We are in the news - Tribune article about our area

Here’s an excerpt from an article in the Tribune… you can read the full article here or by subscribing to the Tribune of course :)

How did Little Sheffield get so big?

By Dan Hayes

“John Street is where it’s at,” says Sophy Hallam to one of her neighbours as we take a tour of Little Sheffield. Her tongue is seemingly in her cheek, but only slightly. Sophy and her husband Karl own Harland Works on John Street, a former tool manufacturers which over the last 12 years has been transformed into series of spaces for small businesses including Karl’s own “independent and ethical” opticians EYEYE, a furniture maker, a yoga studio, a photographer and a theatre company, to name just a few.

We’re currently next door to Harland Works in Stag Works, a beautiful former cutlery factory which used to make the handles of the knives, forks and spoons it manufactured out of stags’ antlers, hence the name. It’s a stunning building. In its courtyard sit four young silver birch trees in metal planters, and we’re surrounded by high walls of weathered brick and panelled windows. Karl and Sophy tell me that up until a few months ago, where we’re stood used to be a car park. But Stag Works, like Little Sheffield, is changing.

“It’s changed so much in the last year,” says the neighbour we’re speaking to, freelance filmmaker, editor and camera operator Leon Lockley. As well as the absence of cars from the courtyard, he says a big reason for this is Lovely Rita’s, a vegan bakery who, along with the neighbouring cafe Puck & Pollen, are bringing much more footfall to the area. Leon rents one of the ground floor units at Stag Works, and currently pays £425 a month in rent (a price that has remarkably remained constant in the eight years he has been there). However, as more vegan bakeries and trendy bars appear, he is conscious this might soon change. “I’m worried that they might start putting it up and our days might be numbered,” he confides. In Sheffield, the spectre of gentrification is never too far away.

In case some of you don’t actually know where Little Sheffield is, let’s have a short history lesson. Back in the 18th century, when the then-town of Sheffield was still relatively small, an even smaller hamlet by the name of Little Sheffield existed just beyond its southern border. During the 1800s, Sheffield’s rapid growth meant it needed to expand beyond its historic boundaries, and Little Sheffield as a separate place disappeared.

While the place still appears on Ordnance Survey maps, its exact location and extent has become blurred over time. However, David Poole’s excellent Sheffielder blog helpfully defines Little Sheffield’s “northern boundary as being where the Moorfoot building stands, taking in Young Street, South Lane, St Mary’s Gate, London Road, and surrounding streets like Hermitage Street, Sheldon Street, Hill Street, John Street, and Boston Street (once called George Street), up towards its southern boundary at Highfield.”

So the story of Little Sheffield is the story of change. But those changes definitely seem to be speeding up. A slew of new attractions have opened in the area in recent months, from “independent department store” Red Brick Market to pop-up event space The Steamworks and crazy golf venue Golf Fang. Stag Works is slowly changing its focus from spit and sawdust rehearsal space to upmarket food and beverage businesses. And new developments like Chaucer Yard on Clough Road are trying to attract creative businesses in the same way that Harland Works pioneered over a decade ago. Little Sheffield is getting bigger….