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Sheffield Doss House (Shalesmoor)


Guest jossman

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Guest jossman

One true fact that I am aware of is that.....Next time you pass, look just above street level and you will see diamond and circular glass shapes embedded into the stone work. These are flagon bottles of what was Gin consumed by the Irish builders during it's construction. When empty, they were placed neck first into the bricks for decoration. See the Picture Sheffield link.

Another true fact is that the largest iron billet ever cast ( and it was huge ) was placed as part of the bed of Gibraltar Street. It was so big no-one knew what to do with it, so it found it's final resting place under the rubble.

My Great Grandfather was a regular inhabitant of the Doss house and was known to my family as the pikelet man, just in case the grandchildren asked who he was. He was alcoholic and extremely dirty and shabby in his dress. When he decided to visit his family and to save any embarrassment, they would be told that the Pikelet man was coming. He often used the doss house "Penny Rope" to sleep on as he was so broke. I was never told of his final demise. The sad thing was that he was a skilled silversmith and this was passed down to his family. His son, my Grandfather, worked for Dixon's as a silversmith from 1895-1945 and on his retirement was presented with an engraved silver teapot for 50 years service.......The irony was that they spelled his name wrong !!

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Fantastic post Jossman - thank you

Forgive my ignorance - what's an iron billet ?

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Guest jossman

Here is a photo of continuous rolled iron billets. Imagine all of those lumped into one and you get an idea of the size of the one under Gibraltar Street. Please remember we are talking about steel works in their infancy, so I imagine we would be around the 1850's to 1900 era. Quite a mammoth task in those days.

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One true fact that I am aware of is that.....Next time you pass, look just above street level and you will see diamond and circular glass shapes embedded into the stone work. These are flagon bottles of what was Gin consumed by the Irish builders during it's construction. When empty, they were placed neck first into the bricks for decoration. See the link.

Is that the building with an Indian Restaurant in the basement now?

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Guest jossman

Is that the building with an Indian Restaurant in the basement now?

I left Sheffield 3 years ago and at that time the building was in the middle of conversion into upmarket flats. Sorry, I have no idea if there is an Indian restaurant in the basement. I'm presuming it will always carry the stigma of the old doss house.

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Guest coffee cup

Yes there is an Indian Resturant below and the Flats above were suposed to be rather upmarket when they were developed. They were first for sale with Blundells estate agents , the flats had intercom which was very posh at the time ( around 17 years ago at a rough guess )

The Indian resturant 7 Spice I think it is called is suposed to be ok, apparantly a lot of taxi drivers use it as it also does a takeaway service., only know this as one of our friends uses it.

I remember my mother telling me how sad she felt and still does when she passes this building, as she remembers many years ago passing and seeing what looked like soldiers in uniform wounded sitting in the windows smoking, she is in her late 70's now, so I guess that would be around the 2nd world war, and she would have been a young girl at the time.

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Guest jossman

Yes there is an Indian Resturant below and the Flats above were suposed to be rather upmarket when they were developed. They were first for sale with Blundells estate agents , the flats had intercom which was very posh at the time ( around 17 years ago at a rough guess )

The Indian resturant 7 Spice I think it is called is suposed to be ok, apparantly a lot of taxi drivers use it as it also does a takeaway service., only know this as one of our friends uses it.

I remember my mother telling me how sad she felt and still does when she passes this building, as she remembers many years ago passing and seeing what looked like soldiers in uniform wounded sitting in the windows smoking, she is in her late 70's now, so I guess that would be around the 2nd world war, and she would have been a young girl at the time.

17 years ago!! Is it as long as that? My memory must be going.

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Guest transit

Has anyone got a picture of the whole building? , as i am not quite sure of what/where it is .

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Guest coffee cup

It is just before you get to the roundabout at westbar, on the left hand side coming on Shalesmoor, almost the corner of Corporation Street, you can't miss it.

Sorry I haven't got any photos of it.

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Guest transit

This is a good photo of the hostel, circa 1980.

Picture Sheffield

Thanks for the above pic - i remember it as "Laceys" shoe and clothes warehouse where my parents took us for shoes as we had a trade card early 70"s .

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I remember the building when it was a hostel in the 1950s. As far as I know it wasn't run by the Salvation Army - maybe the Council? At the time there was a bus conductor on the 82 (Ecclesall-Middlewood) route who would shout "Grand Hotel" whenever his bus stopped there.

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Hi Fellow SH's

I was in the Shalesmoor area today and recalled the interest in The Doss House as was and i was surprised

at the size of the building so i took a few photos has it always been like this or has it been extended??.

Intresting building to the left in this one ??

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Guest coffee cup

The front of it looks the same size as it has always been, as for the rear, well untill your photos I wouldn't know as I have never seen it from the rear before. But it looks newish, unless the building has just been cleaned up.

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Hi everyone, my Aunt who is now 88 was one of Sheffield's first Health Visitors and remembers well attending the men who lived at the hostel, she said it was rife with fleas, most of the inhabitants were covered in lice and alcoholism and TB was the order of the day, many of the men were old cutlery trades men who being unable to work found themselves with nowhere else to go.

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I was once on the 52 works bus from Vulcan Road, when the conductor refused to ring the bell untill someone got off. Too many passengers he rekoned. After a minute, during which no-one moved he went to tell the conductor of the 95 waiting behind about his mutinous passengers.

Someone rang the bell and we took off without a conducter. Took him till Banners to catch up with us! We didn't really miss him.

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I was once on the 52 works bus from Vulcan Road, when the conductor refused to ring the bell untill someone got off. Too many passengers he rekoned. After as minute, during which no-one moved he went to tell the conductor of the 95 waiting behind about his mutinous passengers.

Someone rang the bell and we took off without a conducter. Took him till Banners to catch up with us! We didn't really miss him.

lol

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One true fact that I am aware of is that.....Next time you pass, look just above street level and you will see diamond and circular glass shapes embedded into the stone work. These are flagon bottles of what was Gin consumed by the Irish builders during it's construction. When empty, they were placed neck first into the bricks for decoration. See the Picture Sheffield link.

Another true fact is that the largest pikelet ever cast ( and it was huge ) was placed as part of the bed of Gibraltar Street. It was so big no-one knew what to do with it, so it found it's final resting place under the rubble.

My Great Grandfather was a regular inhabitant of the Doss house and was known to my family as the pikelet man, just in case the grandchildren asked who he was. He was alcoholic and extremely dirty and shabby in his dress. When he decided to visit his family and to save any embarrassment, they would be told that the Pikelet man was coming. He often used the doss house "Penny Rope" to sleep on as he was so broke. I was never told of his final demise. The sad thing was that he was a skilled silversmith and this was passed down to his family. His son, my Grandfather, worked for Dixon's as a silversmith from 1895-1945 and on his retirement was presented with an engraved silver teapot for 50 years service.......The irony was that they spelled his name wrong !!

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Guest jeepster

My first ever flat was in this building (I was 18 years old when I moved in). I loved the place and lived there for 2 and a half years, although it certainly wasn't up market by the time I moved in. The building was built in 1912, and I was aware that it used to be used as a salvation army hostel, but I never knew about the,"Doss House".

The building has some lovely old features, there's a lift which I think may have been installed in the 20's/30's but I lived on the ground floor so never needed to use it it, which is just as well because it was tiny and felt very much like a coffin once you were inside it with the doors closed :rolleyes: .

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My memories of this placed date from the early 1960's when I used to go past on the bus from Hillsborough to my lessons at the Central Technical School (CTS or City Tram Sheds as we called it).

In a morning I used to glance into the lower ground floor windows where the "inmates" were all sat at tables eating their breakfasts. The "tablecloths" on the tables were old newspapers, practical I suppose and not much removed from the way more advantaged folk ate their fish and chips at the time.

As far as I know the place was run by the council and not by the Sally Anne. The dining room always seemed to be full.

The strange thing was that you never seemed to see people going in or out by the front door. I suppose that there was a "clients" entrance around the back.

HD

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The strange thing was that you never seemed to see people going in or out by the front door.

HD

I don't think PW Lacey's would have been too pleased if they did. :angry:

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I don't think PW Lacey's would have been too pleased if they did. :angry:

At the time I'm talking about the place was solely occupied by the hostel and P. W. Lacey's were still ensconced in Newton House, the old Newton Chambers place on Furnival Street. I believe that Lacey's re-named it Tudor House as they later named the West Bar premises when they took them over.

HD

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