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Darnall buildings


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Hi all,

On a recent trip to Darnall I spotted these two buildings in the main shopping area. 

They look like they've seen a bit of history in their time. Have they always been shops?

Do we know anything about the history of these buildings?

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Thanks for the photo', it's nice to see a few Darnall buildings that have not changed too much from my time round there (50/60 years ago) . From memory and including the building just shown on the right it was a row of smaller but very useful shops. On that part of Main Road there were shops selling virtually everything,  plus a couple of good chip shops, pubs, and the club.

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I don’t believe they are actually that old, my guess is 1950’s, but built in an old style with sandstone window details. Even the building on the extreme right of your photo was only built o/a 1905, on the site of the old Smithy.

Have attached some P.S. links and photos, maps to show how the site developed. 1893 with Smithy and older buildings overlooking fields. Through the decades and the current buildings appearing around 1950

https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;t01408&action=zoom&pos=28&id=31855&continueUrl=
 

https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s17729&pos=26&action=zoom&id=20335

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4 minutes ago, boginspro said:

Thanks for the photo', it's nice to see a few Darnall buildings that have not changed too much from my time round there (50/60 years ago) . From memory and including the building just shown on the right it was a row of smaller but very useful shops. On that part of Main Road there were shops selling virtually everything,  plus a couple of good chip shops, pubs, and the club.

Photo 2 is your row of shops @boginspro, but maybe a little earlier than you remember? 😆

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I resided in "Royal" Darnall in the early 1950s for a few years and feel the buildings in question were certainly there then. As for the chippies ,as late as the 1980s  when I was working down those parts,one was so busy with the lunchtime workmans trade that he never opened of an evening!

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They are at the start of this walk through Darnall 

If you haven't been down Darnall for a few years this video is a real eye opener - so much has gone

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Nice to see those buildings still there, they were certainly there when I was a child in the war.  There was a little used tram terminus in the road at that point.  There is a picture on the Crich Tram Museum site with a tram standing there and the left hand building in the shot. (I don't think I have permission to put it on here).  I don't know when the tram spur was covered over, but the trams finished altogether in 1960.

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On 17/06/2020 at 22:16, boginspro said:

Thanks for the photo', it's nice to see a few Darnall buildings that have not changed too much from my time round there (50/60 years ago) . From memory and including the building just shown on the right it was a row of smaller but very useful shops. On that part of Main Road there were shops selling virtually everything,  plus a couple of good chip shops, pubs, and the club.

The chip shops were on the other side of the road, do you remember Lomas's, their fishcakes superb

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5 hours ago, Gordon crapper said:

Nice to see those buildings still there, they were certainly there when I was a child in the war.  There was a little used tram terminus in the road at that point.  There is a picture on the Crich Tram Museum site with a tram standing there and the left hand building in the shot. (I don't think I have permission to put it on here).  I don't know when the tram spur was covered over, but the trams finished altogether in 1960.

There’s a couple or three photos on PS with a tram stood at that point in the road @Gordon crapper

https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?&searchterms=Darnall_tram_terminus&action=search&keywords=all%3BCONTAINS%3B%Darnall_tram_terminus%%3B#rowNumber4

All early 1900s, as I’m guessing the line was extended up to Handsworth and then Darnall was no longer the terminus?

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27 minutes ago, RLongden said:

There’s a couple or three photos on PS with a tram stood at that point in the road @Gordon crapper

https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?&searchterms=Darnall_tram_terminus&action=search&keywords=all%3BCONTAINS%3B%Darnall_tram_terminus%%3B#rowNumber4

All early 1900s, as I’m guessing the line was extended up to Handsworth and then Darnall was no longer the terminus?

Hi, those pictures all show the original Darnall terminus which was on Staniforth Road.  The buildings are on Main Road, just round the corner.  I don't know when the terminal spur there was built, perhaps when the Handsworth extension was built, but between 1905 and 1921 as the tracks are on the two maps which are on this thread. As long as I can remember, from about 1940, it was very rare to actually see a tram on it, no regular service.

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Yes, good shout. I can see the tracks on the maps I posted a while ago. I also just noticed on the old photo of the building with the “OXO” advertisement on the gable end, you can just make it out on the current maps on street view (top image)..... unless it’s my eyes playing tricks and/or wishful thinking?!

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14 minutes ago, RLongden said:

Yes, good shout. I can see the tracks on the maps I posted a while ago. I also just noticed on the old photo of the building with the “OXO” advertisement on the gable end, you can just make it out on the current maps on street view (top image)..... unless it’s my eyes playing tricks and/or wishful thinking?!

Research in my tram books tells me the Handsworth tramway extension was opened in 1909 as far as Finchwell Road, and the Darnall spur was opened at the same time, in the early days used by alternate cars, but I suspect not for long.

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It’s a sad street scene though eh? In the Google street view, the only buildings visible are (left to right of shot)

  • Amusement Arcade
  • Charity Shop - RSPCA (closed)
  • Dobsons (hooray!)
  • Bookies (Paddy Power)
  • Old Bank -Nat West was it? (closed)
  • Charity Shop - Sally Bash
  • Cake Box (hooray!)

My Nan lived on the Triangle estate and I remember walking hand-in-hand down Handsworth Road (or sometimes through the bottom of High Hazels Park) to this shopping centre. It was buzzing with shops of all trades, full of life and wondrous place for a little lad. The chippies were legendary also and I might have been treat to a small bag of chips, to take home to my Nan’s, back up the hill on the 52 bus, as she couldn’t juggle me and the shopping bags! 😁

I pass by sometimes and sadly it’s a pale imitation of how it used to be, but symptomatic of most village / suburb centres now I suppose?

image.png.2747ed4c1b727226209fb73c768c6d24.png

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15 minutes ago, RLongden said:

It’s a sad street scene though eh? In the Google street view, the only buildings visible are (left to right of shot)

  • Amusement Arcade
  • Charity Shop - RSPCA (closed)
  • Dobsons (hooray!)
  • Bookies (Paddy Power)
  • Old Bank -Nat West was it? (closed)
  • Charity Shop - Sally Bash
  • Cake Box (hooray!)

My Nan lived on the Triangle estate and I remember walking hand-in-hand down Handsworth Road (or sometimes through the bottom of High Hazels Park) to this shopping centre. It was buzzing with shops of all trades, full of life and wondrous place for a little lad. The chippies were legendary also and I might have been treat to a small bag of chips, to take home to my Nan’s, back up the hill on the 52 bus, as she couldn’t juggle me and the shopping bags! 😁

I pass by sometimes and sadly it’s a pale imitation of how it used to be, but symptomatic of most village / suburb centres now I suppose?

image.png.2747ed4c1b727226209fb73c768c6d24.pngimageproxy.php?img=&key=650f33e77c1e808a

I live on the Bowstead estate, the other side of the main road from the Triangle, my uncle lived in Chestnut Avenue on the Triangle.  Nothing you couldn't buy in Darnall in those days - after the war of course.  I don't live in Sheffield now, last time I was there  Darnall looked very run down.

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8 hours ago, Peter Walker said:

The chip shops were on the other side of the road, do you remember Lomas's, their fishcakes superb

Yes, only the other day I asked my wife to make some proper fishcakes, she knows how to do it because we had a chip shop in Sheffield many years ago.  We can't get them at the chippies where I live now, they have the strange idea that rissoles are fishcakes.

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