Like Rome and Lisbon, Sheffield is also built on seven glorious hills. Having visited Rome several years before – an ancient city where Catholicism’s capital is located, home to Michaelangelo’s grandeur, and the opportunity to empty your pockets into the Trevi fountain in hopes of all your wishes coming true – I expected nothing less impressive from Sheffield!
I arrived in the city having only applied to university one week before the start of term, in an abrupt change of mind to embark on further education a year earlier than expected. Sheffield had never been a major city on the map for me; I was aware of iconic bands that had emerged from the city, I knew The Full Monty had been filmed here, and that my granny trained as a nurse here too. That, frankly, was about all I had to go by.
So, arriving with scarce familiarity of the city, along with a car full of bursting cardboard boxes and Ikea utensils to be lost within my first week of university, I was very quickly won over by the plush and breathtaking green spaces that engulfed the place. I couldn’t and still can’t believe that one of the UK’s biggest national parks was on the doorstep of my dilapidated student housing.
Time seems to stop in Sheffield. Coming from the hustle and bustle of London, where people never seem to switch off when they leave work, it was a complete shock to embrace the slower pace of life Sheffield had to offer. It almost seemed foreign to me, to watch people leave their work at work and enjoy their evenings. Not to forget how invigorating it is to have someone smile back at you when you look at them in the street, as opposed to being grunted at whilst they hurriedly look away.
I couldn’t and still can’t believe that one of the UK’s biggest national parks was on the door step of my dilapidated student housing
In what now feels like a fever dream, I stayed in Sheffield over the first lockdown, where I relished in daily walks around the city centre and ventured to the outskirts of the Peaks. It felt strange meandering through a once buoyant city, transformed into a perfect ghost town where a tumbleweed of used McDonald’s bags wandered through the empty streets. Where shots of exhaust pipes rang out in the distance as drivers attempted to deliver the stream of takeaways that surged over lockdown. It was sad to have my university experience of going out and taking on Sheffield’s nightlife cut so short after only a year and a half of living there.
My friends and I had ventured out to the old warehouses in and around Kelham Island, tried as many new pubs as possible, and dared West Street on a busy Friday and/or Saturday night. Despite not being able to do these things in the usual way for some time now, we still managed to make the best of what a tumultuous situation had to offer, and I’d say it brought a new appreciation and love for what Sheffield has to offer. With restrictions (hopefully) lifting further this month, I’m looking forward to immersing myself in a whole range of new Steel City experiences soon!
