High Street (Sheffield)

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Looking down High Street from near its junction with Fargate, the Star and Telegraph building is on the left.

High Street is one of the main thoroughfares and shopping areas in the city centre of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England, located at the approximate grid reference of SK356874. High Street starts at the Commercial Street, Fitzalan Square and Haymarket junction and runs for approximately 400 metres west to conclude near the Sheffield Cathedral where it forms a Y-junction with Fargate and Church Street. High Street has the traditional wide variety of shops, financial institutions and eating places which are associated with any British town centre.

For part of its length High Street carries the A621 road before it swings south down Arundel Gate. The Sheffield Supertram system runs along High Street in its own reserved half of the road, the other half is a one way system for regular traffic travelling west, there is a tram stop midway along known as Castle Square. Many bus services use the street and it has become notorious in recent years for bus congestion.

[edit] History

High Street has existed for as long as Sheffield has been a settlement of any importance. The first documented mention was in the 12th century when it was written that Worksop Priory owned five principal properties on the north side of High Street. The connection between Sheffield and Worksop Priory comes from Sheffield's founding Lord William de Lovetot who founded the Priory in 1103. These strong connections gave High Street the alternative name of Prior Gate as late as the 1700s. In 1637 High Street had eleven shops at the entrance to the churchyard, these were an overspill from the Tuesday and Thursday markets in Market Place.

High Street was the site of the original Sheffield Town Hall, which was situated by the church gates, it was a modest building which was replaced by a more impressive structure in 1808 on Waingate. For many years High Street remained no wider than it had been in the Middle Ages, it was too narrow for horse trams to pass through. It had the timber framed baillif's house (built in 1574) on its south side right up to the end of the 19th century. Plans were first put forward to widen High Street by the local council in 1875 but work did not start until 1895 due to objections from shop keepers and wranglings over compensation and property boundaries. Between 1883 and 1885 Parade Chambers was built on the north side of High Street (at the corner with East Parade). It was designed by Charles Hadfield in the Tudor Gothic Style and is regarded one of the best examples of architechture in the city centre.

High Street was doubled in width by the 1895 improvement work as all the old buildings on the south side of the street were demolished and replaced by more elegant structures. Amongst the new buildings was John Walsh's department store, which opened in 1900, the store later became Rackhams and then the House of Fraser and at its peak had over 600 employees. The original building was bombed and destroyed during the Sheffield Blitz in 1940 and did not reopen until 1953. Kelmsley House, better known as the Star and Telegraph building was opened on the north side of High Street in 1913, it now houses the headquarters of the Sheffield Star newspaper (although the entrance is on York Street) with its white brickwork and elegant clock tower it is a familiar landmark.

High Street suffered badly as a result of the Sheffield Blitz in December 1940 when many of the high Victorian buildings on the south side of the street were devastated by Germany bombing, these were the newer buildings which appeared as a result of the road widening at the end of the 19th century. All of the older shops on the northern side were spared by the bombing.

[edit] Present Day

Some of the shops and businesses which stand on High Street today are as follows:

• Blue Arrow (Employment Agency)
• Lloyds TSB (Bank)
• Halifax (bank)
• Cavells Café Bar
• Boots the Chemist
• NatWest (Bank)
• TJ Hughes (Department Store)
• HMV (Music and Video Store)
• Pizza Hut (Eating Place)
• Blacks (Outdoor Pursuits shop)
• Primark (Clothing)
• Cooplands (Bakers)
• GT News (Newsagents)
• McDonald's (Eating Place)
• Bradford & Bingley (Bank)

[edit] References

• Central Sheffield, Martin Olive, ISBN 0-7524-0011-8
• A History of Sheffield, David Hey, ISBN 1-85936-110-2