Broomhill and Crookes, Sheffield
Creative TouristTo the west of the city, the suburbs of Broomhill and Crookes, though small, contain some great shops and pubs, while the sights found along the way make them well worth the 20-minute walk out of the centre. We suggest cutting through the University of Sheffield’s campus, dropping into the magnificent Arts Tower (with its famous paternoster lift) and passing through Weston Park, with its blossom trees, duck pond and the city’s last remaining Victorian bandstand.
The leafy Victorian suburb of Broomhill takes its name from the house that metalworker William Newbould built in the 1790s. It boasts cobbled passages, historic street signs and small independent shops, pretty terraces favoured by students and stone villas that house some of Sheffield’s most affluent. The centre of Broomhill is a fairly small strip, but it accommodates a couple of great pubs (we recommend The York), an ever well-stocked Oxfam, and the excellent Record Collector – there since 1978. And the impressive Sheffield Botanical Gardens – with its Grade II listed Bear Pit and glass pavilions – which date back to 1836.
Follow Crookes Road now as it snakes gently up from Broomhill and you’ll come to the centre of its neighbouring suburb. It may not seem to offer a great deal at first glance, but its strip of charity shops – including Fable and Barnado’s and, in a converted petrol station, a huge St. Luke’s Hospice – is great for an afternoon of rummaging. The nearby Bolehills offer an incredible and panoramic view across the city, too.
