Fantastic old photo of Sheffield City Hall!

[Sheffield History]

How fantastic does Sheffield City Hall look in this old photograph?

None of that crazy street furniture and stuff in the way - just pure beauty of the building on show

I love this.

These days you can't walk anywhere without having to avoid some metal stump art, fountain, bench, road sign, street light, advertising board etc which are mostly pointless and clutter up the city

This photo shows how much more serene, calm and relaxing it is without all the additional 'stuff' in the way

[lysander]

And few cars but lots of horses pulling carts and wagons...with horse muck on every street corner and a population suffering the depravations of the "Depression" involving mass unemployment, the "Means Test" and abundant poverty. Things might not be perfect today but I'll suffer the "street furniture".

[Stephen Rodgers]

4 hours ago, Sheffield History said:

How fantastic does Sheffield City Hall look in this old photograph?

None of that crazy street furniture and stuff in the way - just pure beauty of the building on show

I love this.

These days you can't walk anywhere without having to avoid some metal stump art, fountain, bench, road sign, street light, advertising board etc which are mostly pointless and clutter up the city

This photo shows how much more serene, calm and relaxing it is without all the additional 'stuff' in the way

Agree

[History dude]

3 hours ago, lysander said:

And few cars but lots of horses pulling carts and wagons...with horse muck on every street corner and a population suffering the depravations of the "Depression" involving mass unemployment, the "Means Test" and abundant poverty. Things might not be perfect today but I'll suffer the "street furniture".

If you ask me the only difference is that horses don't pull carts and wagons, the muck has turned to litter and there are loads of cars now. 

[tozzin]

12 hours ago, Sheffield History said:

How fantastic does Sheffield City Hall look in this old photograph?

None of that crazy street furniture and stuff in the way - just pure beauty of the building on show

I love this.

These days you can't walk anywhere without having to avoid some metal stump art, fountain, bench, road sign, street light, advertising board etc which are mostly pointless and clutter up the city

This photo shows how much more serene, calm and relaxing it is without all the additional 'stuff' in the way

Street furniture really annoys me, whenever I take a photo of a building I have to be very careful not to include the numerous bits of , sometimes pointless, street furniture, I do my best to take them out afterwards. So to see a photo without these horrible signs is truly perfect.

[Unitedite Returns]

42 minutes ago, tozzin said:

Street furniture really annoys me, whenever I take a photo of a building I have to be very careful not to include the numerous bits of , sometimes pointless, street furniture, I do my best to take them out afterwards. So to see a photo without these horrible signs is truly perfect.

I would agree with that comment, and I believe that that is the point being made here, not some desire to return to some erroneous, rosy tinted past,

Photographers do tend to notice these things, as you do tend to 'photographically frame' any view that you happen to be gazing upon, even when you haven't got your camera to hand, and you ask yourself the question - 'would that make a good picture?'

Of course, some street furniture will always be a necessity of modern life. In fact, it has probably been so, ever since someone erected the first ever gas lamp.

But, I for one, do wonder as to whether we are now in overkill mode, and if it is needed, could it be better sited?

It is not however, a problem exclusive to Sheffield alone, as even towns and cities that thrive as heritage centres seem equally guilty of the same offence.

It is nigh on impossible these days to photograph any castle, cathedral, or other historic building these days, without the image being cluttered with some trash-bin, street-sign, or electric lamp-post. Not that they shouldn't be there, but that so many are garishly out of context with the environment in which they have been placed.

[tozzin]

2 minutes ago, Unitedite Returns said:

I would agree with that comment, and I believe that that is the point being made here, not some desire to return to some erroneous, rosy tinted past,

Photographers do tend to notice these things, as you do tend to 'photographically frame' any view that you happen to be gazing upon, even when you haven't got your camera to hand, and you ask yourself the question - 'would that make a good picture?'

Of course, some street furniture will always be a necessity of modern life. In fact, it has probably been so, ever since someone erected the first ever gas lamp.

But, I for one, do wonder as to whether we are now in overkill mode, and if it is needed, could it be better sited?

It is not however, a problem exclusive to Sheffield alone, as even towns and cities that thrive as heritage centres seem equally guilty of the same offence.

It is nigh on impossible these days to photograph any castle, cathedral, or other historic building these days, without the image being cluttered with some trash-bin, street-sign, or electric lamp-post. Not that they shouldn't be there, but that so many are garishly out of context with the environment in which they have been placed.

Hurrah for common sense.

[lysander]

Street furniture is a part of our  21 st century society. We have to be told what to do and we have to be informed...a lack of instruction could result in litigation if it caused an accident and the authority was judged to have been negligent. Street furniture costs money and I doubt a local Council install it  without some consideration...of course, some is placed without much consideration as to its aesthetic affects but it is as much a part of 21st living as were horse troughs, water drinking fountains, public toilets and police boxes in Victorian Britain.

[Arif]

Haha, I think that is the card I uploaded onto the Facebook Sheffield History page! I have quite a few of the City Hall and here is another one, possibly from the same time. It may be that there was a set of them originally. Enjoy.