Arguably Sheffield’s most impressive building. English Renaissance with Corinthian colonnades. But to us locals there has always been a second-class air about Sheffield City Hall.
Sadly, like many of my generation, I can count on one hand the number of concerts I’ve seen here. My biggest memory is of sitting on its chunky front steps as a kid, and later falling down them as a drunken teenager.
But it’s not that old.
Designed in 1920 by Emanuel Vincent Harris (he also designed the Board of Trade Buildings in Whitehall), construction was delayed eight years because of the economic climate.
Built of Hopton Wood stone, from Wirksworth, laid in alternate courses of white and grey shades. The walls at the front were pierced by three archways of black-veined marble from Ashburton, near Dartmoor.
It cost £500,000 and opened in 1932 when this photograph by Edward Bale Stewart was taken.
sheffielder.net 