An Alternative Guide to Sheffield: A Crucible for Left-Field Culture and Regeneration | Holidays in Sheffield

“There’s a lot of confidence in Sheffield these days,” says James O’Hara, one of the city’s leading cultural promoters. “It seems we are on the threshold of a new era.”

It’s a refrain you hear a lot in Sheffield today. Spread across five valleys at the foot of the Peak District, this former steelmaking capital of the world and birthplace of the Arctic Monkeys, Pulp, Human League and Warp Records has long been a cultural powerhouse. However, as key city center developments such as the new Cambridge Street Collective food hall open their doors, a rejuvenated cityscape is emerging. Green corridors and innovative parks circle around reclaimed Brutalist buildings; fluid sculptures echo the undulating topography of the city and the flow of its rivers. There are areas of the city still to be reached, but Sheffield’s vision for the post-industrial afterlife rests proudly on what makes the city distinctive.

The once-maligned, now-renovated Park Hill home features in the Sheffield musical Standing at the Sky’s Edge, which is being staged in London’s West End. The neglected former industrial center of Kelham Island – which led George Orwell to describe Sheffield as ‘the ugliest city in the Old World’ and inspired Arctic Monkeys’ ‘When the Sun Goes Down’ – now makes lists of ‘coolest neighborhoods on the planet”.

Home to the UK’s largest documentary festival, the city has a packed calendar of events and also supports a vibrant grassroots arts and music scene. Although the cost of living crisis brings new challenges, the city’s gritty determination is as alive as ever. As Richard Henderson, owner of folk music venue Dorothy Pax, says: “We’ve faced many challenges as a community and as a city, from the miners’ strike to the loss of jobs in the steel industry. We unite and carry on.”

Night life

Sheffield’s industrial DNA is closely linked to its history of producing great electronic music, and the city’s ex-industrial spaces continue to inspire. Hope Works is a former munitions factory that now hosts raves and cutting-edge electronic sets, while nomadic underground nights like Kabal – where Toddla T cut his teeth as a young DJ – host clandestine parties in old cutlery and in other unusual places. “I went one-on-one in a slaughterhouse,” O’Hara recalls.

No Bounds Festival (October 11-13), created by Hope Works founder Liam O’Shea, advertises a number of venues across the city for a festival of electronica, left-field dance and installation art; Sheffield’s answer to Sónar. If you fancy a taste of Sheffield’s rave scene but the ‘all night in an abattoir’ vibe isn’t for you, Groundwork, a monthly house party until midnight, held upstairs at the excellent Shakespeares pub, offers a very Sheffield. combination of real beer and rave.

The city’s passion for live music and performance is evident in its strong network of independent venues. Kelham Island’s big-name production and performance complex Yellow Arch hosts an eclectic range of concerts, from hardcore to hip-hop. Dorothy Pax, located near Victoria Quays, hosts a similar line-up of free concerts with a focus on local talent. DIY label Delicious Clam is based in Castlegate, but also throws quirky parties at venues around the city, such as the psychedelic cabaret night Clams in Their Eyes.

Tramlines (July 26-28) was launched by O’Hara and his colleagues in 2009 as a free, alternative festival at a number of city center venues. It has since grown into a huge £140-a-ticket event in Hillsborough Park, but its ‘original’ spirit lives on in the Fringe at Tramlines, a constellation of free concerts held in Devonshire Green and a number of smaller venues in Town. Sheffield doesn’t have an LGBTQ+ area like Manchester’s Canal Street or Leeds’ Lower Briggate, but queer-led collective Gut Level, based in a community space on Chapel Walk, hosts a range of events from club nights to at board game nights.

Culture

Sheffield DocFest (12-17 June), based in the Showroom Cinema, is the UK’s largest documentary festival. This year’s lineup features 109 films, including Tilda Swinton’s directorial debut, as well as talks by Idris Elba and Michael Sheen, parties and art installations. The public program has a huge geographic and thematic range: “We are a home for documentary in all its forms,” ​​says festival director Annabel Grundy. “For us it just has to be a compelling story.”

Despite the sprinkling of Hollywood stardust, DocFest remains grounded in a collaborative, welcoming ethos that reflects hometown values: “We can have celebrities on the dance floor at one of our first-time filmmaker parties,” he says. Grundy. The Open Up Sheffield festival, usually held in May, has a similarly democratic spirit, with the city’s artists inviting the public into their studios and homes. Sheffield became the UK’s first City of Sanctuary in 2005 and the Migration Matters festival (14-22 June) explores cultural identity and forced displacement.

The Crucible, Playhouse and Lyceum together form the UK’s largest theater complex outside London. Standing at the Sky’s Edge was originally a Crucible creation, and while on a southern sojourn, upcoming original productions include adaptations of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Jonathan Dove’s community work The Labyrinth Monster.

Food

The flagship project of the current £470 million overhaul of the city centre, Cambridge Street Collective brings together traders from across Sheffield’s diverse communities in a lively culinary mix.. I tried a vegetarian platter from Ethiopian-Eritrean trader House of Habesha (spicy stews served on a spongy, slightly sour injera bread made with teff flour that owner Samson Yitbarek imports from Ethiopia). Not far away, the decade-old Moor Market is a cornucopia of global produce with its own little daytime eatery.

Sheffield’s food scene has undergone a transformation over the past decade, much of it driven from within Kelham Island and the Neepsend area, where modernity and history blend in interesting ways. Kelham Island’s excellent food tour, led by Sheffield local Sophie Barber, offers an insight into the area’s industrial heritage while sampling some of its best offerings, including superb Japanese restaurant Roku and artisan chocolate makers Bullion at Cutlery Works dining hall.

Sardinian restaurant Domo isn’t on the tour, but it’s worth a visit: Barber praises it for its pecorino-filled, honey-drizzled pastries and “beautiful decor.” Not far away, Michelin-starred Jöro – housed within the Krynkl shipping container development, although set to move to Oughtibridge in the autumn – serves Asian and Nordic-inspired fusion food in a very stylish yet homely setting.

In the city centre, run by Neapolitans – and obsessed with SSC Napoli – Caffè Tucci serves up hearty paninis made with imported ingredients such as nduja, burrata and mortadella; a great lunch spot. Still on the southern Italian theme, Grazie is a good bet for an evening meal. In the leafy suburb of Nether Edge, combination wine bistro/bar/bakery/bottle shop Bench is generating quite a buzz.

Drink

Sheffield has an embarrassment of great breweries and fine old pubs. As Barber explains: “Beer was the fuel of the industry and there are plenty of pubs and breweries that have survived from the days of steelmaking.“

The Kelham Beer Tour brings together some of these excellent old-school watering holes, such as Camra-rated Kelham Island Tavern, The Fat Cat, Shakespeares and the restored Victorian pub Millowners Arms, but also incorporates craft beer venues such as be Brewery and taproom. There are many excellent pubs in the rest of the city. Great Irish pub Fagan’s is one of the city’s landmarks, and the Rutland Arms, next door to the Showroom, is another personal favorite – an old-school boozer for proud pinkos, punks and creative types, which also offers great food.

Back in Kelham Island, the intriguing Factory Floor cocktail bar is worth checking out (I recommend Drip 4, where Skyy vodka is dripped through lychee and red-veined sorrel leaves and garnished with hibiscus flowers). In the city centre, Public is housed in an old men’s public toilet under the town hall, and its epic menu offers innovative, eyebrow-raising combinations involving things like fried cornflakes (they actually work). In the regenerated Park Hill apartment complex – a short, pleasantly green walk uphill from the train station, with great views of the city – the brutalist-pastel-minimalist Pearl is a great place to grab a drink on a sunny day and feel cool, while nearby South Street Kitchen offers specialty coffee and Lebanese-inspired food.

Stay

Houseboat Hotels are one of the city centre’s most distinctive options, offering well-equipped and fully heated apartment-style accommodation on static houseboats permanently moored in Victoria Quays. Each boat is individually designed and has its own outdoor seating area and can accommodate up to four people. From £130 per night for two (£190 for four).

The House of Jöro, near Kelham Island, offers four comfortable boutique rooms cut from an equally elegant cloth at its accompanying restaurant. B&B is available from £100 per night, but packages include express or signature restaurant tasting menus, along with gourmet breakfasts from £250.