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A really cramped Sheffield City Centre


Sheffield History

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Screenshot 2020-04-02 at 17.32.16.jpg

Before the city of Sheffield was redeveloped many times over it was a hustling, bustling cramped city full of buildings that are no longer with us.

Thankfully we have way more open space than we used to have.

Take a look above - what can you see that is no longer there?

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It might be quicker to list what is still there, especially in the foreground! Just about everything in that part of the image has gone, including most of the road layout. It was the Town Hall and the church spires in the upper part of the image which made me realise what I was looking at.

What catches my eye is the tall building in the middle of Walker & Hall's factory. How plain it looks despite having been built at a time when tall buildings were usually rather ornate, such as the nearby Town Hall. Come to think of it, how about a factory of that size being in what we now think of as a retail, office and leisure based city centre.

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I personally would rather have what we’ve lost to what we have now, too many flats and apartments, the Peace Gardens have been ruined, it’s now just play area, the well set out flower beds and calm almost serene atmosphere has been lost.

F469689C-A2D4-48D1-9B6D-A5C8B80E65EA.jpeg

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2 hours ago, madannie77 said:

It might be quicker to list what is still there, especially in the foreground! Just about everything in that part of the image has gone, including most of the road layout. It was the Town Hall and the church spires in the upper part of the image which made me realise what I was looking at.

What catches my eye is the tall building in the middle of Walker & Hall's factory. How plain it looks despite having been built at a time when tall buildings were usually rather ornate, such as the nearby Town Hall. Come to think of it, how about a factory of that size being in what we now think of as a retail, office and leisure based city centre.

 


It's the first time I've ever seen it

Astounding size for it's location

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1 hour ago, tozzin said:

I personally would rather have what we’ve lost to what we have now, too many flats and apartments, the Peace Gardens have been ruined, it’s now just play area, the well set out flower beds and calm almost serene atmosphere has been lost.

F469689C-A2D4-48D1-9B6D-A5C8B80E65EA.jpeg

 


I know what you mean about how it feels.

Looking at that photo of the old peace gardens it looks less 'cramped' and closed in than the current one

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On 04/04/2020 at 09:51, tozzin said:

I personally would rather have what we’ve lost to what we have now, too many flats and apartments, the Peace Gardens have been ruined, it’s now just play area, the well set out flower beds and calm almost serene atmosphere has been lost.

F469689C-A2D4-48D1-9B6D-A5C8B80E65EA.jpeg

Sadly, i suspect some of the reason the Peace Gardens are the way they are now is that it costs less to mow a bit of grass, rather than plant and weed flowerbeds etc....

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And we no longer have our own municipally owned nurseries...Long since gone as a cost saving exercise. Nor do we have the staff since the modern mantra is that "overheads(costs) walk on two legs".

Let us also not forget the damage done to the City centre on the nights of 12/13 and 15 December 1940 when a total of 357 German aircraft dropped 550 high explosive bombs, 11 explosive mines and 000's of incendiaries on the City causing the total loss and damage to 77,624 homes... as well as to very many industrial and commercial properties. Perhaps that and post war regeneration explains many of the changes made to our City since the photograph was originally taken.

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