Sheffield city centre in the 80's

[rikimaru 10]

When ever I go back to Sheffield I sort of despair at how bad the city centre is now. I remember as a teenager back in the 80's how my mates and myself used to spend hours 'down town'. It just does not seem the same now.

 

The Moor was brilliant with Redgates, Woolworths and the stationary shop next door where I used to buy all my comics and magazines and art stuff.

 

The Golden penny amusement arcade, ahhh such good memories of that place, playing 'Defender' for hours on end and ******* of the owner because I could play for an hour at a time on one 10P. Used to meet all my mates there and we would spend hours on the video games, 17 years old, £16 a week dole money when no work was available but we never stayed in, we were always out and having a good time in town (night and day)

 

Drooling over the Air rifles in Suggs that I could never afford.

 

Fargate was brilliant on a weekend, all the Breakdance crews used to hang around on Fargate challenging each other with the music blasting out. Pi**ed of the old people no end. There used to be a really small record shop opposite Boots where I used to get all the latest 'Electro' imports, it was literally two rows of records and a counter, what was it called?

 

Castle Market, spent hours there buying records from the record shop that used to be in the main entrance and I think it was Thursday when you could get Trainers and clothing cheap from the outside market.

 

Used to spend hours in the Peace gardens (trying to avoid the drunks), listening to music on our portable tape players (remember the fashion for lugging around massive tape decks and playing the music at full volume).

 

There used to be a shop opposite Cole Brothers on the corner that sold records, badges and clothing, cannot remember for the life of me what it was called but I spent a lot of money in there on records and Badges with OMD, Duran Duran, Kraftwerk etc on them. Spent many an hour on the Town hall steps chatting to girls and watching the world go by and the same in the Cathedral gardens when the all the office girls used to come out and sunbathe.

There used to be a good newsagents and record shop on Chapel walk and I spent hours tracking down the latest fashionable clothes (this was when you dressed up to go out on the town) on Fargate and the Moor.

 

Chips from the chipshop on Pond street, avoiding the skin heads that used to hang around there. looking at the fish in the tank in the hole in the road.

 

Town just does not seem the same nowadays, to much invested in flash fountains and silly plaza's outside railway stations. Does anyone else have good memories of town back then and does anyone agree that Sheffield centre just does not feel the same? Could you and did you spend hours 'down town' especially at the weekend.

Edited February 23, 2009 by rikimaru

[Alastair 12]

What was the name of the big stationary shop next to Woolworths on the Moor? I used it a lot and remember buying records there too.

[0742Sheff 10]

Some of the things you mention are still there.

 

The record store as you enter Castle market. The chippy on the parade (is that how to describe it?) on Pond Street. The record shop opposite Cole brothers was there the last time i looked. It sells jewellery, posters and such like. It has/had a really steep set of stairs you could go up and buy essences and other not so legal things (poppers).

 

Town will never feel the same as it did when you were young. Similarly it will not feel the same to the 100's of students that sit around town these days on their breaks. Little do they realise the memories they are taking in and will, just like you, come to think back on in later life.

 

Reading posts like yours rikimaru makes us realise what a great city we live in. Even if your particular memories were from a bygone era.

 

 

PS.... I can't believe you never mentioned the wedding cake or the egg box

[mh01 10]

When ever I go back to Sheffield I sort of despair at how bad the city centre is now. I remember as a teenager back in the 80's how my mates and myself used to spend hours 'down town'. It just does not seem the same now.

 

The Moor was brilliant with Redgates, Woolworths and the stationary shop next door where I used to buy all my comics and magazines and art stuff.

 

The Golden penny amusement arcade, ahhh such good memories of that place, playing 'Defender' for hours on end and ******* of the owner because I could play for an hour at a time on one 10P. Used to meet all my mates there and we would spend hours on the video games, 17 years old, £16 a week dole money when no work was available but we never stayed in, we were always out and having a good time in town (night and day)

 

Drooling over the Air rifles in Suggs that I could never afford.

 

Fargate was brilliant on a weekend, all the Breakdance crews used to hang around on Fargate challenging each other with the music blasting out. Pi**ed of the old people no end. There used to be a really small record shop opposite Boots where I used to get all the latest 'Electro' imports, it was literally two rows of records and a counter, what was it called?

 

Castle Market, spent hours there buying records from the record shop that used to be in the main entrance and I think it was Thursday when you could get Trainers and clothing cheap from the outside market.

 

Used to spend hours in the Peace gardens (trying to avoid the drunks), listening to music on our portable tape players (remember the fashion for lugging around massive tape decks and playing the music at full volume).

 

There used to be a shop opposite Cole Brothers on the corner that sold records, badges and clothing, cannot remember for the life of me what it was called but I spent a lot of money in there on records and Badges with OMD, Duran Duran, Kraftwerk etc on them. Spent many an hour on the Town hall steps chatting to girls and watching the world go by and the same in the Cathedral gardens when the all the office girls used to come out and sunbathe.

There used to be a good newsagents and record shop on Chapel walk and I spent hours tracking down the latest fashionable clothes (this was when you dressed up to go out on the town) on Fargate and the Moor.

 

Chips from the chipshop on Pond street, avoiding the skin heads that used to hang around there. looking at the fish in the tank in the hole in the road.theres nowt wrong with them skinheads who hung round on pond street & the markets!

 

Town just does not seem the same nowadays, to much invested in flash fountains and silly plaza's outside railway stations. Does anyone else have good memories of town back then and does anyone agree that Sheffield centre just does not feel the same? Could you and did you spend hours 'down town' especially at the weekend.

i bet u feel old now lol

[midvixen 10]

God, reading your post really brings back memories.

 

I used to get dressed up early on a Saturday morning, meet my friends and go off to town for the day! We would spend about 8 hours wandering all over - starting down by the markets and ending up at the bottom of the moor. Those were the days!!

[me-and-pippo 12]

What was the name of the big stationary shop next to Woolworths on the Moor? I used it a lot and remember buying records there too.

Was it called, Quadrant or Lonsdale Universal?

[mh01 10]

God, reading your post really brings back memories.

 

I used to get dressed up early on a Saturday morning, meet my friends and go off to town for the day! We would spend about 8 hours wandering all over - starting down by the markets and ending up at the bottom of the moor. Those were the days!!

lolololol the moor brings back memories. us skinheads use to march down there to the hagenbachs cafe & hammer the mods! OH HAPPY DAYS! lol

[midvixen 10]

No doubt you were part of the fun and frolice for me then. My girlfriends and I used to sit watching the skinheads and mods while we sat there looking sophisticated dressed in a madonna stylee!! LOL

[mh01 10]

No doubt you were part of the fun and frolice for me then. My girlfriends and I used to sit watching the skinheads and mods while we sat there looking sophisticated dressed in a madonna stylee!! LOL

those were the days lol shame u have to get old & grow up innit

[Plain Talker 11]

Was it called, Quadrant or Lonsdale Universal?

 

Me-and-Pippo, I remember it as "Quadrant Stationers".

 

I remember "Ladding It" with my best friend, going swimming on a saturday morning in Sheaf Valley baths, or going to the Minors Matinee at the ABC, and then ending up going "for Lunch" - which consisted of a glass of cola and a chip butty, in Granelli's balcony bar at the Sheaf Markets.

 

If we were feeling particularly "flush" we might even go to the Wimpy and get a hamburger. (well, one of the Wimpy bars:- either the one by WH Smiths or the one near McDonalds at the top of The Moor.)

 

Idyllic summer afternoons spent chasing each other round the peace gardens, throwing your mates' shoes into the fountain under the canopy of the egg-box, (when you got a bit older, supping cheapo cider in the Gardens)

 

PS, I can't believe you lot haven't mentioned "Pippys" - ACE shop!!

Edited February 23, 2009 by Plain Talker

[Ousetunes 10]

I promise you I can still smell what it was like in Quadrant Stationers, a papery smell as you entered and, IIRC a paint smell in the area toward the back. It had a large downstairs too from where you could buy posters (and I think they sold records downstairs too?).

 

There was Habitat further down on the opposite side. It didn't last too long but certainly longer than Hamley's toyshop which I think replaced it. At Moorfoot was a very early incarnation of Virgin Records. It was always dull and cold but next door was one of my favourite music shops which sold guitars, drum kits and sheet music, Hudson's. I was sad when that place closed.

 

But for me, the eighties version of the Moor was largely depressing. The road was closed to traffic c. 1978 but the area wasn't immediately pedestrianised (ie, paved over). Thus, you got large, brown and unsightly flowertubs placed hither and thither on the old road where the road markings could still be seen. Then the ridiculous band stand which you had to negotiate to get round - hardy shopper-friendly. (I recall seeing the bandstand in the film Threads and thinking that dropping a nuclear bomb on it might not be such a bad idea.)

 

The pre-pedestrianised Moor was fantastic with good shops which was our version of Leeds' Headrow. And of course, a bus or car would take you down to the roundabout at the bottom of Cemetery Road, now cut-off with the ghastly Manpower Services building. Another fine example of just how wrong our city planners can get it. The 1960s and 1970s Moor became a stinking mess in the 1980s. No wonder the big name businesses didn't last long.

 

Fargate too used to be a nice area - not the string of mobile phone shops it resembles today. But by the 1980s Goodwin Fountain rarely worked usually being nothing more than a giant bin in which to discard fast food packaging and anything else.

 

But my general impression of the city centre is that it is finally back on its uppers and indeed, I've never spent more time in the city centre, particularly at weekends. The signs are promising but just when you think they're beginning to get it right, they prove otherwise by building cheap and boring junk buildings like No 1 St Paul's and worse still - if possible - City Lofts.

 

Threads II, anyone?

Edited February 23, 2009 by Ousetunes

[sierraman 11]

What was the name of the big stationary shop next to Woolworths on the Moor? I used it a lot and remember buying records there too.

Lonsdale Univesal was the name of the shop, it used to be Redgates