Hole In The Road Thread with Pics

[Yellowrose 10]

I used to walk through everyday on my way to and from school.

 

Does anyone remember the Thorntons stand in there which sold broken/ seconds at really low prices? They were fantastic - just the ticket for the next leg of my journey.

 

Ah, the good old days - I'm feeling really old!

 

That was my first thought when I read this thread. The Thorntons. Handy for choc on the way home. There was a fruit and veg shop at one time, a newsagents/sweet kiosk, a shop selling towels and teatowels, a shop that sold TVs and one that sold wallpaper.

[saxon51 10]

Does anyone remember the Thorntons stand in there which sold broken/ seconds at really low prices?

 

They were called MIS-SHAPES. I loved them.

[USEDTOBPROUD 10]

this brings back so many memories for me.i used to spend hours with my mum lookin at that fish tank.bloody hell im actually feelin a bit emotianal thinkin about the city center as a nipper.

[diskoheaven 10]

I can't believe I walk across castle sqaure pretty much every day and never even knew it was there!!

 

Its a fair point that people COULD fall through the middle, if they climbed on the wal couldn't they just jump in?!

[Plain Talker 11]

I can't believe I walk across castle sqaure pretty much every day and never even knew it was there!!

 

Its a fair point that people COULD fall through the middle, if they climbed on the wal couldn't they just jump in?!

 

No-one ever fell/ jumped off the wall to my recollection, in the thirty-whatever years the HITR was there.

 

There was fencing, on the pavement- edge, which kept all but the most stupid of pedestrians off the roadway that ran around the top of the HITR, and there was a wall on the roundabout itself.

 

the ramps/ tunnnels and escalators, combined with the fencing, served petty well to filter everyone into the underground passageways.

 

PT

[diskoheaven 10]

Ah well... obviously there weren't the same amount of trouble-makers around then; I reckon if it was there now there'd be no end of scallies trying to do it!

[melthebell 862]

I can't believe I walk across castle sqaure pretty much every day and never even knew it was there!!

 

Its a fair point that people COULD fall through the middle, if they climbed on the wal couldn't they just jump in?!

 

yes you could run across the road, jump over and jump down into it

mind u it was a good 30 /40 foot high?

 

these threads always bring back memories of sheff back in the 70s / 80s for me

 

hollyo the majority of the big shops in it just had the back doors there to get into the shops, they also had the normal front doors aswell

there was only 1 or 2 shops that were there properly like newsagents, chocolate shop, cobblers etc

 

there was 4 or 5 subways that came off it, all had a left and right subway so you could exit all over the area

ie:- high street, down near the courts, just above castlemarkets, fitzallen square, near the crucible etc without crossing any roads

[Shazbat 10]

It wasn't by Boots and the cathedral though.

 

It was at the top of Arundel Gate, so TJ Hughes would have had a door that let into it, as would Primark. Of course they went by different names at the time.... C&A? House of Frazer?

 

The one at Coles Corner, ie Boots/Cathedral was just a subway under the junction of High Street/Church Street. The gas showroom (where HSBC is now) also had an entrance/exit in the subway as well as Boots. Does anyone else but me remember the "magic tap" suspended in the showroom window with water running from it but no visible plumbing?

[puskas 10]

The Underpass outside Boots was built when the Tories were in power in the late 60's. They promised lots of bus shelters as well.

By the time it was built, they were out of power, Labour was back in and Arundel Gate was being pedestrianised, making the underpass pointless.

 

Let this be a lesson to all of us. NEVER vote Tory!!

[pete_fcs 11]

i think the poster means the old high street subway, which had an underground entrance to boots.

 

you went in this way to avoid the hairspray and get to the thin lizzy records.

 

but while we're on the subject, these are two of my pics of the hole in the road....

 

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b171/sheffieldarchives/HOLEINTHEROAD.jpg

 

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b171/sheffieldarchives/HOLEINROADii.jpg

 

[bluebird62 10]

I have been told that there used to be some sort of shopping area, around where is now HMV/Boots/Cathedral... which was filled in before the trams got put back in (around 1995?) Apparently you could see the sky from it, but it was lower than the normal street level. Sounds all very intriguing.. surely anyone who's lived here since before 95 or so should know whether it's true or not?

 

Hi HollyO.

yes , the hole in the road did have some shops as i worked in one, - C & A MODES- which had lower ground floor or basement, this was called the "clockhouse" a youngster shop and the menswear department was even lower than that as there was another set of steps to enter the mens dept. In the subway we had windows which displayed the goods on offer in C& A.

[alevans 10]

i think you mean the hole in the road as everybody called it. it was a small underground with a few shops and a large fishtank set in the wall ...... your not missing a lot it was usually full of drunks and tramps and stank of pee

It was a major attraction when first built, especially the fish tank, I was as shocked by its demise as I was that of Redgates (see other thread)