High Street is one of the main thoroughfares and shopping areas in the city centre of Sheffield

Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

 in South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and City of Sheffield...

, England, located at the approximate grid reference of . High Street starts at the Commercial Street, Fitzalan Square

Fitzalan Square

Fitzalan Square is a municipal square situated in the city centre of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. The present day square is one of the busiest areas of the city centre with traffic and pedestrians continually moving through the area...

 and Haymarket junction and runs for approximately 400 metres west to conclude near the Sheffield Cathedral

Sheffield Cathedral

Sheffield Cathedral is the cathedral church for the Church of England diocese of Sheffield, England. Originally a parish church, it was elevated to cathedral status when the diocese was created in 1914...

 where it forms a Y-junction with Fargate

Fargate

Fargate is a pedestrian precinct and shopping area in Sheffield, England. It runs between Barker's Pool and High Street opposite the cathedral. It was pedestrianised in 1973...

 and Church Street

Church Street (Sheffield)

Church Street is situated in the centre of Sheffield at the grid reference of . It runs for approximately 450 metres in a westerly direction from its junction with Fargate and High Street to its termination at the crossroads formed by the junction with West Street, Leopold Street and Townhead...

. High Street has the traditional wide variety of shops, financial institutions and eating places which are associated with any British town centre.

Early 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

Worksop Priory

Worksop Priory is a Church of England parish church and former priory in the town of Worksop, Nottinghamshire, part of the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham....

 owned five principal properties on the north side of High Street. The connection between Sheffield and Worksop Priory comes from William de Lovetot

William de Lovetot

William de Lovetot, Lord of Hallamshire, possibly descended from the Norman Baron Ricardus Surdus, was an Anglo-Norman Baron from Huntingdonshire, often credited as the founder of Sheffield, England....

, lord of Hallamshire

Hallamshire

Hallamshire is the historical name for an area of South Yorkshire, England, in the current city of Sheffield.The origin of the name is uncertain. The English Place-Name Society describe "Hallam" originating from a formation meaning "on the rocks"...

, who founded the Priory in 1103. These strong connections gave High Street the alternative name of Prior Gate as late as the 18th century. Sheffield's first Master Cutler

Master Cutler

The Master Cutler is the head of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire established in 1624. Their role is to act as an ambassador of industry in Sheffield, England. The Master Cutler is elected by the freemen of the company on the first Monday of September of each year and the position taken in the...

 Robert Sorsby bought a house on the south side of High Street in 1611 and had completely rebuilt it by the time he took office in 1624. 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. Another Master Cutler, Christopher Broomhead, who took office in 1696 had a house in Prior Row. Towards the end of the 17th century, High Street had some of the best house in town with many being rebuilt in stone with slate roofs.

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.

Victorian improvement

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 architecture in the city centre, the notable stone carving is by Frank Tory senior. Also part of this block on the corner of York Street are the former bank buildings, these were erected in 1895 by Holmes and Watson for the London and Midland Banking Company. It is built of Huddersfield stone with Labrador and Swedish granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 used for the base and pilaster

Pilaster

A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....

s, there is much Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 detail on the front of the building.

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. These included the Foster’s Buildings near the junction with Fargate, built in the French domestic Gothic

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

 style by Flockton, Gibbs & Flockton for a Gentlemen’s outfitters shop with four floors of offices above. The upper floors were reached by an American elevator

Elevator

An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...

, the first one in Sheffield. Also amongst the new buildings on the south side was the original John Walsh department store, which opened in 1900. The store later became Rackhams and then House of Fraser

House of Fraser

House of Fraser is a British department store group with over 60 stores across the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was established in Glasgow, Scotland in 1849 as Arthur and Fraser. By 1891 it was known as Fraser & Sons. The company grew steadily during the early 20th century, but after the Second...

 and at its peak had over 600 employees before being destroyed in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Kemsley House built by Gibbs, Flockton & Teather is a grade two listed building better known as the Star and Telegraph building it was opened on the north side of High Street in 1913 and is named after Gomer Berry, 1st Viscount Kemsley, the newspaper proprietor. It now houses the headquarters of the Sheffield Star

Sheffield Star

The Star, often known as the Sheffield Star is a daily newspaper published in Sheffield, England, from Monday to Saturday each week. Originally a broadsheet, the newspaper became a tabloid in 1989...

 newspaper (although the entrance is on York Street) with its white brickwork and elegant clock tower it is a familiar landmark. During the demolition of old shops to make way for Kemsley House a hoard of old gold and silver coins was discovered behind a cellar wall. The coins dated from 1547 to 1625, a silver pendant was also found with the coins.

World War II

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. Building which were destroyed in the Blitz, included the Marples Hotel (on the corner with Fitzalan Square) where 70 people lost their lives. The C&A

C&A

C&A is an international chain of fashion retail clothing stores, with its European head offices in Vilvoorde , Belgium and Düsseldorf, Germany...

 Modes store was hit by three bombs and gutted, while Walsh's department store, the Grand Clothing Hall and the Westminster Hotel were all destroyed.

Post war

Post war rebuilding of the damaged High Street was slow, it was not until 1951 that the damaged Walsh's store was demolished with a new store designed by JS Beaumont and built by George Longden Ltd opening on May 13, 1953. A new Marples Hotel opened in 1959 while C&A also rebuilt their store, although the building is now occupied by Primark

Primark

Primark is a clothing retailer, operating over 223 stores in Ireland , the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Belgium...

. The early 1960s saw a radical change to High Street's junction with Angel Street when a decision was taken to give cars easier access to the city centre. This involved the creation of Arundel Gate, a dual carriageway which approached from the south and met the High Street / Angel Street junction at a roundabout. These changes resulted in the demolition of Change Alley, an ancient thoroughfare which ran between High Street and Norfolk Street and had had timber framed houses on it many years previous.

The changes made by the construction of Arundel Gate included the building of network of underground walkways which linked Arundel Gate, Commercial Street, Snig Hill and Fitzalan Square. High Street was located at the head of this network with escalators taking pedestrians into the subways. It was known officially as Castle Square but acquired the nickname locally as 'The Hole In The Road' which boasted a large central open air circle with entrances to many stores, convenient newsagents, bus enquiry centres and even a tropical fish tank stocked with mature fish. The "Hole in the Road" subterranean system was opened on November 27, 1967, however, the walkways fell into disrepair during the early 1990s and were finally closed to the public on January 10, 1994. The "Hole in the Road" network was filled in with rubble from the Hyde Park

Hyde Park, South Yorkshire

Hyde Park is a district in Sheffield, England. The area is named after fields that occupied the area in the early 19th century.The area was used for cricket matches between 1824 and 1856. It had space for up to 10 cricket matches at a time...

 flats and re-developed as part of the Sheffield Supertram

Sheffield Supertram

The Supertram, officially called the Stagecoach Supertram, is a light rail tram system in the City of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England...

 system.

Present day

For part of its length High Street carries the A621 road before it swings south down Arundel Gate. The Sheffield Supertram system was opened in early 1995 and 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

Castle Square, Sheffield

Castle Square is the plaza at the intersection of High Street, Angel Street, and Arundel Gate in the City of Sheffield, England. This name was given to the square in the 1960s to reflect the proximity of the square to the site of Sheffield Castle, which was formerly located a short distance to the...

.

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

• Bon Marche
• Blue Arrow
  Blue Arrow
  Blue Arrow Limited is a United Kingdom based employment and recruitment agency that places individual jobseekers in employment and provides businesses with temporary and/or permanent staff in the industrial sector, catering sector, driving sector, logistics sector and office sector.The head office...
  
   (Employment Agency)
• Lloyds TSB
  Lloyds TSB
  Lloyds TSB Bank Plc is a retail bank in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1995 by the merger of Lloyds Bank, established in Birmingham, England in 1765 and traditionally considered one of the Big Four clearing banks, with the TSB Group which traces its origins to 1810...
  
  
• Halifax (bank)
• Cavells Café Bar
• CeX
  CeX
  CeX is a second hand goods chain based in the United Kingdom specialising in technology, computing and video games.-History:...
  
   (Complete Entertainment Exchange)
• Clicks (Photograph developers)
• Peters (Shoe Repair)
• Boots the Chemist
• NatWest
• Timsons
  Timsons
  Timsons Ltd is a family-owned company which manufactures bespoke book and flexible packaging printing presses. Timsons was founded in 1896 by Arthur Richardson Timson and employs over 200 people at its Kettering, UK headquarters...
  
  
• Turners (Bakers)
• T J Hughes
  T J Hughes
  T J Hughes is a British discount department store brand. As an individual chain of shops T J Hughes emerged in Liverpool in 1925 and continued to trade until entering liquidation in 2011...
  
   (Department Store)
• HMV
  HMV
  His Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
  
  
• Pizza Hut
  Pizza Hut
  Pizza Hut is an American restaurant chain and international franchise that offers different styles of pizza along with side dishes including pasta, buffalo wings, breadsticks, and garlic bread....
  
  
• Blacks (Outdoor Pursuits shop)
• Primark
  Primark
  Primark is a clothing retailer, operating over 223 stores in Ireland , the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Belgium...
  
   (Clothing)
• Cooplands
  Cooplands
  Coopland & Son Ltd. is a family-run bakery chain which has stores across North, West and East Yorkshire, offering sandwiches, bread loaves, desserts and cakes. Despite having the same trading name and a similar product range as Cooplands Ltd., the two companies operate individually from each other...
  
   (Bakers)
• GT News (Newsagents)
• McDonald's
  McDonald's
  McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
  
  
• Santander UK
  Santander UK
  Santander UK plc is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Spanish Santander Group. Based in the United Kingdom, it operates under the name of Santander. Santander is the third largest bank in the UK in terms of deposits, the second largest in terms of mortgages held, and the fourth largest in terms of...
  
  (2 branches opposite each other - 1 in Kemsley House on the north side and the other the on the south side next to The Foster‘s Buildings)