's about it. It's little different to walking through Prague at the same time, except for Prague having lots of outdoor seating and patio heaters.

Corner shops aren't forced to close, neither are the city centre shops, they close because it makes no sense commercially for them to stay open, paying their staff will cost more than sales of ice creams to confused old women will make.

Well , Cyclone that's more or less the point I'm making. Cafes ....etc. wont stay open late in the centre of Sheffield because they know Sheffield people either don't want to use them or live too far away. The reasons are irrelevant----the fact remains that Sheffield does NOT have a City centre life as people generally understand the term.
I don't know about little old ladies being confused---but wouldn't you like to live in a city centre where your elderly relative felt relaxed about nipping out for some fish and chips when they felt like it ? Not everybody has to go to bed at a fixed time-----sometimes they break all the rules and actually have a lie-in !

Originally posted by FetishFairy
I love Sheffield and have never wanted to live anywhere else. But, today, coming home from town to Hillsborough on the bus, I was embarrassed and pretty disgusted by the state of things. On that particular bus route I passed road works, several demolition sites, buildings with scaffolding all around them, boarded up buildings and shops a plenty. The only saving grace was the beautiful daffodils on the grass banks of the Langsett Estate.


'Destruction is a form of creation' and all that :)

Originally posted by Fareast
Well , Cyclone that's more or less the point I'm making. Cafes ....etc. wont stay open late in the centre of Sheffield because they know Sheffield people either don't want to use them or live too far away. The reasons are irrelevant----the fact remains that Sheffield does NOT have a City centre life as people generally understand the term.
I don't know about little old ladies being confused---but wouldn't you like to live in a city centre where your elderly relative felt relaxed about nipping out for some fish and chips when they felt like it ? Not everybody has to go to bed at a fixed time-----sometimes they break all the rules and actually have a lie-in !

If there was a demand for a 24/7 chippy in the centre of Sheffield then I'm pretty sure there would be one...

Originally posted by Fareast
Well , Cyclone that's more or less the point I'm making. Cafes ....etc. wont stay open late in the centre of Sheffield because they know Sheffield people either don't want to use them or live too far away. The reasons are irrelevant----the fact remains that Sheffield does NOT have a City centre life as people generally understand the term.
I don't know about little old ladies being confused---but wouldn't you like to live in a city centre where your elderly relative felt relaxed about nipping out for some fish and chips when they felt like it ? Not everybody has to go to bed at a fixed time-----sometimes they break all the rules and actually have a lie-in !

I don't think sheffield is unusual in this, apart from London is there a british city where this mythical 'city centre life' exists?

I mentioned Prague, it's an example where I spent a week living in the city centre, and it's a popular tourist destination.
As I said, it didn't seem that disimilar to Sheffield, corner shops closed in the evening, bars were open, crowds of drunken people in there 20's and 30's wandered the city centre.
The only things open apart from bars were places that caterered to tourists.

when I've been to France Bars stay open late but shops don't. You get stalls on the street in tourist areas such as around the heart of Paris yes but you don't get that happening in Lyon (2nd biggest city) because it isn't full of tourists.

I do think that the centre needs a complete makeover and the council has to come up with some good far sighted ideas. The continental market is a hit so why not have it more often. More street entertainers/live music in spring/summer and more stuff for kids.

It needs some forethought and intellegence going into it so we are probably scuppered with Sheffield council

Originally posted by robbie
It needs some forethought and intellegence going into it so we are probably scuppered with Sheffield council

Oh, the irony.

Seriously though, why should the council come up with ideas? It's our city why don't we do something?

All the fairs, carnivals and festivals that happen throughout the year are all organised by volunteers, people who actually do something other than whingeing why doesn't the council organise something?

It's our city, let's liven it up.

I dont really think sheffield is a big mess and i dont really feel embarressed of it, But i think theres too much work being done on sheffield all at once at the moment, all the roads seemed to be closed or have half the road cut off. And its pretty annoying,

Theres only one think that makes me a little bit uncomfortable about sheffield which is why i dont like travelling into town much.
when im catching the bus back from college and i ilook at the back of castle market the wall, i see a big gungy horrible mess and when i walk up through and around castle market i dont feel comfortable i think it looks scruffy.

Mostly other than that sheffields just like any other city centre just a few walls need painting and a few more grassy nature areas to give city centre that extra kick.

As for vandalism and stuff, i wonder why the police dont check around the city centre and stuff, it wouldnt hurt them just to make sure there isnt any vandalism. Get the council to by survailance cameras or soemthing if there trying to get rid of there money so quick.

hmmm hope i have offended no one

Fnkysknky , We seem to be going round in circles here. I suppose if there was a demand for a chippie 24/7 , well maybe someone would open one-----and that's the whole point----there isn't a demand and because of that Sheffield city centre is dead , most of the time.["A Chippie" just about sums Sheffield city centre up.]
Also , and this is a genuine question , is it easy to get a licence to open shops and cafes and bars in Sheffield city centre , even if there was a demand ? From what I can gather any potential shop or cafe owner would have to jump through so many hoops , concerning various regulations that they'd get strangled with red tape before a cafe table hit the pavement.
I remember when the World Cup Prelims. were in Sheffield in 1966. Some catering firm asked the Council if they could open a beer garden , with a marquee on the Peace Garden site. The Council came up with gob-smacking safety reasons why they couldn't. This was for 2 or 3 weeks! There used to be a couple of all-night cinemas in Sheffield and the Council made them close on the grounds that people couldn't get transport home in the early hours ! Have Sheffield Council become more liberal and fun-loving over the years-----hard to believe !

Cyclone---I wouldn't disagree with your comments about Prague but , again , it's not tourist centres I'm on about---it's that city life in most ordinary European and World cities is more interesting , busier , safer and have more than a city "feel" to them than Sheffield. I'm not sure about all other British cities ----you're probably right about that - but maybe some , like York or Lincoln , with big pedestrian areas do manage a buzzing nightlife or street life. That doesn't alter the argument , though as we're talking about Sheffield and should we feel embarrassed by ITS centre? I think we should.

One thing I've often noticed about the city centre and surrounding suburbs are the number of buildings standing empty and derelict. These buildings become a target for vandals and fly-posters and generally look terrible.
My suggestion therefore would be that if a building is due to be demolished get on and knock it down or have a team who are responsible for maintaining empty buildings or better still make the owners liable.
If someything is really bugging you then I'd suggest you start moaning to the relevant council department, a disused factory near me has now got a security firm keeping an eye on it as I got fed up with local yobbo's lurking around near it.

Have to agree with Max about 'it's our city, do something with it'.

There is another thread about party politics and whether it affects the grass roots. What we need to do is to make the changes we can make - if the Council aren't doing something you want doing, find out how to make it happen.

Don't rely on other people making the changes you want made to your community - there might be others out there who feel exactly like you do. Get together and make it happen - of course, the bean counters, beaurocrats, etc. will do their damndest to stop you but that's half the fun!

Joe

Originally posted by JoePritchard
of course, the bean counters, beaurocrats, etc. will do their damndest to stop you but that's half the fun!

Joe

Thanks for the agreement but I've got to disagree with you on this one. The bean counters, beaurocrats, etc. are lining up trying to fund community enterprises. The money's there but finding people to take on the reponsibility for ensuring it gets spent is difficult.

This is a very interesting thread for me as I have just got back from a week away in The Czech republic (mainly Prague) and the Bavaria region of Germany, where I visited 2 cities and some small towns.
I have lived in sheffield all my life and it takes a trip like this to realise how bad sheffield looks.

The litter, the chewing gum stuck to the pavements, the tired looking dark buildings with peeling paint, everything closed and metal shutters on all the local shops at night, apart from lots of disgusting southern fried chicken shops[yeuch!]. it looks like a place waiting for riots.

One nice bit is leafy Nether edge. With it's avenues of trees.

The places I have been are full of beautiful medaeval and gothic buildings, old castles, narrow cobbled streets, frequent squares with stalls open all week, tourist information offices open until late, traditional food stalls [no chips] artistic crests and freezes on most of the buildings, metro and trams running every five minutes.

Even buildings which were bombed by us in WWII have been rebuilt or replaced by equally beautiful buildings.

I have always believed sheffield to be a wonderful city, but in terms of what it looks like, and what it lacks..
My eyes have been opened.
And for the first time In my life I am now Very Embarrased by the state of my home city :rant:

Originally posted by Cyclone
it could be down to our weather, most of europe has better weather and thus is more suited to having seating outside.

Well I can assure you that if you go to Holland or Belgium, the temperature can be 10 degrees colder than sheffield, but it doesn't stop the shops being open and the stalls being out at night. You often see tent roofed eating and drinking areas in the cooler areas of europe with patio heaters to keep people warm, while they drink outside. There is no reason at all that this couldn't happen in sheffield.

Thank you , Muddycoffee for your supporting evidence. I was beginning to think that either no-one else had ever been abroad or that I'd imagined the whole thing.
It's very difficult to pinpoint exactly what gives a place a "city" feeling but you mentioned things I'd forgotten , in your posting.
It's that feeling of safety you get in most cities , combined with lots of things happening and plenty of things available.
The country I always associate with city life at its best is Turkey---tourist spots or otherwise.
I may be biased about that though----everyone will have their favourite country. I lived for 2 years in Samsun , on the Black Sea , which is Turkey's equivalent . to , say Middlesborogh , and I couldn't believe the atmosphere , day and night. On the main street , near where I lived---not in the centre of town----at about 6 p.m it seemed like the whole district turned out to promenade and shop and so on. Almost everything was open , all age groups [ especially the courting rituals ] , music everywhere , but not blasting out----that's what I'd call a city.
Samsun's population , then , about 300,000 , industrial , with barely a tourist in sight.

Surely we would only be embaressed for Sheffield specifically if it compared badly to other UK cities.
I might agree that we should be embaressed for the UK as a whole when compared to other countries, but focussing on Sheffield for a countrywide problem is unfair.

sheffield is yet again in a period of restructure 'cos the poloticians can't decide whether to allow traffic or not into the city.the biggest reason for me not visiting the city is convenience,buses are crap & the tram is not close enough to bother & the parking is either non existent or expensive.compare that with holiday destinations and yes Sheffield does suck big time.
however as a mulitcultural conurbation it far outweighs most "foreign" competitors. If you relied on tourism for a living would you be open all day & night with patio heaters etc of course you would. i recently went to bergen with a population the size of most small cities in the uk.nice patio heaters, nice cafes - all the shops shut at 5.30 (strange when the ferry docks @ 6pm). visited Heraklion last year looks like Beirut.
visited amsterdam 2003 - the route in to the city looks like the rear of the Castle Markets in Sheffield , so why so mush criticism of Sheffield.

Well we're not on about the approaches to a city but the centre and inner parts .
There's no denying that probably every city has its ugly bits but that's completely missing the main point of the discussion.
Cyclone----when this topic first started , it wasn't mentioned that we limit the comparisons to the U.K.
I think Sheffield and other cities in the U.K. could learn a lot from foreign cities. I haven't visited many other cities in Britain ---but at a rough guess , I'd say some were better and some about the same ---I can't imagine many places that call themselves cities being deader than Sheffield for most of the week.
The problem in Sheffield is that Meadowhall drains the city centre of shoppers[ and related activities] ; over the years most people have been moved much further away from the centre than where they used to be ; transport to and from the centre is expensive , non-existent or erratic. To put the tin lid on it , the Council has pandered to the car and created a road system that carves the centre up into isolated bits. For example , imagine a sort of light railway system running from the Canal basin to London Road , with no main roads cutting areas off. Sheffield has a long city centre , not a circular one but no account seems to have been taken of this. Add to this the factors I mentioned before and you have the perfect recipe for a failed city. Sheffielders , in general seem unable to face up to the truth of this.All they can say is something like , "Well look at Scunthorpe , that's even worse than Sheffield ".

Originally posted by Fareast
To put the tin lid on it , the Council has pandered to the car and created a road system that carves the centre up into isolated bits.
Fareast, I think that last quote just proves you haven't been to Sheffield for a while.

:suspect:

Well , I agree that I probably used the wrong word when I said "pander".
I didn't mean that Sheffield Council are soft on motorists or welcome them into the city: probably the complete opposite.
What I meant was that over the years , big new roads have been built and lots of multi-storey car-parks. In different ways these have been detrimental to Sheffield's pedestrians or those who wish to visit various parts of the city in one day.
The problem with Sheffield 's city centre , APART from those I mentioned previously, is that it's linear , rather than square- shaped or circular : at least as far as shopping and catering is concerned. Also it has little off-shoots that make it difficult to cover different areas in a short time.
I would , roughly define the centre as beginning at one end at the Wicker Arches , then up as far as the Canal Basin , Sheaf Street , down to St. Mary's Road [ or perhaps Shoreham St ?]. Then up the Inner Ring Road to West Street and back down to the Cathedral----roughly !
Now , if you are a woman with small children or a pensioner or in some ways disabled ---or just plain knackered [!] you will only cover a small part of that in a visit to the town---perhaps just stay around the Market area or just round the Moor---but probably not both.
When I was younger and idealistic I used to imagine what the Council could do to make Sheffield" unified " and a joy for strollers , shoppers and eaters and drinkers. I pictured buses running , as now, to two or three big bus stations on the edge of the city----then people would switch to [electric?] minibuses to travel further inwards. In addition , there would be a light tramway , cheap and frequent running in a sort of figure 8 , covering all the main areas. Imagine , doing a bit of shopping on the Moor , then hopping on a tram , down to the canal basin for a coffee and on the way back , call in at the library. How long would that take now ?
The cost ? No more than what's been spent over the years on the Supertram and other well-known under-used projects ; motorists would "park and ride" on the rim of the centre , perhaps in car parks underneath the bus stations. No doubt there will be some flaws in all this but nobody seems happy as it is----motorists or pedestrians , by all accounts , so , surely SOMETHING different was worth a try. Too late now though !

Originally posted by Fareast
What I meant was that over the years , big new roads have been built and lots of multi-storey car-parks. In different ways these have been detrimental to Sheffield's pedestrians or those who wish to visit various parts of the city in one day.
Erm, you're not thinking of Leeds are you?

:confused:

Originally posted by muddycoffee
Well I can assure you that if you go to Holland or Belgium, the temperature can be 10 degrees colder than sheffield, but it doesn't stop the shops being open and the stalls being out at night. You often see tent roofed eating and drinking areas in the cooler areas of europe with patio heaters to keep people warm, while they drink outside. There is no reason at all that this couldn't happen in sheffield.

Manchester does this already, particularly on Deansgate.

The shops in the city centre are going to stay open until 8 or 10pm weekdays too. The Trafford Centre shops all open until 10pm and have done since last year.

Sheffield needs to pioneer this kind of thing first, but it seems to sit back and wait and then jumps on the bandwagon too late.

meadowhall is open until 8 most nights.

I'm not embarrassed at all by the state of Sheffield. Considering the point it's had to drag itself up from - Huge steel industry (now long gone) surrounded by a huge coal industry (now long gone) - it was (and still is to some extent) a deprived area.

Money's coming into the city and things are improving but it'll take time. Hence it’s going to look even more of a mess for a while but that the price of progress.

I do agree with FeltishFairy in particular about Langsett Road though, it is a mess. Rubbish everywhere.

Yes, Langsett Road is a dump at the moment but if everybody keeps their nerve and plans go ahead, won't Langsett Road be the location of the new cable car station up to the ski-village? That will bring some great new developments with it so hopefully that dreadful stretch of road up to Hillsborough mentioned in the original post will be looking good in a few years time. I, for one will be proud of Sheffield for having one of the few cable car systems in the country. More on that at the following link.

http://www.natives.co.uk/news/2005/02/01shef.htm

Re. run-down buildings. It's my understanding that the council have little power to enforce the beautification of buildings such as those on Hillsborough Corner or elsewhere. You can only "encourage" so far before you get accused of harrassment. Very frustrating!

Originally posted by LottieWat
Yes, Langsett Road is a dump at the moment but if everybody keeps their nerve and plans go ahead, won't Langsett Road be the location of the new cable car station up to the ski-village? That will bring some great new developments with it so hopefully that dreadful stretch of road up to Hillsborough mentioned in the original post will be looking good in a few years time. I, for one will be proud of Sheffield for having one of the few cable car systems in the country. More on that at the following link.

http://www.natives.co.uk/news/2005/02/01shef.htm

Re. run-down buildings. It's my understanding that the council have little power to enforce the beautification of buildings such as those on Hillsborough Corner or elsewhere. You can only "encourage" so far before you get accused of harrassment. Very frustrating!

why would they run a cable car from there?

Originally posted by Cyclone
why would they run a cable car from there?

you appear to be right though according to that article, although how langsett road counts as being linked to the city centre i'm not sure.

It's linked on account of the Tram. That's how I took it anyway.

The shops along the north west side of Pinstone street are boarded up in preparation for the New Retail Quarter which will start construction some time in the next few years - the same goes for the former Lush and Footlocker stores.

Other than that, i think SHeffield is pretty smart, i'm not sure what you're complaining about.

I watched an episode of Relocation, Relocation last week, where Kirsty and Phil were looking round a city that had a vibrant city life, cafe culture, great night life, green leafy suburbs close to good transport links, with massive investment and well on the up.

Yes it was Sheffield.

I was proud watching that because they made it look fantastic.

I love Kirsty even more now :)

Originally posted by Fearful
I'm not embarrassed at all by the state of Sheffield. Considering the point it's had to drag itself up from - Huge steel industry (now long gone) .

Fearful: I feel a little aggreived that you say dragged itself up from the steel industry.... That is what Sheffield is renowned for and Iam proud of it. Sheffield at the time was a city full of hard working people and an industry which was second to none the products of which were distributed world wide. Sadly it has now met its demise but the historical side still exists.

Fearful Iam also proud to be a resident in Sheff and being born and bred in this wonderful city!!! :clap:

Originally posted by technophobe
Sheffield at the time was a city full of hard working people and an industry which was second to none the products of which were distributed world wide. Sadly it has now met its demise but the historical side still exists.


It does still have a steel industry, a lot smaller, but it's still there, and we still export specialist steel and cuttlery.
A shop assistant in John Lewis told me they get orders from all over the world for Sheffield cuttlery.

Originally posted by nick2
It does still have a steel industry, a lot smaller, but it's still there, and we still export specialist steel and cuttlery.


Not only is it still there, it is recognised by many, worldwide, as THE place for high quality special steels and our casting specialists are second to none!

Aparantly I have an anoying habit of checking where the cuttlery is from in restaurants and hotels, then pulling a face if it's not from Sheffield.

I'm sure it's not just me that does this.

Originally posted by technophobe
Fearful: I feel a little aggreived that you say dragged itself up from the steel industry.... That is what Sheffield is renowned for and Iam proud of it. Sheffield at the time was a city full of hard working people and an industry which was second to none the products of which were distributed world wide. Sadly it has now met its demise but the historical side still exists.

Technophobe:

I was refering to the closing of the steel industry and its knock on effects. Of course we should be proud of it but its loss was a contributing factor to Sheffield being held back for many years.

Fearful: I knew you were not being derrogatory but its just a subject close to my heart. My dad worked all his life in the steel industry in Attercliffe but died shortly after they made everyone redundant!!!

I too check cutlery for the Sheffield Hallmark. Someone once told me they named a place in China after Sheffield so they could stamp their cutlery 'made in sheffield' does anyone know if this is true??

I think part of the problem may be that Sheffield is not a 'regional centre', it seems that it is mainly cities located near the geographical centre of a county (e.g. Leeds, Manchester) that get the investment that everyone else misses out on. Also companies seem to favour these 'regional centres' as their bases, which affects both the range of shops in the city centres and the amount and type of employment available.

I like the idea of the cafe culture but it seems that this kind of thing is an established part of life in other countries but it's just not something that we have a tradition of in this country for various reasons. In this country going to the pub is probably our equivalent activity to people in other countries going to a cafe.

Re. Sheffield cutlery: when I lived in Brussels and went to buy kitchen stuff for my flat I was looking at kitchen knives and noticed that some of them were made by Richardson's of Sheffield - it cheered me up to see that! I bought one, of course.

Did you all see the letter in the April 1st Sheffield Telegraph (page 6) from Councillor John Hesketh? - basically saying that so much money was spent on grandiose schemes by Labour that no (NO!!!) money at all was set aside for road maintenance - as he found out when the Lib Dems were in control in 1999-2002. "The emergency fund was a lorry, a couple of Council workmen, a bucket of asphalt and a shovel". Having followed the potholes thread and complained myself about the state of the gutters, which have finally been swept...at least in my neighbourhood, this explains it all!

Originally posted by CharleyF
Re. Sheffield cutlery: when I lived in Brussels and went to buy kitchen stuff for my flat I was looking at kitchen knives and noticed that some of them were made by Richardson's of Sheffield - it cheered me up to see that! I bought one, of course.
Sadly...

"Richardson's of Sheffield" is the stamp they use, and whilst it is true that they have an office here, Richardson's now manufacture (all?) their knives in Korea. Surely it can only be to deceive.

If cutlery had to get through the Sheffield Assay Office Richardson's would have no chance. There are quite a few other companies doing exactly the same thing unfortunately. Some take the trouble to assemble a pair of scissors in Sheffield, but few even bother.

They are as (or more) guilty as the Chinese forgers who stamp "Made in Sheffield" on cutlery.

It's all very well for some posters to admire certain aspects of Sheffield----a new building here , a nice statue there....etc... but it's the basic things that seem to be wrong with Sheffield ; the day-to-day things.
For example a lot of people on S.F. point out , night after night , how abysmal the Sheffield bus system is nowadays. Of those posting on the subject , I would guess 90% are grumbling about it. Surely people don't dream up such things . There is obviously something wrong somewhere.
Transport , parking , the stateof the roads , safety from crime and yobs-----these are the things that the Council [and the voters] should be really concerned about.
Some of us don't criticise Sheffield because we hate it----in fact , the opposite----but we remember when it had an excellent transport system and the Council was generally respected , even when you disagreed with their politics.