Jarvis Cocker at the Carling academy, Sheffield

26 11 2008

Hometown glory for DJ Jarvis and his disco

I’ve been beaten to writing about it by this review, but Jarvis Cocker opened his new UK tour at the Carling academy last night to an appreciative hometown crowd.

As well as playing a mix of new material and songs from his debut album, he also ‘lectured’ the crowd using a selection of slides, many of which depicted Sheffield sights.

We saw a photo of a gleaming Roxy/Fiesta development, now of course the Carling academy and Odeon cinema, and also a picture of a slide built in to a hill in a playground. He described this as the slide at Endcliffe park, but if I’m not mistaken, surely he was referring to the slide at Forge dam?

After two encores he popped up in the DJ booth and treated fans to an hour-long disco, playing a eclectic range of stuff, including MC Hammer’s U can’t touch this.

Another review is here from today’s Independent.

Jarvis Cocker

Jarvis Cocker DJing at the Carling Academy, Sheffield


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City lofts St Paul’s tower cladding design row

20 11 2008

Standing your ground

You’ll have no doubt read about the current disagreement over the panels used on the outside of the City lofts St Paul’s tower development in town. In a nutshell, the council agreed a certain specification of cladding, which the developer then changed.

The council has stood firm and now crisis talks are taking place between both parties with the hope of resolving the issue. You can read the detail of the saga unfolding in the 196-page thread in the Sheffield Development Forum.

I was passing the development this week with my camera so took some photos which are below.

Despite it being a brilliant sunny day, the brown panels still looked a bit dingy. And as someone also pointed out in the discussion thread, if this is them at their best, how many clear sunny days will we get in Sheffield to see them like this?

Even with the sun directly reflecting off the side of the building, as shown in the bottom photo, it still has a dated look to me and reminds me a bit of a 70s London building that I used to work in and is about to be ripped down.

What do people think, should the council continue to stand its ground and demand an improved design, risking that the tower is left to stand empty or even be demolished?

cladding1

cladding2

City lofts St Paul's tower cladding


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Categories : architecture, council, design, development, environment, photos, planning, regeneration, sheffield

Goodwin crater on Northumberland Road

9 11 2008

A big hole

I walked past this big man-made crater yesterday. It is next to the university’s Goodwin sports centre:

Goodwin crater

Goodwin crater

Anyone know what they are building?


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Pictures of Sheffield in the Design Cities photography competition

16 10 2008

Is Sheffield a design city?

People have been submitting pictures of Sheffield for the Design Cities photography competition set up by the Design museum, Flickr and magazine Don’t panic.

The idea is that people submit urban photos of contemporary design, architecture, furniture, vehicles, technology or fashion to the Design Cities Flickr group. 20 photos from this group will then be printed and exhibited in the Design museum in January next year, with one also being printed on 80,000 Don’t panic posters to be put up in cities around the world.

The Sheffield images are generally what you would expect, mainly covering the new bits of architecture in the city centre, with some photographers trying to find new angles on some of the classic shots.

The competition doesn’t close until 1 December, so there is still plenty of time to get your entry in. Surely we can do better than 17 submissions?


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Photos from a Sheffield crane

2 10 2008

What would you risk to get the perfect shot?

I stumbled across this wonderful photo of the Peace gardens the other day, taken from an unusual elevation:

Sheffield Peace Gardens by night

Sheffield Peace Gardens/St Paul's square, image by The Revolution and used with permission

It is part of a set by a photographer called The Revolution who appears to have scaled one of the cranes adjacent to the Winter gardens in order to take some shots.

I’ve no idea whether they had access or permission to climb up there, but the results are stunning and the residents and workers of the St Paul’s towers will be in for a treat if these are the views that will be on offer when the development is complete.

The full set of Sheffield photos also includes an impressive one of the illuminated Winter gardens from the same angle.


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Botched towers demolition embarasses Eon

24 08 2008

The north tower refuses to come down without a fight

So, the towers have gone…but not without making life difficult for the team behind the demolition.

It was somewhat satisfying to see the north tower resist the “precise destructive qualities” of the Nitroglycerine explosive packed into its 1,250 drilled holes last night. About a third of the tower was left standing, resulting in diggers chipping away at its base until nearly half past five in the morning when the remainder of the tower came down.

This shambles of a demolition doesn’t inspire much hope in Eon’s ability to deliver a worthy replacement.

Alongside coverage in the media (BBC, ITV, The Star), photos and videos from the public have started appearing online. A selection appear below; it is a shame that some people cheered as the towers were demolished.

A great photo from Eddie Robinson:

This is my favourite video, as the night vision and audio make it quite eerie:

The banter in the build up to this is funny:

And a fitting (and deliberate?) musical reference at the start of this:

People mourning the loss of the towers, and those searching out more memorabilia, may be interested to see that Archipelago Gallery, formerly of Ecclesall Road South but now located on Sidney Street, has produced a screen print by Jim Connolly to commemorate their sad demolition:

TERROR...! At Tinsley Towers!

TERROR...! At Tinsley Towers!

I have no links to the gallery or artist but I do like this, and at £10 for a poster print, I am tempted to get one. Signed originals are also available for £125. The similarity in style to the paintings of Isaac Mendez, the artist character from TV show Heroes, has been pointed out…


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Categories : arts, cooling towers, design, photos, sheffield, videos

Is Sheffield really built on seven hills?

22 08 2008

It is one of the most-quoted facts about the city, but is it true?

One of the things I like most about Sheffield, and it is something that I have started to appreciate more now that I live up on one of the hills, is the topography of the city. Having also lived in London and Birmingham, it seems that comparatively, there are many more opportunities in Sheffield for looking down on the city from one of the many vantage points on the surrounding hills.

It may not be so good for cyclists, but once you are up there you are rewarded with some spectacular views. Whether it is the panorama back across town from Park Hill at dusk; the drive back into the city from Ringinglow; the view from Crookes and Crosspool; the city skyline from Meersbrook park or simply looking up at the hills through corner gaps at Hillsborough stadium; I could go on and on.

I still read some blogs about Birmingham, and one of these recently enquired how high the Midlands city was. A response from Ordnance Survey showed that in terms of single highest points, Sheffield is second only to Bradford.

This led me on to investigate the regularly-quoted fact about Sheffield that, like Rome, the city is built on seven hills. According to a study by J.G. Harston, Sheffield is in fact built on eight discernible hills, not seven.

In the end, it doesn’t matter how many hills the city is built on; while the days are long and the evenings are light, it is well worth getting out to making the most of the fantastic views on offer.

Does anyone else have any favourites?


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Music in the sun 2008

3 08 2008

A visit to one of the north’s biggest multicultural festivals

Yesterday we paid a visit to Music in the sun for music, food and drinks as the sun set over Don Valley.

Who did we see there? I’d heard Steve Lamacq mention Hiem a few times before but never watched them live. They appeared in the main arena and were good, quite electronic but more melodic and poppy than I was expecting. This is Electricity from 2004:

And following them was Steve Edwards, who I didn’t realise wrote and provided vocals for Bob Sinclar’s 2006 hit World, hold on (children of the sky):

Bob Sinclar also released Love generation, which Steve Edwards also performed live on Saturday.

There were several other arenas with other performers and DJs playing, as well as graffiti artists, food, drink, retail stalls and fairground rides.

The festival continues today from 1pm. If you do go down, also don’t miss the tasty African/Caribbean food from Broomhill’s UK Mama.


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City of Sheffield walkabout - a photo tour (photos)

20 04 2008

A collection of images comparing 1970s Sheffield and the city centre in 2008

I previously wrote about the fascinating 1970s council publication that I got my hands on a few months ago. Produced by the Sheffield City Promotions Committee, it offered visitors a guided tour of the town centre featuring commentary, photos and a map, all for just 25p (around £2.50 at today’s prices).

Though all black and white, the photos give an insight into how the city used to look and I thought it would be an interesting exercise to take comparative shots in the present day and put them side by side.

The photos are below. I’ve tried to frame the 2008 shots as closely to the originals as possible, although I think a wide angle lens was used on some. The modern-day shots have also been converted to black and white.

The shot of the registry office, or “wedding cake” as it was nicknamed isn’t here, and due to the BBC outside broadcast units, the image of the Crucible isn’t really a fair comparison. I will revisit Tudor Square when the snooker is over and also when the theatre has been redeveloped.

Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : architecture, development, history, photography, photos, planning, regeneration, sheffield, walking