Vincenzo Nibali claimed the first yellow jersey of his triumphant 2014 Tour de France at the finish of the second stage in Sheffield. Several renowned cyclists hail from Sheffield and the surrounding area, notably Malcolm Elliott, winner of two stages and the points classification at the 1989 Vuelta. The area has also produced five British road race champions: Ron Coe (1957, 1958, 1959), Brian Jolly (1973), John Tanner (1999 and 2000), Adam Blythe (2016), and Ben Swift (2019 and 2021).
- City in the county of South Yorkshire (Great Britain)
- Population: 564,000; 1,345,000 within South Yorkshire; 5,500,000 within the Yorkshire and the Humber region
- welcometosheffield.co.uk
Sheffield and cycling
Sheffield entered the annals of Tour de France history in 2014 with the victory of Vincenzo Nibali – who went on to win that year’s race – at the end of a legendary stage through the hills of Yorkshire, packed with spectators, on which the ‘Shark of Messina’ established his dominance over his rivals. The stage made such a lasting impression that it turned Yorkshire into the new cycling stronghold of England. The City of Steel has also been kind to Italian riders, with Luca Paolini and Pippo Pozzato successively winning stages of the Tour of Britain there in 2005 and 2006.
A worthy heir to the British sprinting tradition, Malcolm Elliott, a Sheffield native, is something of the missing link between Barry Hoban and Mark Cavendish. Hardened on the roads of Yorkshire, he competed in two Tours de France and won three stages of the Spanish Vuelta in the late 1980s, even claiming the points classification jersey in 1989. During that period, the English sprinter made his mark in many of the country’s towns, winning a total of 17 stages on the Milk Race. British Road Champion in 1992, he also claimed two titles at the Commonwealth Games in 1982 and competed in the Olympic Games on two occasions, in 1980 on the track and in 1996 on the road. A model of longevity, Malcolm Elliott ended his continental career at the age of 36 in 1997 before returning to British teams in 2003, aged 41. He hung up his boots for good in 2011, aged 50! Another rider from Sheffield, Adrian Timmis, competed in the Tour de France in 1987. Chris Walker was also an excellent professional, though he remained too confined to his island. More recently, Adam Blythe, another local rider, was national champion in 2016 and is now a regular feature on Eurosport and TNT Sports as a consultant.
Sights
Sheffield Winter Garden
Opened: 2003.
History and features: Sheffield Winter Garden is one of the largest temperate greenhouses built in the UK over the last hundred years. It is the largest urban greenhouse in Europe. It is home to over 2,000 plants from all over the world. Designed by Pringle Richards Sharratt and Buro Happold, it was opened in May 2003 by Queen Elizabeth II. It measures approximately 70-metres long and 21-metres high. The building is frost-protected and is one of the largest glulam structures in the UK. The timber used is larch, a sustainable wood that reduces the use of solvents and avoids the use of chemicals harmful to plants. The building is equipped with a smart building management system that controls the fans and air vents to keep the plants cool in summer and warm in winter.
Sheffield Botanical Gardens
Opened: 1836.
History: The Sheffield Botanical and Horticultural Society, founded in 1833, raised funds the following year to purchase 73,000 m² of agricultural land belonging to a local tobacco merchant. The gardens were designed by Robert Marnock and opened on 29 June 1836: 12,000 people visited the gardens when they opened in the summer of 1836.
The Sheffield Town Trust took over the management of the gardens at the end of the 19th century and abolished the admission charge; since then, entry has remained free.
Features: the pavilions and greenhouses, designed by Benjamin Broomhead Taylor, which were restored and reopened in 2003, are the most striking features of the gardens. Other notable structures include the main entrance gate, the south entrance lodge and a bear pit housing an 8' tall steel statue of an American black bear named Robert the Bear. The gardens are home to the national collection of Sarcococca, Weigela and the closely related Diervilla shrubs.
Trivia: to attract visitors to the gardens following their opening, hot-air balloon flights were organised. The first took place on 3 October 1837, when Margaret Graham ascended into the air and dropped a monkey fitted with a parachute, which landed safely on the ground.
Listing: Grade II listed.
Kelham Island Museum
Opened: 1982.
History: Sheffield played a leading role in the Industrial Revolution and has celebrated this heritage at the Kelham Island Museum, where the artefacts that brought fame and wealth to the ‘City of Steel’ are on display. The island on which the museum stands was created in the 12th century by the construction of a millrace that diverted water from the River Don to power a mill. It is named after a 17th-century miller, Kellam Homer. The site was subsequently occupied by the Crowley foundry from 1829 to 1890, followed by a power station and warehouses. These are the premises now occupied by the museum. The museum suffered extensive damage during the Sheffield floods of July 2007, with over a metre of water inside the buildings, causing £1.5 million worth of damage. It has since been fully restored.
Features: the museum houses exhibitions on science and industry in Sheffield, including reconstructions of craft workshops and the largest intact Bessemer converter in England. The museum organises school visits as well as demonstrations of the 1905 Don River engine, a 12,000-horsepower (9 MW) steam engine that originally powered an armour plate rolling mill. Among other things, it was used to roll steel for nuclear reactors. The museum also houses the prototype of the Sheffield-Simplex car, one of only three surviving examples. The museum possesses extensive photographic archives. From 2009 to 2021, the museum housed a cutler’s workshop where the cutler gave demonstrations of his craft.
Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet
Built: 18th century.
History: The Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet is a unique, listed industrial site dating from the 18th century. Originally known as Abbeydale Works, this site was once a centre for the manufacture of agricultural tools and the largest water-powered industrial site on the River Sheaf. The factory’s main products were agricultural scythes, but other cutting tools were also manufactured there, such as grass hooks and hay knives.
Features: visitors can explore the manager’s house and the workers’ cottages, water wheels, workshops, tilting hammers, a grinding vat, a steam engine and the last remaining full-crucible steel furnace in the United Kingdom.
Listing: Grade I and Grade II listed buildings.
Millennium Gallery
Opened: 2011.
History: opened in 2001, the gallery houses over 13,000 objects linked to the industrial past of the ‘City of Steel’. The building is mainly constructed of concrete and glass, with a series of galleries extending from a central atrium. In 2011, the gallery was ranked the 15th most visited free attraction in the country by Visit England.
Collections: the gallery houses two permanent collections and two temporary exhibition spaces. The most prestigious is the collection assembled by Victorian scholar John Ruskin in 1875 at St George’s Museum in Walkley (Sheffield), which he hoped would inspire Sheffield’s working class. It comprises watercolours, drawings, engravings, plaster casts, minerals, illustrated books, manuscripts and coins. The gallery housing the collection was refurbished in 2011 to allow for a more frequent rotation of items from the collection. The Sheffield Metalwork Collection comprises over 13,000 catalogued items; it includes the largest existing collection of cutlery, tableware (forks and spoons) and hollowware (bowls, teapots, vessels) made in Sheffield, and was assembled to showcase local craftsmanship. The temporary exhibition spaces are dedicated to design and the fine arts.
Trivia: Marcel Proust, an admirer of Ruskin and his translator into French, wrote of his collection: ‘His catalogue is like a compendium of all the arts and all the sciences. One finds photographs of paintings by the masters alongside collections of minerals, just as in Goethe’s house.’
Weston Park Museum
Opened: 1875.
History: the museum opened in 1875 at Weston House, whose grounds later became the park. A neoclassical extension was added in 1887. The Mappin Art Gallery was built to house the collection of works bequeathed by businessman John Newton Mappin. Weston Hall was demolished in the 1930s and rebuilt in 1937. In December 1940, the Mappin Art Gallery was severely damaged during the Sheffield Blitz and did not reopen until 1965. Both buildings closed in March 2003 for a complete refurbishment and reopened in October 2006 as Weston Park Museum following the merger of the two buildings. Further restoration work also took place in 2016. Weston Park Museum welcomes around 250,000 visitors a year and was nominated for the prestigious Gulbenkian Prize in 2007. In 2008, the museum won The Guardian’s ‘Family-Friendly Museums’ award.
Collections: the museum has seven galleries: the Royle Gallery; Lives and Times of Sheffield; Beneath Your Feet; Ancient Egypt; What On Earth!; Stories of Sheffield and Depicting Sheffield.
Distinguishing feature: the museum houses one of the country’s oldest weather stations, which has been providing weather data for Sheffield since 1882.
Listing: Grade II listed.
Town Hall
Construction: late 19th century.
History: Queen Victoria opened the Town Hall on 21 May 1897, seven years after construction began in 1890 under architect Edward William Mountford. The building marked a period of economic prosperity in Sheffield, the capital of the steel industry.
Features: It is a six-storey stone building with Renaissance elements and a 64-metre clock tower crowned by a statue of Vulcan. The structure dominates the city centre with its ornate façade and decorative details. The building features friezes depicting Sheffield’s industries and houses a public collection of silverware reflecting the region’s manufacturing heritage. These works of art tell the story of the economic power that once defined the city.
Notable feature: the belfry was fitted with an electronic bell system in 2002, which chimes every hour in the city centre. This system allows the historic mechanism to operate with precision whilst marking the rhythm of daily life in the city.
Note: the building is open for guided tours and events, with cultural activities scheduled regularly. Visitors can explore the public areas and enjoy the views from the clock tower when tours are available.
Listing: Grade II listed.
Sheffield Cathedral
Construction: 1200 to 1966.
History: the cathedral site has a long history linked to Christianity. The shaft of the Sheffield Cross (9th century), which is said to have once stood on this site, is held at the British Museum. The first parish church was probably built in the 12th century by William de Lovetot, at the opposite end of the town from Sheffield Castle. It was destroyed by fire in 1266 during the Second Barons’ War against King Henry III. Another church was completed in 1280 but was demolished and then rebuilt around 1430. Shrewsbury Chapel was added in the following century and a sacristy (now St Catherine’s Chapel) was built in 1777. A major restoration was completed in 1880. In 1914, the church was designated the cathedral of the newly created Diocese of Sheffield. Plans were drawn up by Charles Nicholson to extend it, but due to the Second World War, these were scaled back. These additions give the church an unusual floor plan but provide it with an impressive south façade.
Features: the east wall of the sanctuary incorporates stones from the 13th-century church. The sanctuary and choir date from the 15th century. The cruciform church of that period also included galleries and a chapel, traces of which can be seen on the walls. The choir roof probably dates from the 16th century. The Shrewsbury Chapel was built to house the funerary monuments of the Earls of Shrewsbury from the Tudor period. Several members of the family are buried in the crypt. During restoration work in 2013, it was discovered that several of these coffins had disappeared. In the 1900s, Sir Charles Nicholson’s plan envisaged a radical realignment of the church’s axis by 90 degrees, but it was never completed.
Distinguishing features: the cathedral has been damaged by fire on two occasions in modern times. In 1979, the fire broke out in the bell tower and then spread to the rest of the building. Despite significant damage, the structure was not seriously affected. In 2020, in the midst of the Covid crisis, another arson attack started in a room used for charitable work. A 40-year-old woman was arrested.
Listing: Grade I listed.
Crucible Theatre
Opened: 1971.
History: The Crucible Theatre was built by MJ Gleeson between 1969 and 1971. It was completed in two years, in time for the opening performance, which featured brass bands, children’s entertainment and Anton Chekhov’s The Swan Song. This production was intended to demonstrate the versatility of the stage, which is suited not only to dance and concerts but also to classical and modern theatre. It can seat 980 spectators and hosts touring productions, as well as the World Snooker Championship since 1977.