Jump to content

How famous is Sheffield?

Recommended Posts

Guest busdriver1

The strange belief that being close to the peak district is an attraction for tourism makes me laugh. If I were running a coach holiday to the peak district a major factor in deciding where to spend our evenings would involve finding somewhere IN the Peak district, not close to it. Lone travellers on a budget MAY do so but I doubt in any numbers as the cost of onward travel would probably wipe out any advantage to staying in the city.

Yes, a part of the city is in the National Park, but, none of the towns that are magnets for tourism.

I suspect a lot of tourists seeing that fact will just think AHH bless them 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Sheffield has lost its way on the world stage sadly, our once fantastic cutlery trade has gone apart from four companies that still produce quality cutlery, our steel works have gone , the works have been demolished and replaced with entertainment centres  which cost a fortune to visit, our city centre is a complete joke, lumps of stone near Cambridge Street, why? surely some old grindstones would have been more in keeping with our cutlery heritage.

Student and private flats seem to appear over night, built over the firms that made Sheffield a household name, Kelham Island though lauded by some is another area that forgets just what the area was odigitally. After we lost our steel works, some media firm come up with the name "Steel City" just to make money for his company, we were  fed the "Steel City Derby" every year to me a slur on the thousands of men and women who made this city what it was.. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
23 hours ago, Bilge said:

Yorkshire tourism mostly equates to the Dales and NY Moors national parks, the seaside places, plus Leeds and York. The Yorkshire bit of the Peak District is not included in 'Welcome to Yorkshire' as the Peak park 'belongs' to Derbyshire in tourism terms. Sheffield has a bit of visitor action but not that much really, we can do better..

 

In terms of positioning or branding or place marketing, it's fine to have a few different images for a city, they're never simply defined by one thing. Being 'Steel City' was never an adequate definition. We're definitely a music city, definitely an outdoor city. Other things we can do better (retail, museums, stuff to do when it rains, food etc).

 

In the UK there is London, which is a global city. Then there are the big cities/regions Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. Look at where bands play if they only have a handful of dates in the UK, it's these places. The next rank is the regional capitals (eg Leeds). Then there is Sheff on the next rung..That's where we are and it's fine. All we can do is make Sheff as good as it possibly can be. We can close the gap on Leeds by being different and better in some ways, like Liverpool does with Manchester. But I doubt we  can ever 'get promotion' to those higher levels of economic and political importance.

 

Largely agree.

21 hours ago, GivenToFly said:

The city has got potential that isn't being lived up to. Sheffield has significant rivers running right through it that other cities that have them capitalise on but Sheffield doesn't. The Don should be lined with all sorts of public amenities and nice spaces and infrastructure but isn't, Attercliffe should transformed into a sprawling silicone valley type place full modern engineering and tech firms served by a Vegas type quarter.

There is talk of getting as many of the rivers as possible out of the culverts and making attractions of them. It does make lots of sense.

20 hours ago, alchresearch said:

Considering Sheffield isn't the UK's first or second city I don't see how you can compare it with the ones you mention.

 

I don't even know the name of Germany's or France's or Italy or Spain's fifth city, nor what they're famous for. 

 

I probably wouldn't have known the second cities (except for Barcelona) until you posted them.

 

However, Sheffield does OK on the world stage with plenty of other things making it famous.

Germany's fifth largest city is Frankfurt and is famous for..

France's fifth largest city is Nice and is famous for ...

Italy's is Palermo and is famous for...

Spain's 5th largest is Bilbao and is famous for...

19 hours ago, RollingJ said:

Merely as a point of interest - why do so many on here put Sheffield down?

General pessimism among the populous but definitely towards the place where they choose to live. Lots and oots of glass half empty attitudes.

19 hours ago, FIRETHORN1 said:

Way back in the past, I think Sheffield was best known for it's top class cutlery, knives and steel, but I believe the demise of these industries and the fact that we've got 2 unsuccessful football teams makes us less well known in the rest of the world.

In terms of "fame"  don't think we can be fairly compared to world capital cities like Paris and Rome, or even our own capital, London,  but we are either the 4th or 5th biggest city in England, so it would be nice to be as famous as other big English Cities of a similar size - like Leeds and Liverpool

Sheffield makes more steel now than it ever has done. One Premier League team and a Championship team is better than Leeds and the same as Birmingham.

13 hours ago, ECCOnoob said:

An interesting point is how are we measuring fame and notoriety.

 

Simply comparing Sheffield with other large European cities is the completely wrong approach.  Its obvious that we are not a capital city nor are we even the second city of the UK.  Trying to compare with those is completly incorrect.

 

Nor do I agree that fame is determined by simply what makes the newspapers and television.  99% of the time it will be bad news as that's what gets ratings and attracts a story.

 

I am more interested in the fame and awareness of Sheffield through arts, trade organisations and comparison in the commercial world.  

 

Sheffield universities are certainly attractive and there must be some fame as they are widely populated by international students.

 

Sheffield has had significant amounts of foreign investment linked to such students as can be seen in the new developments.

 

The investment from McLaren and Boeing in the AMR parks has been widely publicised certainly in the trade press as has the recent redevelopment of kelham Island and the digital quarter.

 

The Guardian has undertaken features on Sheffield and there is significant amounts of film and television production still done here with several filmmakers and producers based in the cultural industries area.   

 

The Arctic monkeys put Sheffield on the map recently and our legacy music scene is still brought up several times over in features and articles.

 

Our theatre complex is still the largest outside London and makes many productions in house which is a rarity in the regions.

 

We may not have the yuppie "prestige" of Leeds and Manchester but we are still matching them for investment from big companies and central government who have large offices based here.

 

Going back to what I said earlier, whilst  we may not hit the headlines as much as other cities that does not mean that we are not known.  Certainly from my travelling around to other locations and even abroad people are aware of Sheffield and what it can offer.

 

The recent flypast had not only gave national news coverage reporting and presenting from here but international too.  It was quite strange seeing CNN and NBC live from a Sheffield park.  Tramlines always attracts some good publicity as does the annual snooker which clearly dominates the BBC schedules each year.

 

Let's be completely honest, with the exception of London, does any major city get a disproportionate amount of positive reporting on the news or is it always just when somebody is killed or there is a disaster?

This ^

1 hour ago, Baron99 said:

Couldn't agree more. Aren't we also recognised as being the ale capital of the country with more breweries & the number of different beers available here than anywhere else? 

 

Wasn't it only last year that the New York Times ran an article that the Kelham Island area is one of the must see places? 

Yes

1 hour ago, busdriver1 said:

The strange belief that being close to the peak district is an attraction for tourism makes me laugh. If I were running a coach holiday to the peak district a major factor in deciding where to spend our evenings would involve finding somewhere IN the Peak district, not close to it. Lone travellers on a budget MAY do so but I doubt in any numbers as the cost of onward travel would probably wipe out any advantage to staying in the city.

Yes, a part of the city is in the National Park, but, none of the towns that are magnets for tourism.

I suspect a lot of tourists seeing that fact will just think AHH bless them 

I disagree. If I am going to go to the countryside I'd rather be able to spend the evenings in a nearby city than some one hoss town. Cost of travel to the peaks is minimal.

50 minutes ago, lazarus said:

Sheffield has lost its way on the world stage sadly, our once fantastic cutlery trade has gone apart from four companies that still produce quality cutlery, our steel works have gone , the works have been demolished and replaced with entertainment centres  which cost a fortune to visit, our city centre is a complete joke, lumps of stone near Cambridge Street, why? surely some old grindstones would have been more in keeping with our cutlery heritage.

Student and private flats seem to appear over night, built over the firms that made Sheffield a household name, Kelham Island though lauded by some is another area that forgets just what the area was odigitally. After we lost our steel works, some media firm come up with the name "Steel City" just to make money for his company, we were  fed the "Steel City Derby" every year to me a slur on the thousands of men and women who made this city what it was.. 

Glass half empty.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

@philyyy - can't really disagree with all you have posted above and yes, I suppose the pessimism comment is correct - you hear the same in other towns and cities, but posters on here have made it into an art form.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 minute ago, RollingJ said:

@philyyy - can't really disagree with all you have posted above and yes, I suppose the pessimism comment is correct - you hear the same in other towns and cities, but posters on here have made it into an art form.

They even find negatives in the positives.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 minute ago, philyyy said:

They even find negatives in the positives.

👍

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
21 minutes ago, philyyy said:

 

Germany's fifth largest city is Frankfurt and is famous for..

France's fifth largest city is Nice and is famous for ...

Italy's is Palermo and is famous for...

Spain's 5th largest is Bilbao and is famous for...

I would argue that all of those cities are more famous world wide than Sheffield.

 

Frankfurt is considerably more famous as it is a financial hub.

 

Nice is also more famous being a huge tourist destination (possibly the biggestin France after Paris).  It's geographical position is the reason for this.

 

Palermo is debatable but is again a tourist area and has a larger historical significance than Sheffield.

 

Bilbao has its football team.

 

 

The things about Sheffield is that there isn't much here.  When I have visitors from outside the city they are inevitably disappointed by the city.  It has next to no architecture or buildings of interest (when compared to say Manchester and Liverpool).

 

I like living here, but we aren't a particularly important city.  Even during the war it wasn't really bombed becausbit wasn't really important.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, busdriver1 said:

The strange belief that being close to the peak district is an attraction for tourism makes me laugh. If I were running a coach holiday to the peak district a major factor in deciding where to spend our evenings would involve finding somewhere IN the Peak district, not close to it.

It depends what you want in a holiday.  I like the NY Moors but I would rather stay in a nearby town and drive to it and spend the day there.

 

The first time I stayed in the moors itself I felt like I was stuck in a tiny village in the evening with just two pubs to eat in and little else.  

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, RollingJ said:

@philyyy - can't really disagree with all you have posted above and yes, I suppose the pessimism comment is correct - you hear the same in other towns and cities, but posters on here have made it into an art form.

The politics of Sheffield has a lot to do with what Sheffield is and is likely to be going forward into the short/medium term future. Lifting the city up in a real tangible sense  is looked upon as a bourgeois(to use an old fashioned term) endeavour and not really on the agenda of the Sheffield left leaning establishment  who I think would rather Sheffield be in solidarity with places like Venezuela or Palestine.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

A bit strong @GivenToFly, but I tend to agree with you. I love where I live, but the local administration seem locked in the past, with a diametrically opposite desire to turn the city into a dump.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 hours ago, JamesR123 said:

Even during the war it wasn't really bombed because it wasn't really important.

I think you might want to look into the local history a bit more. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Just now, Bilge said:

I think you might want to look into the local history a bit more. 

I don't think I do.  If you would like to explain why feel free

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.