Sheffield blog

Take a photo of the city in the early hours of the morning

You may have heard of the Birmingham-based 4am project that aims to gather a collection of photos from around the world that were taken at 4am.

The project is building up to 4 April 2009, where the plan is to get people to take a picture of their world in the early hours of this coming Saturday morning.

You then email it to the organisers or upload it to Flickr and tag it with 4amproject, plus the city and country where the photo was taken. The hope is to gather a snapshot of the world at this specific moment in time.

If anyone in Sheffield is taking part then we will see the local submissions appear afterwards on the Flickr search results page showing all photos tagged ’4amproject’ and ‘sheffield’.

Your photo doesn’t have to be as spectacular as some of the previous 4am project shots. But with a bit of thought (and a tripod), even an urban shot of a neighbourhood can look impressive:

Moseley at 4am 10 by Pete Ashton on Flickr

People in other cities are organising a photo walk for the middle of the night, although as far as I know nothing like this is currently planned for Sheffield.

Is anyone local planning on getting involved?

Opening night at the Electric works

On Friday it was the launch party for the city’s most high-profile office building, the Electric works in the Sheffield digital campus.

Guests were able to tour the building, view a design exhibition and play Wii, as well as enjoy a drink from the sky bar (with not-so-panoramic city views) and of course try the helter skelter.

The organisers were also giving out copies of Disordered haste, a booklet featuring a foreward by Tom Keeley. He writes about how Sheffield’s character has bred a culture of exoticism and the offbeat. Here is an extract:

This city doesn’t do the self-mythologising that you get the other side of the hills. There’s never a swagger or ego. It just gets on with it. Constantly producing, creating, with a sense of pride.

Although the new digital campus is providing more top class modern office accommodation for Sheffield, it has left pop culture magazine Article unimpressed. In a piece published over the weekend it critisises all the bland, empty offices that are being built in the city centre and asks why we need them when there are so many spaces that are unused and emptying.

The digital campus is obviously opening at a difficult time but, as the low-quality camera phone photos below hint, I think it does offer something relatively distinctive as an office – even if the high rents and low number of current tenants indicate that businesses are paying a premium for this.

In the future Sheffield does need to continue to improve its offering – without of course a swagger or an ego – if it is to develop. So the decision to build it is the right one, regardless of vacant lower quality office space in the city.

And as Tom’s foreward explains, the new buildings are just part of Sheffield’s development:

This post-industrial economy is more than just modern office buildings, it’s about changing the way we work. Flexible, responsive and engaging – like the city around it. So is Electric works. Not only an office, but a space to meet, think and make.

When the economy picks up, developments like the digital campus will surely put the city in a good position for further growth in this sector.

A snapshot of the Owls and Sheffield in the 1980s

This 1984 BBC film documents Sheffield Wednesday’s promotion to Canon league one with the demise of the Sheffield steel industry during the same period.

It will probably be of most interest to Wednesdayites, but the elements of social history it covers give an insight into the issues affecting the city in the mid-eighties which many Sheffield people should find interesting.

As you would expect, the soundtrack is provided by Sheffield bands and singers, with ABC, Joe Cocker, the Human League and Def Leppard all featured.

There are also some clips of Wednesday winning the 1935 FA cup which include this priceless line of commentary: “Inside three minutes, Palethorpe scores for the Wednesday and this makes Sheffield almost a nice place to live in.”

Another promotional video commissioned by Creative Sheffield

Just thought I would post this in case anyone missed it last summer. It is a two-minute film  for ‘Sheffield Storytellers’ launch event at Sheffield City Hall in June last year.

City development company Creative Sheffield commissioned creative agency Human to produce it.

…before Record Collector itself becomes a collectors’ item

Last month I sent a tweet linking to a blog post bemoaning the lack of record shops in town. As predicted by the author Rad, Zavvi has now closed its doors leaving only HMV as the only dedicated record shop in the city centre.

Growing up I remember trawling the record shops of the city centre on a Monday looking for the best price for a new release single or album. Warp, Woolworths, Our Price, Music Zone, Virgin, Zavvi, HMV on Pinstone Street, the wonderful Fopp and more have all been and gone.

Obviously you can still buy your vinyl (and some CDs) from Jacks and I suspect that some of the city centre supermarkets as well as WHSmith are well stocked up on the Duffy album. But compared to a few years ago it is a sad state of affairs.

The way people obtain and consume music has moved on and I’m as guilty as anyone for neglecting high street shops in favour of purchasing music online. So on Monday it felt a bit peculiar to actually go into a record shop to buy a physical copy of a new CD.

The shop I went to was the much-cherished Sheffield institution that is Record Collector in Broomhill. This Sandman article from a few years back gives the history of the store, but in short it is a proper old-fashioned independent record shop; the kind of which is disappearing fast up and down the country.

It has been going for over 30 years and as well as stocking new releases is packed full of thousands of back catalogue CDs across many genres. And there are always special offers on, so you know you’ll always come out with more than what you went in for.

I don’t think that Sheffield can afford to lose another record store, so would encourage you to pay Record Collector a visit. I may be being a bit nostalgic, but surely there are enough people in a city of this size to keep a couple of music retailers in business?

And if you must dig out the best deals online, then at least stop by the Record Collector eBay shop to see what is going.

Record Collector, Sheffield

One year on, which are the most popular posts?

I thought I’d do a quick round-up of the most viewed posts during the first year of this blog.

According to WordPress, this is the 83rd post, which makes an average of about 1.5 a week. I’d like to write more often but don’t always have the time. Thankfully now that this blog is on Twitter it is easy to put something out there quickly without having to draft a full post.

Anyway, here are the top ten posts according to number of views:

1. From Runaway Girl to Silversmiths
   Written one week after Gordon Ramsay recorded the TV programme (but five months before it was broadcast)
2. Free wi-fi hotspots in Sheffield city centre
   I started logging free wi-fi locations in the city last year, although the launch of wifi-in-sheffield.co.uk in January has probably already superceded this
3. City of Sheffield walkabout – a photo tour
   Photographs comparing Sheffield in 2008 to the city as featured in a 1970s council brochure
4. Cocoa chocolate shop
   Documenting a visit to this Eccy Road treasure
5. Sheffield Twitter users
   Ever-expanding list of organisations, groups and companies from Sheffield on Twitter
6. Date for cooling towers demolition confirmed
   In terms of page views, August was one of the most popular months on this blog, no doubt in part due to the passing of the cooling towers
7. Sheffield City on the move video from The Fully Monty
   The full version of the 1970s promotional film used at the start of the hit movie appears online
8. The day Sheffield stood still
   Report and videos from Sheffield’s first-ever large-scale flash mob
9. Sheffield to London by train
   Some thoughts on a journey that I have had the joy of completing many a time, written a few months after Midland Mainline handed over the franchise to East Midlands Trains
10. The Moor, Sheffield
    A look at the long-overdue and continued redevelopment of one of Sheffield’s pedestrianised shopping streets

What does the next year hold for this blog? Luckily there is still more going on in Sheffield than could ever be covered here, so I don’t see any reason why there shouldn’t be plenty more posting, tweeting and perhaps some more videos.

As I mentioned above the bigger issue is making time to create the content, so if anyone would anyone be interested in contributing posts then let me know. I’ve also got one or two other ideas for directions that it could go in, so watch this space.

In the meantime, if you have got any comments or suggestions then get in touch.

March 2009 update

Here are the latest additions to the Sheffield Twitter users page. If you want to be listed on it then follow @sheffieldblog, get in touch or comment below.

Plus – are you in the top Sheffield Twitter users on Twitter Grader?

Grow Sheffield – urban food enthusiasts
http://twitter.com/growsheffield

Craft Candy – a group of Sheffield based makers and artists who run craft fairs, workshops and generally share skills
http://twitter.com/Craft_Candy

Sheffield Newspapers – publishers of the Sheffield Telegraph and Star
http://twitter.com/shftelegraph

Hallam FM news – the commercial radio station’s newsroom
http://twitter.com/hallamfmnews

South Yorkshire Sport – a sub-regional partnership of decision makers responsible for the strategic co-ordination and planning of sport and active recreation
http://twitter.com/sportunlimited

Sheffield Steelers – ice hockey team
http://twitter.com/SteelersHockey

South Yorkshire-based wildlife blog
http://twitter.com/shefwildlife

Sheffield RSPCA – www.rspcasheffield.org
http://twitter.com/RSPCASheffield

Sheffield University Theatre Company
http://twitter.com/sutco

Sharp End training – online training and assessment company
http://twitter.com/sharpendtrain

Sheffield City Hall – venue
http://twitter.com/SheffCityHall

The Forum – Devonshire Street bar
http://twitter.com/ForumSheffield

The Common Room – Devonshire  Street bar
http://twitter.com/CommonRoom

The Old House – Devonshire Street bar
http://twitter.com/TheOldHouse

DQ – Fitzwilliam Street bar/club
http://twitter.com/dqsheffield

Bungalows and Bears – Division Street bar
http://twitter.com/bungsandbears

Craine – band
http://twitter.com/CRAINETHEBAND

The Nursery – band
http://twitter.com/InTheNursery

Coverage of the Sheffield office building in Britain and beyond

Over the last few days, the Electric works slide has appeared all over the UK media.

Although a bit of a gimmick, it looks like the ‘building with a twist’ (as it has been called in most reports) is succeeding in further promoting the city, the Digital campus and our creative/digital industries in general.

The story was also picked up around the world, including this item on the US news network CBS (thank you @brentwoods):

The Electric Works slide appears on CBS news

Promoting 1970s Sheffield

The full version of City on the move, the film that appeared at the start of the Full monty, is now available to watch online.

It has been split into four parts, each of which is worth watching if you have time. It still feels like a spoof, with the quaint commentary throwing up several facts about Sheffield in the 1970s:

• The Christmas illuminations are more extensive in this city than anywhere else in the country
• The cutlers of the city still meet regularly with proper pomp and ceremony
• The reservoirs in the nearby hills are generally known as ‘Sheffield’s lake district’ (public access is generally permitted)
• We proudly are home to the largest snuff makers in the country
• The university is anticipating a student population of 10,000 in the 1980s
• Like the rest of the country, Sheffield has not solved the current problems of old people, although we can rest assured that the task is being tackled
• No city north of London has more department stores than Sheffield
• We are home to the biggest nightclub in Europe
• It is home to numerous forward-looking developments like Castle square, the underground concourse with its ingenious roof of sky and winner of another Civic trust award

It seems that Sheffield has been surpassed in some areas and it can no longer boast some of the these facts, although of course nowadays there are plenty of other things that the city can lay claim to and be proud of.

The videos are embedded below. Don’t forget to compare these to Creative Sheffield’s two recent promotional films about Sheffield, plus of course you can get your hands on your own copy of the DVD.

And if those haven’t satisfied your appetite for 1970s Sheffield, then you may be interested in this City of Sheffield city centre walkabout promotional brochure and photo tour.

Buccaneers descend on town for fake Fargate fighting

Following the success of the day Sheffield stood still in January, the city centre played host to another flash mob yesterday afternoon.

The theme this time was pirates, with instructions issued to meet outside the empty Zavvi shop on Fargate at 2:00pm for an invisible two-to-three minute cutlass fight. At the end of the fight all participants were requested to drop dead and then carry on their business as normal.

It was on a much smaller scale than the previous flash mob in the Peace gardens but still succeeded in making an impact, with plenty of bemused onlookers. The fact that fewer people were involved also meant that participants could disperse much more quickly which added to the effect.

What will the next Sheffield flash mob consist of? Yesterday’s looked good fun but if organisers intend to top the scale of the day Sheffield stood still then they will need to further exploit social media to increase participation and interest.