When I was a child, my mother and father would often take me to Sheffield on a Saturday afternoon to go shopping. Even though this was over twenty years ago, I can vividly recall looking forward to this with great relish and feeling genuinely excited…Read More

When I was a child, my mother and father would often take me to Sheffield on a Saturday afternoon to go shopping. Even though this was over twenty years ago, I can vividly recall looking forward to this with great relish and feeling genuinely excited waking up on a Saturday morning. Much of this excitement probably stemmed from the fact that my parents would sometimes treat me to McDonalds whilst we were there – in the north of England in the 1980s this was still something of a novelty. However, I also loved Sheffield because it was a busy and bustling shopping center that really made me think I was taking a trip to the big city.

The major focus of my family’s trips to Sheffield was the Moor. This was the main shopping street that runs through the heart of the city. It was split into two distinct sections. The first section, the Upper Moor, was a street with traffic and featured several major shops. The second section, the Lower Moor, was pedestrianised and featured a combination of major shops and also a thriving street market. And, just for the record, McDonalds was the junction of the two parts of the Moor.

Back in the 1980s and even into the early 1990s, the Moor was bustling and full of life. Even into the early 1990s, it remained Sheffield’s commercial hub. Unfortunately, the late 80s and early 90s saw two major events in Sheffield that sounded the death-knell for the Moor’s prosperity. The first was the closure of several of the city’s major steelworks. Up until the 1980s, Sheffield had been the world’s premier steel producing city. However, as plants began to close, unemployment began to rise and the local economy began to suffer as spending power declined. This was a tough enough scenario in itself. Then, when the Meadowhall shopping center – at the time the largest in Europe – opened just outside the city, things became almost impossible.

When I returned to the north of England for a vacation recently, I decided would take a trip to Sheffield to relive some fond memories. It proved to be a massive shock to the system. Mired in the current economic downturn that the UK is suffering and never really having escaped the shadow of the 1990s, the Moor was a pale imitation of its previous incarnation. On the upper half, several of the major stores remained. However, there were a few conspicuous holes in the shopping façade with many units closed and others closing down.

The upper half of the Moor had taken a turn for the worse, but the starkest change could be seen on the lower half. Almost all of the major stores had gone and had been replaced by a plethora of discount stores. By far the most crowded store in the area was the huge branch of Poundland (a shop in which every item is priced just one GBP). The street market too felt decidedly threadbare with few stalls attracting much attention. Possibly the strongest indication of just how far the Moor has fallen was the fact that even McDonalds had closed.

Perhaps I am guilty of looking through rose-tinted spectacles and some of my childhood memories are not 100% accurate. However, the difference between the Moor in the past and the Moor today is so stark that it is saddening. Whilst the Upper Moor remains a decent shopping area, the Lower Moor is only worth a visit for those on the tightest of budgets.

Close

In 1991, Sheffield played host to the World Student Games. As part of the big event, the local council embarked on a large-scale project to improve much of the city’s infrastructure. Naturally, this involved lots of sporting venues, including a stadium, an indoor arena and…Read More

In 1991, Sheffield played host to the World Student Games. As part of the big event, the local council embarked on a large-scale project to improve much of the city’s infrastructure. Naturally, this involved lots of sporting venues, including a stadium, an indoor arena and an Olympic pool. These are all still in use almost twenty years. However, possibly the most lasting piece of the games construction is the transport system that was built to link venues and now ferries commuters and shoppers around the city. The centre-piece of this is the super-tram system.

The tram is an above ground transport system that runs at the side of or along the surface of major roads in the city. When it was built in 1991, it had just one route and linked the Meadowhall Shopping Center with the Middlewood area of the city. In so doing, it passed through the center of the city, the sporting venues for the games and the city’s university. Since then, it has expanded to three different lines that traverse the city.

It is extremely convenient as it touches all the major points of the city. It reaches Meadowhall, which at one point was Europe’s largest shopping center. It also passes the Don Valley Stadium and Sheffield Arena, which host major sporting and entertainment events. The Rotherham United football team plays at the stadium and the Sheffield Steelers at the arena. It also passes Hillsbrough and Bramall Lane, homes of Sheffield Wednesday and United, the city’s two major football teams. And, finally, it runs through the heart of the city’s shopping district.

The tram is a great way to get around Sheffield. It is clean, it runs regularly – every five minutes during the middle of the day – and is rarely late. There are also two park and ride schemes that allow visitors to leave their cars and on the outskirts of the city and travel in on the tram. These are useful schemes as finding parking in the center of Sheffield is not the easiest of challenges. Getting a spot close to the shops or major office areas is difficult and can be very expensive – it can cost over 10GBP for the afternoon.

There are, though, a few drawbacks to the tram. In some ways, it is a victim of its own success. At rush hour and on Saturday afternoons, it can be extremely crowded – it is not uncommon to see trams fail to stop as they are full to bursting and would exceed health and safety restrictions if they added more commuters. Additionally, as the tram was built to avoid several major intersections in the city, it takes a somewhat roundabout route to get where it is going. This means it can be quite slow. It takes over 30 minutes to get from Meadowhall to the center of Sheffield. The train takes covers the same routes takes less than 5 minutes.
Close