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Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. It is the largest settlement in South Yorkshire and the third largest of Northern England.
The city is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines and the valleys of the River Don with its four tributaries: the River Loxley, the Porter Brook, the River Rivelin and the River Sheaf. Sixty-one per cent of Sheffield's entire area is green space and a third of the city lies within the Peak District national park and is the fifth-largest city in England. There are more than 250 parks, woodlands and gardens in the city, which is estimated to contain around 4.5 million trees.
Sheffield played a crucial role in the Industrial Revolution, developing many significant technologies. In the 19th century, the city saw a huge expansion of its traditional cutlery trade, when processes for high-quality stainless steel and crucible steel were invented. This fuelled an almost tenfold increase in the population. Sheffield received its municipal charter in 1843, becoming the City of Sheffield in 1893. International competition in iron and steel caused a decline in these industries in the 1970s and 1980s, coinciding with the collapse of coal mining in the area. The Yorkshire ridings became counties in their own right in 1889; the West Riding of Yorkshire county was disbanded in 1974. The city then became part of the county of South Yorkshire; this has been made up of separately governed unitary authorities since 1986. The 21st century has seen extensive Urban renewal in Sheffield, consistent with other British cities. Sheffield's gross value added (GVA) has increased by 60% since 1997, standing at £11.3 billion in 2015. The economy has experienced steady growth, averaging around 5% annually, which is greater than that of the broader region of Yorkshire and the Humber.
Sheffield had a population of 556,500 at the 2021 census, making it the second-largest city in the Yorkshire and the Humber region. The Sheffield Built-up Area, of which the Sheffield sub-division is the largest part, had a population of 685,369 also including the town of Rotherham. The district borough, governed from the city, had a population of at the mid-2019 estimate, making it the -most-populous district in England. It is one of eleven British cities that make up the Core Cities Group. In 2011, the unparished area had a population of 490,070.
The city has a long sporting heritage and is home both to the world's oldest football club, Sheffield F.C., and the world's oldest football ground, Sandygate. Matches between the two professional clubs, Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday, are known as the Steel City derby. The city is also home to the World Snooker Championship and the Sheffield Steelers, the UK's first professional ice hockey team.
Following the departure of the Romans, the Sheffield area may have been the southern part of the Celtic Britons kingdom of Elmet, with the rivers Sheaf and Don forming part of the boundary between this kingdom and the kingdom of Mercia. Gradually, Anglian settlers pushed west from the kingdom of Deira. A Britonnic presence within the Sheffield area is evidenced by two settlements called Wales and Waleswood close to Sheffield.The word Wales derives from the Germanic word Walhaz, and was originally used by the Anglo-Saxons to refer to the native Britons. In reference to the villages of Wales and Waleswood, S.O. Addy, in his A Glossary of Words Used in the Neighbourhood of Sheffield, p. 274, states "The Anglo-Saxon invaders or settlers called the old inhabitants or aborigines of this country wealas, or foreigners." See also, "Welsh" in The settlements that grew and merged to form Sheffield, however, date from the second half of the first millennium, and are of Anglo-Saxons and Danelaw origin.J. Edward Vickers (1999). 187471844X, The Hallamshire Press Limited. 187471844X In Anglo-Saxon times, the Sheffield area straddled the border between the kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that Eanred of Northumbria submitted to Egbert of Wessex at the hamlet of Dore (now a suburb of Sheffield) in 829,In an entry dated 827, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states "Egbert led an army against the Northumbrians as far as Dore, where they met him, and offered terms of obedience and subjection, on the acceptance of which they returned home" ( transcription ). Most sources (for example Vickers, Old Sheffield Town) state that the date given in the chronicle is incorrect, and that 829 is the more likely date for this event. a key event in the unification of the kingdom of England under the House of Wessex.
After the Norman conquest of England, insurrection by the populace led to the devastation of the Sheffield area during the Harrying of the North and Sheffield Castle was built to control the ruined local settlements. A small town developed that is the nucleus of the modern city. By 1296, a market had been established at what is now known as Castle Square, and Sheffield subsequently grew into a small market town. In the 14th century, Sheffield was already noted for the production of knives, as mentioned in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales,Geoffrey Chaucer in The Reeve's Tale from his book The Canterbury Tales wrote: "Ther was no man, for peril, dorste hym touche. A Sheffeld thwitel baar he in his hose. Round was his face, and camus was his nose" and by the early 1600s it had become the main centre of cutlery manufacture in England outside London, overseen by the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire.
From 1570 to 1584, Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in Sheffield Castle and Sheffield Manor by George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, the husband of Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury. The Earl is buried in Sheffield Cathedral.
The collapse of the dam wall of one of these reservoirs in 1864 resulted in the Great Sheffield Flood, which killed 270 people and devastated large parts of the town. In 1880 ten men from Sheffield were part of a group of 47 men who had attended a fancy-dress ball in Hulme, Manchester, but they were tried for soliciting sex between men. Described by historian Lauren Wells as the 'Sheffield Ten', men from the city had their addresses published in local news.
The growing population led to the construction of many back-to-back dwellings that, along with severe pollution from the factories, inspired George Orwell in 1937 to write: "Sheffield, I suppose, could justly claim to be called the ugliest town in the Old World".
Sheffield was particularly hard hit during the 2007 United Kingdom floods and the 2010 'Big Freeze'. Many landmark buildings such as Meadowhall and the Hillsborough Stadium flooded due to being close to rivers that flow through the city. In 2010, 5,000 properties in Sheffield were identified as still being at risk of flooding. In 2012 the city narrowly escaped another flood, despite extensive work by the Environment Agency to clear local river channels since the 2007 event. In 2014 Sheffield Council's cabinet approved plans to further reduce the possibility of flooding by adopting plans to increase water catchment on tributaries of the River Don. Another flood hit the city in 2019, resulting in shoppers being contained in Meadowhall Shopping Centre.
Between 2014 and 2018, there were disputes between the city council and residents over the fate of the city's 36,000 highway trees. Around 4,000 highway trees have since been felled as part of the 'Streets Ahead' Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract signed in 2012 by the city council, Amey plc and the Department for Transport to maintain the city streets. The tree fellings have resulted in many arrests of residents and other protesters across the city even though most felled trees in the city have been replanted, including those historically felled and not previously replanted. The protests eventually stopped in 2018 after the council paused the tree felling programme as part of a new approach developed by the council for the maintenance of street trees in the city.
In May 2022, Sheffield was named a "Tree City of the World" in recognition of its work to sustainably manage and maintain urban forests and trees. This honour was given before the release of the independent inquiry's report on the so-called "Sheffield Chainsaw Massacre". The report concluded that "thousands of healthy and loved trees were lost. Many more could have been" and was critical of Sheffield City Council. The latter issued this statement on receipt of the report: "the council has already acknowledged that it got many things wrong in the handling of the street-trees dispute, and we wish to reiterate our previous apologies for our failings".
For much of its history the council was controlled by the Labour Party, and was noted for its leftist sympathies; during the 1980s, when Sheffield City Council was led by David Blunkett, the area gained the epithet the "Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire". However, the Liberal Democrats controlled the Council between 1999 and 2001 and took control again from 2008 to 2011.
The majority of council-owned facilities are operated by independent charitable trusts. Sheffield International Venues runs many of the city's sporting and leisure facilities, including Sheffield Arena and the English Institute of Sport, Sheffield. Sheffield Museums take care of galleries and museums owned by the council.
In 2004, as part of the Moving Forward: The Northern Way document, city regions were created in a collaboration with the three northern regional development agencies. These became independent Local enterprise partnerships in 2011.
The area's partnership retains the Sheffield City Region name, covering the South Yorkshire authorities, as well as Bolsover District, Borough of Chesterfield, Derbyshire Dales, North East Derbyshire and Bassetlaw District. In 2014, the Sheffield City Region Combined authority was formed by the South Yorkshire Local government with the other councils as non-constituent members and the partnership integrated with the authority structure. In September 2020, the authority changed to its current name.
The present city boundaries were set in 1974 (with slight modification in 1994), when the former county borough of Sheffield merged with Stocksbridge Urban District and two parishes from the Wortley Rural District. This area includes a significant part of the countryside surrounding the main urban region. Roughly a third of Sheffield lies in the Peak District. No other English city had parts of a national park within its boundary, until the creation in March 2010 of the South Downs National Park, part of which lies within Brighton and Hove.
The coldest temperature to be recorded was in 2010. (Note: The official Weston Park Weather Station statistics, which can also be viewed at Sheffield Central Library, has the temperature at , recorded on 20 December, and states that to be the lowest December temperature since 1981.) The coldest temperature ever recorded in the city of Sheffield at Weston Park, since records began in 1882, is , registered in February 1895. The lowest daytime maximum temperature in the city since records began is , also recorded in February 1895. More recently, was recorded as a daytime maximum at Weston Park, on 20 December 2010 (from the Weston Park Weather Station statistics, which also can be viewed at Sheffield Central Library.) On average, through the winter months of December to March, there are 67 days during which ground frost occurs.
The Weston Park Weather station, established in 1882, is one of the longest running weather stations in the United Kingdom. It has recorded weather for more than 125 years, and a 2008 report showed that the climate of Sheffield is warming faster than it has at any time during this period, with 1990 and 2006 being the hottest years on record. In collaboration with the Stockholm Environment Institute, Sheffield developed a carbon footprint (based on 2004–05 consumption figures) of 5,798,361 tonnes per year. This compares to the UK's total carbon footprint of 698,568,010 tonnes per year. The factors with the greatest impact are housing (34%), transport (25%), consumer (11%), private services (9%), public services (8%), food (8%) and capital investment (5%). Sheffield City Council has signed up to the campaign.
The Industrial Revolution served as a catalyst for considerable population growth and demographic change in Sheffield. Large numbers of people were driven to the city as the cutlery and steel industries flourished. The population continued to grow until the mid-20th century, at which point, due to industrial decline, the population began to contract. However, by the early 21st century, the population had begun to grow once again.
The population of Sheffield previously peaked in 1951 at 577,050, and was declining steadily until the start of the century. The mid-2007 population estimate was 530,300, representing an increase of about 17,000 residents since 2001. The population of Sheffield has been increasing since.
Although a city, Sheffield is informally known as "the largest village in England", because of a combination of topographical isolation and demographic stability. It is relatively geographically isolated, being cut off from other places by a ring of hills. Local folklore insists that, like Rome, Sheffield was built "on seven hills". The land surrounding Sheffield was unsuitable for industrial use, and now includes several protected green belt areas. These topographical factors have served to restrict urban spread, resulting in a relatively stable population size and a low degree of mobility.
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After many years of decline, the Sheffield economy is going through a strong revival. The 2004 Barclays Bank Financial Planning study revealed that, in 2003, the Sheffield district of Hallam was the highest ranking area outside London for overall wealth, the proportion of people earning over £60,000 a year standing at almost 12%. A survey by Knight Frank revealed that Sheffield was the fastest-growing city outside London for office and residential space and rents during the second half of 2004. This can be seen in a surge of redevelopments, including the City Lofts Tower and accompanying St Paul's Place, Velocity Living and the Moor redevelopment, the forthcoming NRQ and the Winter Gardens, Peace Gardens, Millennium Galleries and many projects completed under the Sheffield One redevelopment agency. The Sheffield economy grew from £5.6 billion in 1997 (1997 GVA) to £9.2 billion in 2007 (2007 GVA).
The "UK Cities Monitor 2008" placed Sheffield among the top ten "best cities to locate a business today", the city occupying third and fourth places, respectively, for best office location and best new call centre location. The same report places Sheffield in third place regarding "greenest reputation" and second in terms of the availability of financial incentives.
Playing a crucial role in the Industrial Revolution, the city became an industrial powerhouse in the 18th century, and was dubbed "Steel City". Many innovations in these fields have been made in Sheffield, for example Benjamin Huntsman discovered the crucible technique in the 1740s at his workshop in Handsworth. This process was rendered obsolete in 1856 by Henry Bessemer's invention of the Bessemer converter. Thomas Boulsover invented Sheffield plate (silver-plated copper) in the early 18th century.
Stainless steel was invented by Harry Brearley in 1912, bringing affordable cutlery to the masses. The work of F. B. Pickering and T. Gladman throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s was fundamental to the development of modern high-strength low-alloy steels. Further innovations continue, with new advanced manufacturing technologies and techniques being developed on the Advanced Manufacturing Park, situated just over the boundary in the borough of Rotherham, by Sheffield's universities and other independent research organisations. Organisations located on the AMP include the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC, a research partnership between the Boeing Company and the University of Sheffield), Castings Technology International (CTI), The Welding Institute (TWI), Rolls-Royce plc and McLaren Automotive.
steel works in Sheffield. The site was formerly run by Vickers Limited which was founded in Sheffield in 1828 and became one of the most prominent engineering companies in the world.]] Forgemasters, founded in 1805, is the sole remaining independent steel works in the world and dominates the north-east of Sheffield around the Lower Don Valley. The firm has a global reputation for producing the largest and most complex steel forgings and castings and is certified to produce critical nuclear components, with recent projects including the Royal Navy's submarines. The firm also has the capacity for pouring the largest single ingot (570 tonnes) in Europe and is currently in the process of expanding its capabilities. In July 2021 Forgemasters was bought outright by the UK Ministry of Defence for £2.56 million, with the intention of investing a further £400 million over the next decade. The decision was based on the important role Forgemasters plays in the construction of the UK nuclear submarine fleet as well other vessels for the Royal Navy.
While iron and steel have long been the main industries of Sheffield, coal mining has also been a major industry, particularly in the outlying areas, and the Palace of Westminster in London was built using limestone from quarry in the nearby village of Anston.
Sheffield City Council, which is also a major public sector employer in the city, employs over 8,000 people, spread across four different sections (known as portfolios). Sheffield City Council is also the Local Education Authority (LEA) and as such manages all states schools and their associated staff. As part of its mandate to provide public services, Sheffield City Council maintains contracts with three private contractors—Amey plc, Veolia and Capita (contract ending in 2020). Together, these contractors provide additional employment in the city.
With the decline in high street shopping around the UK, efforts have been made to rejuvenate Sheffield City Centre and improve the retail and leisure offering. Major developments include Leopold Square, The Moor, St Paul's Place (a mixed use development) and the Heart of the City I & II projects. In March 2022 Sheffield City Council announced that a new leisure hub would be constructed at the southern end of Fargate. The £300,000 hub will feature cafes, shops and large-screen TVs for sports events. The development is also related to other efforts to rejuvenate the Fargate area, such as a new mixed-use events and coworking hub at 20–26 Fargate, also overseen by Sheffield City Council.
The second-largest shopping centre in Sheffield is Crystal Peaks, located in the south-east of the city, alongside Drakehouse Retail Park. Both the shopping centre and the retail park opened in 1988 and now attract around 11 million visitors a year. In total there are 101 retailers (including eateries) at Crystal Peaks and Drakehouse, including a range of high street brands. Crystal Peaks also includes a travel interchange which serves as the hub for bus travel in the east and south-east of Sheffield.
In the late 2010s and early 2020s several new developments began to the north of the city centre in the Kelham Island Quarter, an increasingly popular mixed-use development. The area has become known for its independent cafes, restaurants and pubs and has seen significant residential development in recent years.
In 2012, Sheffield City Region Enterprise Zone was launched to promote development in a number of sites in Sheffield and across the wider region. In March 2014 additional sites were added to the zone.
Coach services running through Sheffield are operated by National Express and to a lesser extent Megabus and Flixbus. National Express services call at Sheffield Interchange, Meadowhall Interchange and Meadowhead Bus Stop. Megabus and Flixbus services only call at Meadowhall. National Express services 564, 560, 350, 320, 310 and 240 call at Sheffield, as do others on a less frequent basis. The 560/564 service is a direct connection to London Victoria Coach Station via Chesterfield and Milton Keynes, operating 12 times a day in both directions. The 350 and 240 services connect Sheffield to Manchester Airport and Heathrow/Gatwick Airports, respectively. Two Megabus services, the M12 and M20, call at Sheffield en route to London from Newcastle upon Tyne and Inverness, respectively.
Although hilly, Sheffield is compact and has few major trunk roads, therefore cycling in Sheffield is a popular method of transport. It is on the Trans-Pennine Trail, a National Cycle Network route running from west to east from Southport in Merseyside to Hornsea in the East Riding of Yorkshire and north to south from Leeds in West Yorkshire to Chesterfield in Derbyshire. There are many cycle routes going along country paths in the woods surrounding the city, and an increasing number of cycle lanes in the city itself.
High Speed 2 had been planned to serve a city centre station in Sheffield as a spur from the main eastern HS2 line. It was scheduled to be operational by 2033, with four trains an hour, reducing journey times to London and Birmingham to 1 hour 19 minutes and 48 minutes, respectively. In November 2021, the UK government published the Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands which announced HS2's eastern spur route (between the East Midlands and Leeds, including Sheffield) had been cancelled. The document announced upgrades to the Midland Mainline, with HS2 trains able to run on this upgraded and electrified route.
There are several local rail routes running along the city's valleys and beyond, connecting it with other parts of South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire. These local routes include the Penistone Line, the Dearne Valley Line, the Hope Valley Line and the Hallam Line. As well as the main stations of Sheffield and Meadowhall, there are five suburban stations at Chapeltown, Darnall, Woodhouse and Dore & Totley. As part of improvements to rail services along the Hope Valley Line between Sheffield and Manchester, a new platform, station facilities and track are being built at Dore & Totley Station with the expanded station due to open in 2023.
The Sheffield Supertram (not derived from the previous tramways), opened in 1994 and was operated by Stagecoach Group. The opening was shortly after the similar Metrolink scheme in Greater Manchester. The Supertram network consists of of track and four lines (with all lines running via the city centre): from Halfway to Malin Bridge (Blue Line), from Meadowhall to Middlewood (Yellow Line), from Cathedral to Herdings Park (Purple Line), and the from Cathedral to Rotherham Parkgate (Black Line). The system contains both on-street and segregated running, depending upon the section and line. The Black Line opened in 2018, with tram-trains; these are trams that are able to share a line with conventional heavy rail trains between Sheffield and Rotherham.
In March 2024, control of the network passed to the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.
Due to the topographical nature of the city, Sheffield was not served by its own airport. In May 1990, Sheffield Development Corporation entered into an agreement with A. F. Budge (Mining) Ltd for the construction and operation of the airport and the development of adjacent land. In 1997, Sheffield City Airport was opened on land close to the M1 and the Sheffield Parkway. The airport was operated on STOLPORT model similar to London City Airport and operated a limited range of short range business focused flights to destinations in the British Isles and the Netherlands. The airport fell into decline with the growth of low cost airlines in the late 1990s and the last scheduled flight took place in 2002. The airport closed and lost its Civil Aviation Authority license in 2008.
Doncaster Sheffield Airport (also known as Robin Hood Airport) then became the closest international airport to Sheffield, located from the city centre. It opened on 28 April 2005 on the former RAF Finningley site and was served mainly by charter and budget airlines, with about one million passengers a year. Destinations had included the Canary Islands, Balearics, Greece, Turkey, Poland and the Baltic countries with TUI Airways and Wizz Air operating from the airport. A link road, called the Great Yorkshire Way, connects Doncaster Sheffield Airport to the M18 motorway, reducing the journey time from Sheffield city centre from 40 to 25 minutes. The airport closed in 2022. In June 2023 South Yorkshire's mayor Oliver Coppard handed Doncaster council £3.1 million to help the council build a case for legal action in pursuit of a compulsory purchase order, which it believes will cost up to £6.25 million.
Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust manages the museums dedicated to Sheffield's industrial heritage of which there are three. Kelham Island Museum (located just to the North of the city centre) is located on the site of a 19th-century iron foundry and showcases the city's history of steel manufacturing and includes a range of important historical artifacts, including a preserved Bessemer Converter (which won an Engineering Heritage Award in 2004 from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers), munitions and mechanical components from WW2 aircraft (Including a crankshaft from a Spitfire which, during the early stages of the war, could only be produced in Sheffield) and a fully functional 12,000 horsepower steam engine dating to the 19th century. The museum is an Anchor Point for the ERIH, The European Route of Industrial Heritage. Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet (in the south of the city) is a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Shepherd Wheel (in the south-East of the city) is a former water-powered grinding workshop, Grade II listed and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Also there are Sheffield Archives.
In August 2022 the Yorkshire Natural History Museum opened on Holme Lane in Sheffield. Many of the exhibits come from the collection of James Hogg and feature a collection of Jurassic marine life, such as Ammonoidea, Belemnitida, Plesiosaurus and Ichthyosauria, many of which were collected from the Lias of the Yorkshire Coast. The museum has Europe's first publicly accessible fossil preparation and conservation laboratory with ultrasonic preparation facilities, an acid preparation laboratory, 3D scanning, CT scanning and 3D printing. On the opening day palaeontologist Dean Lomax exmined one of the fossils on display and declared it to be the oldest example of a vertebrate embryo found in Britain and the oldest complete ichthyosaur embryo ever found in Britain.
There are also a number of independent museums in the city including the National Videogame Museum and the National Emergency Services Museum, as well as the University of Sheffield's Turner Museum of Glass.
Launched by the coalition government in 2010, the University Technical College program was designed to foster greater interest in STEM subjects amongst students aged 14 to 18. Sheffield currently hosts two UTCs, UTC Sheffield City Centre and UTC Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park. All UTCs, including those in Sheffield, are sponsored by the Baker Dearing Educational Trust, established by Lord Baker. The two UTCs in Sheffield are also sponsored and supported by Sheffield Hallam University. Whilst the UTCs are equivalent to regular secondary schools and sixth forms, their governance structure and curriculum are different, owing to their status as free schools and focusing on STEM, as opposed to a broader curriculum.
The city also has other churches including St Vincent's Church, St Matthew's Church, St Paul's Church, St Paul's Church and Centre, Victoria Hall and Christ Church. Other places of worship include the Madina Mosque, Sheffield & District Reform Jewish Congregation and Kingfield Synagogue.
Sheffield is best known for its two professional football teams, Sheffield United, nicknamed The Blades, and Sheffield Wednesday, nicknamed The Owls. United, who play at Bramall Lane south of the city centre and Wednesday, who play at Hillsborough in the north-west of the city, both compete in the EFL Championship for the 2024–25 season. The two clubs contest the Steel City Derby, which is considered by many to be one of the most fierce football rivalries in English Football.
In the pre-war era, both Wednesday and United enjoyed large amounts of success and found themselves two of the country's top clubs; Sheffield Wednesday have been champions of the Football League four times—in 1902–03, 1903–04, 1928–29 and 1929–30, whilst Sheffield United have won it once, in 1897–98. During the 1970s and early 1980s the two sides fell from grace, with Wednesday finding themselves in the Third Division by the mid-70s and United as far as the Fourth Division in 1981. Wednesday once again became one of England's high-flying clubs following promotion back to the First Division in 1984, winning the League Cup in 1991, competing in the UEFA Cup in 1992–93, and reaching the final of both the League Cup and FA Cup in the same season.
United and Wednesday were both founding members of the Premier League in 1992, but The Blades were relegated in 1994. The Owls remained until 2000. Both clubs had gone into decline in the 21st century, Wednesday twice relegated to League One and United suffering the same fate in 2011, despite a brief spell in the Premier League in 2006–07. United was promoted to the Premier League in 2019 under manager, and Sheffield United Fan, Chris Wilder. Despite being written off by most football pundits, and declared favourites for relegation from the Premier League, United exceeded expectations and finished in the top half of the table in the 2019–20 season. In the 2020–21 season, United sat at the bottom of the Premier League table by the conclusion of the season and were relegated.
Sheffield was the site of the deadliest sports venue disaster in the United Kingdom, the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, when 97 Liverpool supporters were killed in a stampede and crush during an FA Cup semi-final at the venue.
Rotherham United, who play in the Championship, did play their home games in the city between 2008 and 2012, having moved to play at Sheffield's Don Valley Stadium in 2008 following a dispute with their previous landlord at their traditional home ground of Millmoor, Rotherham. However, in July 2012, the club moved to the new 12,000 seat New York Stadium in Rotherham. There are also facilities for golf, climbing and bowling, as well as a newly inaugurated national ice-skating arena (IceSheffield).
Sheffield Sharks are a professional basketball team established in 1991 who play in the Super League Basketball at the Park Community Arena.
Sheffield Giants are an American football team who play in the BAFA National Leagues Premier Division, the highest level of British American Football.
Sheffield is home to the Sheffield Steelers professional ice hockey team who play out of the 9.300 seater Sheffield Arena and are known as one of the top teams in the UK, regularly selling out the arena. They have the 28th highest average attendance rating in Europe, and the highest in the UK. They play in the 10 team professional Elite Ice Hockey League. Sheffield is also home to the semi-professional ice hockey team Sheffield Steeldogs who play in the NIHL.
The Sheffield Ice Hockey Academy also are based in Sheffield, and play out of IceSheffield, competing in the EIHA Junior North Leagues and have had one player, Liam Kirk, become the first born and trained British player to be drafted into the NHL, when he was drafted in the NHL entry draft 189th overall in 2018 by the Arizona Coyotes. The National Hockey League's Stanley Cup was made in Sheffield in 1892. Sheffield is also home to the Sheffield Steel Rollergirls, a roller derby team.
Following the closure and demolition of Don Valley Stadium in 2013, The Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park was established and constructed on the same site, adjacent to the English Institute for Sport. The park is designed to a collaborative project with input from numerous stakeholders including both universities in Sheffield, the English Institute of Sport Sheffield, the NHS and private medical companies. A key part of this collaboration is Sheffield Hallam University's £14 million Advanced Well-being Research Centre (AWRC), which was established along similar lines to the University of Sheffield's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre's (AMRC's). The site also includes teaching facilities, a stadium and research & innovation facilities.
The Sheffield Ski Village was the largest artificial ski resort in Europe, before being destroyed in a series of suspected arson attacks in 2012 and 2013. The city also has six indoor climbing centres and is home to a significant community of professional climbers, including Britain's most successful competitive climber Shauna Coxsey. Sheffield was the UK's first National City of Sport and is now home to the English Institute of Sport – Sheffield, where British athletes trained for the 2012 Olympics.
Sheffield also has close ties with snooker, with the city's Crucible Theatre being the venue for the World Snooker Championships. The English Institute of Sport hosts most of the top fencing competitions each year, including the National Championships for Seniors, Juniors (U20's) and Cadets (U17's) as well as the 2011 Senior European Fencing Championships. The English squash open is also held in the city every year. The International Open and World Matchplay Championship bowls tournaments have both been held at Ponds Forge. The city also hosts the Sheffield Tigers rugby union, Sheffield Sharks, American Football team the Sheffield Giants, basketball, Sheffield University Bankers Field hockey, Sheffield Steelers ice hockey and Sheffield Tigers speedway teams. Sheffield also has many golf courses all around the city.
Sheffield was selected as a candidate host city by the The FA as part of the English 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup bid on 16 December 2009. Hillsborough Stadium was chosen as the proposed venue for matches in Sheffield. The bid failed.
Sheffield hosted the finish of Stage 2 of the 2014 Tour de France. Within the City limits and located just from the finish, was the ninth and final climb of the stage, the Category 4 Côte de Jenkin Road. The one point in the King of the Mountains competition was claimed by Chris Froome of Team Sky. The climb was just long at an average gradient of 10.8%. The stage was won by the eventual overall winner, Vincenzo Nibali of Astana Pro Team.
IceSheffield, an Ice Rink with 2 Olympic sized rinks, was opened in May 2003, and is home to the Sheffield Steeldogs, Sheffield Ice Hockey Academy, and Sutton Sting amongst other teams. It is the host to the yearly EIHA Conference Tournament, EIHA Nationals, and Sheffield Junior Tournament.
The Sheffield Half Marathon is held annually. It has thousands of participants every year.
Bishops' House was built in 1500 and is a Listed Building which is now a museum. (2025). 9780300105858, New Haven & London: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300105858
The Sheffield Walk of Fame in the City Centre honours famous Sheffield residents past and present in a similar way to the Hollywood version. City legends honoured by walk of fame – News. The Star. Retrieved 24 August 2011. Sheffield also had its own Ferris Wheel known as the Wheel of Sheffield, located atop Fargate shopping precinct. The Wheel was dismantled in October 2010 and moved to London's Hyde Park.
Heeley City Farm and Graves Park are home to Sheffield's two farm animal collections, both of which are fully open to the public. Home | Heeley City Farm . Heeleyfarm.org.uk. Retrieved 24 August 2011. Graves Park Sheffield . Gravesparksheffield.info. Retrieved 24 August 2011. Sheffield also has its own zoo; the Tropical Butterfly House, Wildlife & Falconry Centre. Home | Tropical Butterfly House . butterflyhouse.co.uk. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
There are about 1,100 listed buildings in Sheffield (including the whole of the Sheffield postal district). Of these, only five are Grade I listed. Sixty-seven are Grade II*, but the overwhelming majority are listed as Grade II. Compared to other English cities, Sheffield has few buildings with the highest Grade I listing: Liverpool, for example, has 26 Grade I . This situation led the noted architecture historian Nikolaus Pevsner, writing in 1959, to comment that the city was "architecturally a miserable disappointment", with no pre-19th-century buildings of any distinction. (2025). 9780300105858, Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300105858 By contrast, in November 2007, Sheffield's Peace and Winter Gardens beat London's South Bank to gain the Royal Institute of British Architects' Academy of Urbanism "Great Place" Award, as an "outstanding example of how cities can be improved, to make urban spaces as attractive and accessible as possible". In the summer of 2016 a public art event across the city occurred called the Herd of Sheffield which raised £410,000 for the Sheffield Children's Hospital.
The Sheffield Botanical Gardens are on a 19-acre site located to the south-west of the city centre and date back to 1836. The site includes a large, Grade II listed, Victorian era Greenhouse. The Peace Gardens, neighboured next to the Town Hall and forming part of the Heart of the City project, occupy a site in the centre of the city. The site is dominated by its water features, principal among which is the Goodwin Fountain. Made up of 89 individual jets of water, this fountain lies at the corner of the quarter-circle shaped Peace Gardens and is named after Stuart Goodwin, a notable Sheffield industrialist. Since their redevelopment in 1998, the Peace gardens have received a number of regional and national accolades. Hillsborough Walled Garden is located in Hillsborough Park, to the north-west of the city centre. The gardens date back to 1779 and have been dedicated to the victims of the Hillsborough Disaster since the redevelopment of the gardens in the early 1990s. The Winter Garden, lying within the Heart of the City, is a large wood framed, glass skinned greenhouse housing some 2,500 plants from around the world.
Also within the city there are a number of nature reserves which when combined occupy of land. There are also 170 woodland areas within the city, 80 of which are classed as ancient.
The south-west boundary of the city overlaps with the Peak District, the first national park in England (est. 1951). As a consequence, several communities actually reside within both entities. The Peak District is home to many notable, natural, features and also human-made features such as Chatsworth House, the setting for the BBC series Pride and Prejudice.
Sheffield City Council has created a new chain of parks spanning the hillside behind Sheffield Station. The park, known as Sheaf Valley Park, has an open-air amphitheatre and will include an arboretum. The site was once home to a medieval deer park, latterly owned by the Duke of Norfolk.
Sheffield has a number of pubs throughout the city. West Street, running through the heart of the West End district of the city centre, is home to pubs, bars and clubs and attracts student visitors. Recent additions to the city's leisure scene include Leopold Square, situated just off the northern end of West Street and Millennium Square, which are home to several restaurants offering international cuisine. Aagrah, an Indian restaurant in the square which serves Kashmiri cuisine, was prior to 2014 voted "Best Restaurant Group in the UK" at the British Curry Awards.
Sheffield was once home to a number of historically important nightclubs in the early dance music scene of the 1980s and 1990s, Gatecrasher was one of the most popular clubs in the North of England until its destruction by fire on 18 June 2007.
Sheffield has a thriving poetry and spoken word scene: from Wordlife's events across the city to the sustained work of Sheffield Authors; from the vibrant monthly arts night, Verse Matters, at the Moor Theatre Deli to the longstanding work of The Poetry Business, there are always opportunities for new and experienced writers to get writing and to share their work.
The city is home to thirteen morris dance teams—thought to be one of the highest concentration of sides in the country. Nearly all forms of the dance are represented in the city, including Cotswold morris (Five Rivers Morris, Pecsaetan Morris, Harthill Morris, Lord Conyer's Morris Men, Sheffield City Morris, William Morris), Border Morris (Boggart's Breakfast), North West (Yorkshire Chandelier, Silkstone Greens, Lizzie Dripping), Rapper dance (Sheffield Steel Rapper) and Longsword.
Sheffield hosts a number of festivals, including the Festival of Debate, the Grin Up North Sheffield Comedy Festival, the Sensoria Music & Film Festival and the Tramlines Festival.
Musical acts originating in Sheffield include Joe Cocker, Ace, Def Leppard, Paul Carrack, Arctic Monkeys, Bring Me the Horizon, 65daysofstatic, Rolo Tomassi, While She Sleeps, Pulp and Moloko. The Sheffield band the Long Blondes are part of what the NME dubbed the New Yorkshire musical movement.
Sheffield has been home to several bands and musicians, with a number of synth-pop and other Electronic music bands originating from the city. These included the Human League, Heaven 17, ABC, Thompson Twins and the more Industrial music inclined Cabaret Voltaire and Clock DVA. This electronic tradition has continued: techno music label Warp Records was a central pillar of the Yorkshire Bleeps and Bass scene of the early 1990s, and has gone on to become one of the UK's oldest and best-loved dance music labels. More recently, other popular genres of electronic music such as bassline house have originated in the city.
In 1999 the National Centre for Popular Music, a museum dedicated to the subject of popular music, was opened in the city. It was not as successful as was hoped, however, and later evolved to become a live music venue; then in February 2005, the unusual steel-covered building became the students' union for Sheffield Hallam University. Live music venues in the city include Leadmill, the Octagon Centre, Corporation, the City Hall, the University of Sheffield Students' Union, the Studio Theatre at the Crucible Theatre and the O2 Academy Sheffield.
The city is home to several orchestras and choirs, such as the Sheffield Symphony Orchestra, the Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sheffield Chamber Orchestra, the City of Sheffield Youth Orchestra, the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus and the Chorus UK community choir. It is also home to Music in the Round, a charitable organisation that exists to promote chamber music.
Sheffield has a folk music, song and dance community. Singing and music sessions occur weekly in pubs around the city and it also hosts the annual Sheffield Sessions Festival. The University of Sheffield runs a number of courses and research projects dedicated to folk culture.
The tradition of singing carols in pubs around Christmas is still kept alive in the city. The Sheffield Carols, as they are known locally, predate modern carols by over a century and are sung with alternative words and verses. Although there is a core of carols that are sung at most venues, each particular place has its own mini-tradition. The repertoire at two nearby places can vary widely, and woe betide those who try to strike up a 'foreign' carol. Some are unaccompanied, some have a piano or organ, there is a flip chart with the words on in one place, a string quartet (quintet, sextet, septet) accompanies the singing at another, some encourage soloists, others stick to audience participation, a brass band plays at certain events, the choir takes the lead at another.
Sheffield was shortlisted to host the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place between 9 and 13 May 2023 in Liverpool.
Sheffield has its own TV station; Sheffield Live TV, a not-for-profit company which began broadcasting on 23 September 2014. SLTV has been awarded a 12-year licence to provide the digital terrestrial broadcasting service. Regional broadcasters BBC Yorkshire and Yorkshire Television also cover the city.
Local radio stations broadcasting in the city include BBC Radio Sheffield and Bauer Group stations Hits Radio South Yorkshire (formerly Hallam FM) & Greatest Hits Radio South Yorkshire. Sheffield is also home to two FM broadcasting licensed community radio stations: Sheffield Live, and Link FM. Kiveton Park-based community station Redroad FM also broadcasts to the east of the city.
Sheffield Hospital Radio broadcasts a 24-hour service to the Royal Hallamshire, Northern General and Weston Park hospitals and also offers a dedicated patient visiting service. The charity is operated by volunteers from studios at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital.
Medical services in Sheffield are provided by three NHS Foundation Trusts:
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides healthcare to people (primarily adults) throughout Sheffield and South Yorkshire. The trusts title includes the word 'teaching' because it undertakes training of medical students at the University of Sheffield and has strong links to Sheffield Hallam University as well. The trust has two campuses: The West Campus containing the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, the Jessop Wing (maternity wing), Weston Park Hospital (specialist cancer treatment) and Charles Clifford Dental Hospital. The Northern General Hospital is the second 'campus' and is a large facility in the northern suburbs of Sheffield, containing the city's A&E department. Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust provides healthcare for children within the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire and the UK as a whole. On 12 June 2020, 66 confirmed deaths caused by the coronavirus were reported in the Crabtree and Fir Vale district in the three months up to May 2020. The Office for National Statistics said this was the highest number of coronavirus deaths of any area of England and Wales.
Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust provides mental health services, services for people with learning disabilities, substance misuse services, long term neurological conditions, as well as a consortium of GP practises. The Sheffield Institute for Motor Neurone Disease (also known as Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience – SITraN) has been developed by the University of Sheffield.
Ambulances are provided by the Yorkshire Ambulance Service, which itself is an NHS trust. Fire services in Sheffield are provided by South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service. For the purposes of fire-fighting and rescue, Sheffield is divided into East and West sub-divisions.
Sheffield City Council is responsible for running fifteen libraries within the city and the Hospital Library Service at Weston Park Hospital. A further sixteen are run by community and volunteer groups with over 1,000 volunteers trained by Sheffield City Council. The largest is Sheffield Central Library which is collocated with Graves Art Gallery on Surrey Street, in Sheffield City Centre. The Sheffield Central Library also contains the Local Studies Library with 30,000 items related to local history.
Domestic waste services in Sheffield are provided by Veolia Environmental Services under contract from and on behalf of the council. Council owned/run buildings are maintained by Kier Group in partnership with the council.
Sheffield has a District Energy system that exploits the city's domestic waste, by incinerating it and converting the energy from it to electricity. It also provides hot water, which is distributed through over of pipes under the city, via two networks. These networks supply heat and hot water for many buildings throughout the city. These include not only cinemas, hospitals, shops and offices, but also universities (Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield), and residential properties. Energy generated in a waste plant produces 60 of thermal energy and up to 19 of electrical energy from 225,000 tonnes of waste.
A further four cities have a Friendship Agreement with Sheffield:
Two roads in Sheffield have been named after sister cities; a section of the A6102 in Norton is named Bochum Parkway; and a road in Hackenthorpe is named Donetsk Way. Likewise in Bochum, Germany, there is a major road called the Sheffield-Ring.
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