It was spitting when we left but looked as though it would be a fine but blustery day. I had my fingers crossed as I didn't bother with a waterproof. The sun was right for a nice photo of the Straddle warehouse and the North Quay. It was built across the canal in 1895, along time after the basin opened in 1819. the railway arches, with line above were used to store transshipment items.
It would have been much more interesting in the 1920/30's when this picture was taken, from quite close to the same place. To the left is it railway sleepers and timber. In the right foreground is some kind of metal ingots been weighed and on the far side seems to taken up with building materials, stone, gravel etc.. And there are the Sheffield size keels that are up here, de-rigged of masts and sails to get here.
At the very end of the basin is the Terminal warehouse that was opened when the canal was opened in 1819. It had a undercover dock too. It was restored in 1994 when the Sheffield Basin was given a new lease of life as Victoria Quays. Next to it is the Grain Warehouse that was built in 1860. It was designed so the boats were undercover whilst discharging into the building. It too was restored in 1994.
behind the Grain Warehouse are these Merchants Houses. They now make very nice houses close to the city centre, and in a quiet location too.
The railway above the arches has now gone, but has a walkway/viewing area now. It seems that most of the businesses in the arches have also gone, but there is a cafe and bar further up.
I couldn't resist another photo of how it used to be, very much busier!
We would normally go to the museums and galleries of the city, but here they are all stilled closed. We find Sheffield quite spread out, with the shops not really concentrated in one spot. The other thing we notice is the Hills! In Hull it is nice and flat, and although there are shopping areas the place is of a size that means they are never far apart. Helen wanted to visit John Lewis but it is still closed, so she was disappointed. She did manage to have a wander in other places and off bits and pieces were purchased. We went in search of a pub that said it was open, but was in fact closed when we got there. Still had a look at parts of the city we hadn't seen before.
In Bakers Pool is the Sheffield War Memorial that takes the form of a flagpole. I was pleased to see that the Merchant Navy were represented. The flagpole is 25 metres tall. I was surprised, but pleased, to see that the flagpole is made of steel, and despite this been steel city, it was actually built at Earle's Shipyard in Hull. It was unveiled in 1925. The whole structure was refurbished in 1989 when the area became pedestrianised. The stone plinth actually has shrapnel damage from WWII and this was retained whilst the rest of it was fettled.
The Cith Hall behind was conceived in 1920 when Vincent Harris, a well known municipal architect,won a design competition. The building was delayed due to bad economic conditions at the time, but eight years later it was opened for concerts and events. The organ was installed for £12650 and is now the only one of its kind unaltered and is worth a cool £1 million!
Back at the boat and a cup of tea later meant I could not put the polishing off any longer, so continued the port side for a couple of hours until it started spitting one again, so I had an excuse to leave it for later!
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