Devonshire Quarter, Sheffield
Creative TouristDirectly west of the city centre, the Devonshire Quarter comes alive both by day and by night, thanks to Sheffield City Council’s decision to both shield it from the worst excesses of bar and club culture and to give it the feel of an “urban village”. As a result, down Devonshire Street and onto Division Street, a long list of independent shops unravels, which trade in everything from vintage clobber (Vulgar) to curious-looking houseplants (Plantology).
At the heart of the Devonshire Quarter is the Forum, a bar and café that backs onto a warren of boutiques and shops dealing in offbeat clothing and one-off gift-worthy finds. This is also the best part of town to head to for burgers, cocktails and other such fun-loving Americana: we recommend the Lucky Fox and Bungalows and Bears, which conveniently doubles as a music venue too. For cocktails, it’s got to be The Great Gatsby or The Old House. A little further south is S1 Artspace, an open-plan studio complex and large gallery, housed in a red brick and round-cornered former factory.
Explore the streets around the Devonshire Quarter and you’ll come across the buildings of former cutlery and silver plate works – and, for a glimpse of how Sheffield looked during its industrial peak, take a walk down Milton Street. Here lie the listed Beehive Works and Taylor’s Eye Witness Works, the latter thought to be the city’s only remaining factory still manufacturing the original products that gave it purpose when it opened back in the 19th century.
