Hibbert's Art Shop

[dunsbyowl1867]

When I lived in Sheffield if I was meeting anyone it was always ouside Hibberts so I could look at the George Cunningham prints in the windows - anybody else remember this shop?

Just at the top of Norfolk Street on here.

[Sheffield History]

That rings a bell

I wonder if that was something I did - it certainly sounds like it..

[Guest wisewoodowl]

It was at the corner of Norfolk Street and Surrey Street, diagonally opposite the Town Hall and across Surrey Street from the new hotel. I think that it's a herballist / health food shop now.

[Guest Tiger]

I used to go in there alot because one of my mother's cousins married into the family and my great grandad used to display his paintings there. In later years my friend's mother worked there as an accountant.

[Wadsleyite]

Hibbert's had been in Sheffield since the 1830s. The lease on the Surrey Street shop ran out and the rent went up beyond the firm's ability to pay it. Very sad - I often used to look in the window on my way to and form the library, and buy my Rotring supplies there. There are plenty of herbalists and health food shops in Sheffield but no longer a proper art shop.

[Ponytail]

Junction of Surrey Street & Norfolk Street, No. 117 Hibbert Bros., fine art dealers, Nos. 111 - 113 Norfolk Cafe, No.109 Brown Bear public house. 

y00023

Photographer: Maurice Parkin. 

 

1970. 

https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s40992&pos=14&action=zoom&id=80164

 

October 1995.s41114

Now closed, Hibbert Brothers, picture framers and fine art dealers; 111 - 115 Mama's and Leonies, Italian restaurant and 109 Brown Bear public house, Norfolk Street. 1999.

t03981

 

Interior of Hibbert Brothers, February 1998.s43839

s43823

s43838

s43822

 

The Sheffield Art Shop that kept itself in the picture for 164 years. The Star 31st January 2022.

https://www.thestar.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/retro/the-sheffield-art-shop-that-kept-itself-in-the-picture-for-164-years-3547951

 

[Lysanderix]

Yet another of Sheffields “treasures “gone for good…….we are a poorer place.

[tozzin]

Norfolk Street & Beyond

 

Before we escape back to 19th century Sheffield, I must thank Jane Salt the Stars Archivist for helping with my research, back to when thing seemed more refined. The clue picture on page two shows decorative carvings on what is now the Wicker Herbalist Stores, formerly Hibbert`s Art shop on Norfolk Street. Hibbert Brothers vacated the shop in 1998, the Star covered this event with a brief history of William and James Hibbert, it was claimed, quite wrongly, that the shop had opened in Norfolk Street in 1833, in that year Henry Thomas, a Doctor/ Surgeon, was living and practising  from his house at 79 Norfolk street, which wasn’t the original postal number of Hibbert's shop, it was originally 38, it is a fact that William Hibbert was conducting his business at 78 Fargate (now Exchange Gateway) as a carver and gilder and its listed as an artists repository, William lived on the premises, his brother in law George Marples had the same occupation and was going about his business at 31 Church Street and he lived at 59 Bernard Street with his family. John Hibbert, Williams brother was also a carver and gilder plus a picture frame maker, map stretcher and varnisher, John was based on Chester Street, this street has been lost completely, thank you Sheffield council.
By 1849 Henry Thomas the Surgeon took on a partner for his practice because of his growing practice, John Taylor Porter changed the practice name to Thomas & Porter, John Porter had been living at 27 Norfolk Street, so it was just a short walk to the practice, I could only speculate on what happened to these two doctors but I suspect they two partners decided to retire, Henry Thomas died in 1882, while his partner John Porter had died just eight years before him, so they must have sold the practice prior to 1852 as by that year Doctor / Surgeon Thomas Chesman who was the senior surgeon at the Public Hospital, Later the Royal Hospital, was holding his surgeries from the practice, sadly Thomas Chesman left this life on the 9th of November 1874, as the years passed the property, had had its postal number changed twice from 115 to what it is today 117, in 1893 William Murfin the London & North Western Railway Co goods manager was living at the property which is now Mammas  & Leonie’s Pizza Parlour. So it looks as though Hibbert Brothers moved into the premises round about the late 1890s are now supplying the needs of both professional and amateur artists in the town, so they had only been selling their wares from Norfolk Street for just over a hundred years not 164 as claimed  but that’s irrelevant as its still an important part of Sheffield’s history. By 1905 William Hibbert was living at 96 Broomspring Lane and John lived at 9 Westbourne Road the other brother Samuel George was residing at 42 Brocco Bank.
This area of the town was always busy especially when the Surrey Street Music Hall was open, this grand theatre was built in 1823, it was more than just a Music Hall as its largest room accommodated 1,000 people quite easily, this theatre was just one of many in the town, the Gaiety, the Britannia, the Grand, the Phoenix, the Theatre Royal and of course Tommy Youdan’s which was the Alexandre Theatre on Blonk Street, I cant name them all but it was a cut throat business and nobody made a fortune out of them, if one owner or manager was breaking the rules, a rival sent in a spy to report back which in turn an official complaint was made against them via the watch committee. The Surrey was regarded as one of the best, if not the best, the world famous violinist Paganini performed here to a rapturous audience as did Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale, one celebrity who was small in stature but a giant on stage was General Tom Thumb who gained stardom through P. T. Barnum. Mr Charles Dickens, England’s greatest author, appeared here several times, in 1852 acting as manager and actor he performed along with  Mr Wilkie Collins, in a play entitled “Not So Bad As We Seem”, the admission costs for performances like these really kept the general populace out of the theatre, ten shillings and sixpence and seven and sixpence were way above what a working man could afford, in 1873 it was decided it was too small and it  was still used as a theatre, into the early twentieth century it was used by J.G. Graves the original mail order company, he gifted the people of Sheffield Graves Park and not the council it was ours.
One job that was fiercely argued over with many fights breaking out on theatre nights, it was the lucrative road crossings that the ladies of the town had to cross in all their finery, what was the job you may well ask? It was the sweeping horse droppings from off the crossings, you can imagine the amount of horses in the town at that time and you cannot train horses just where to drop their apples, so any lady wanting to cross was approached by the sweepers and swept a clean path across the road for which he received a penny or tuppence. The Surrey Theatre stood in the exact spot where the Central Library now stands. 

 

In 1841 this house was the home of William Hibbert Picture Framer & Gilder, 96, Broomspring Lane

[southside]

There's a burial in the General Cemetery for William Hibbert, also several family members in the same grave, including his Wife Matilda, 

William Hibbert:  Carver and Guilder, died Parker's Road March 1868 age 61.

Matilda Hibbert:  Widow, died 42 Brocco Bank November 1886 age 76.

[southside]

[Edmund]

William Hibbert (senior) was born in Hartington, Derbyshire in 1806. He was a carver and gilder in Baslow and married Matilda Marples (dressmaker) on 23rd April 1832 at Baslow. He had probably already done a lot of business carving and gilding at Chatsworth House, as shortly after they moved to Sheffield, an advertisement referred to examples of William's workmanship.

In 1841 the shop was at 78 Fargate (the 1850 Whites Directory shows Fargate and Barkers Pool as being the same road, with consecutive numbering).  The shop was just below Pool Place, opposite the Scarbrough Arms. At this point the family were living in Broomspring Lane. By 1843 Hibbert was in partnership with brother in law George Marples, with shops at both 78 Fargate/Barkers Pool and 31 Church Lane. In March 1845 the partnership was dissolved and William Hibbert took the Fargate shop, George Marples had the Church Lane shop.  William senior died aged 62 on 16th March 1868 at his residence in Parkers Road, Broomhill.

William (junior) was born on 3rd September 1835, and married Julia Stocks on 23rd September 1856. They had surviving children - a son and four daughters - Thomas George, Julia, Annie, Florence and Matilda.

In October 1881 Hibbert Brothers, late of 86 Fargate, established 1834, removed to the Norfolk Art Galleries, Norfolk Street and Surrey Street. 

WIlliam Hibbert (junior) died aged 77 at 96 Broomspring Lane on Saturday 24th February 1912. He had retired about 8 years previously, the business being continued by his son Thomas George.  William was buried at Ecclesall on 28th February. A week later on 5th March 1912 at Ecclesall, his brother Samuel George Hibbert, aged 73, also of 96 Broomspring Lane, and a retired carver-gilder, was buried.

Thomas George Hibbert died aged 68, residence "Goathland", Bushey Wood Road,Totley Rise and Norfolk street. He died on 18th December 1928. He had been a well known amateur photographer from 1880 up until the first war.  An 1890 photo taken by Thomas G Hibbert from outside the new premises was discussed in detail on this forum:

The next incumbents of the shop was Thomas G's son Arnold Edgar (born 31st August 1879 and died in 1950) His children, who also came into the business were Frank Arnold (born 8th December 1906), Mary (born 1910, married Albert Lidgard), Freda (born 23rd June 1914). Frank died on 26th January 1945, before his father, who was an executor of his will.  Mary and Freda were involved in the running of the business into the 1980's.

 

[southside]

On 30/05/2007 at 09:12, dunsbyowl1867 said:

When I lived in Sheffield if I was meeting anyone it was always ouside Hibberts so I could look at the George Cunningham prints in the windows - anybody else remember this shop?

 

Just at the top of Norfolk Street on here.

I bought this George Cunningham Early Doors print from Hibberts in 1986. Though the painting is a bit before my time, It reminds me of night school classes in the old College just behind the Lyceum Theater and going in the Adelphi for a pint after class and running down the steps into Pond Street to catch the bus home in 1963