Aug 14: Sheffield town centre

I spent my last morning in Sheffield wandering around the town centre, clocking up just enough miles to reach my 250 for the year. Had I known how late the train would be, I could have notched up a few more.

The most pleasant surprise for me was the fine 1897 Town Hall. I knew this building well in black and white, as we had used an old photo of it in Inventing the Modern World, the book I wrote for the Science Museum back in 2000.


The rest of the town centre seemed like one huge building site, so navigating was rathter confusing. The Anglican cathedral was the most ancient building I saw, though it has had so many bits added on that it has now been realigned inside.

At the other end of the time scale is the massive Park Hill estate, completed in 1961. Set on a hill overlooking the town, this was one of the boldest embodiments of the ‘streets in the sky’ approach to modern housing. It had few admirers among those who had to live there.

Today: 3 miles
2006: 250 miles