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THE MEADOWHALL CENTRE AND THE CITY CENTRE - A tale of two cities?

With this section I will try to give an insight into the changes that the building of the Meadowhall centre has brought with it, these will include changes to the landscape, shopping experience, roads and any other changes I can easily convey.

Before the Meadowhall centre was built, that area of the city had been the heartland of the industrial works. It sits on what used to be Hadfields steelworks, although this sort of industry had been slowly going downhill since the 1970s this area of the city was still covered in buildings belonging to heavy industry.

Above:- Two aerial views of the east end of Sheffield. On the left is Hadfields steelworks and on the right the Meadowhall centre. For more details see the photos section.

Below:- The old Hadfields steelworks being demolished during the mid 1980s.

Sheffield had several steel producing companies during the 1960s and 1970s, companies such as Firth Browns, British Steel Company and Hadfields, not to mention numerous other small concerns. These along with all the engineering works took up mile after mile of Sheffields' east end, in fact these industries stretched from the Wicker all the way to edge of Rotherhams' town centre, a distance of approximately 8 miles, in fact one machine shop in particular - the south machine shop - was half a mile long on it's own! This I hope give you some idea of the size and importance of the steel making industry to Sheffields' economy. As the years went by and the political/economic climate changed the steel works laid off staff, closed or amalgamated with one another, for example - Sheffield Forgemasters the company that rose from the merger of Firth Browns and the British Steel Companys' River Don works. All this upheaval meant large areas of the east end of Sheffield were left with derelict buildings and wasteland, it was on such land that the Meadowhall centre was built, the dual carriageway that links Meadowhall with the city centre was only possible because of the demolition of the old British Steel Companys' Norfolk steelworks.

Above:- part of Firth Browns Saville St. works.

Below:- on the left one of Firth Browns Smelting shops and on the right a 90 ton ladle of molten metal at BSCs River Don works.

Personally I love the Meadowhall centre, that said I know quite a few who despise it. For me it's all that shopping's about, easy to get to, plentiful free parking, good selection of shops, and a comfortable environment (if you go outside peak shopping times!) . I think I can safely say it's been a stunning success, but this is at the expense of the city centre. I don't think the council's helped much in this department, as it seems to actively discourage motorists from the city centre, then moan about the decline in retail trade. This I find to be a real paradox, generally people with the most money to spend on non food goods drive cars, such people will be totally unwilling to use public transport (I won’t discuss the whys and wherefores here, all you have to do is watch the press for all the evidence you need), but the council is still under the impression that less cars means more people will shop in the city centre, how they get this impression I’ll never know. The only explanation I can think of for this is, the success of the Meadowhall Centre, it’s busy on weekdays and packed at the weekends, maybe the council looks at this and thinks that people like it because they can walk around safely knowing there’s no chance they’ll be mown down by a car, bus, etc.

In my opinion people like the Meadowhall centre because -

	it’s easy to get to (rush hours excepted!)
	the parking’s free and plentiful
	it’s clean
	there’s no people begging outside the shops
	it doesn’t rain inside (!)
	good customer safety/security
	a good range of shops

Just compare this with the city centre -

	just getting to the centre is a nightmare (rush hour’s worse!)
	the cost of parking can easily add £5 to your shopping bill
	try finding a place to park, it’s easier negotiating with terrorists!
	it’s filthy, smelly and dangerous - just look at all the broken pavements
	lots of beggars
	same safety/security risks as any other city centre
	there’s less and less shops every week (except ‘bargain’ stores)

The city centre can’t compete on most of these issues, but the fact that the problems that could be changed aren’t will only hasten the decline of the city centre. Meadowhall doesn’t have some things going for it that the city centre does, there are still lots of offices based in the centre of Sheffield, let’s face it, it’s a captive audience, the shops should be booming, this clearly isn’t the case. Why?- I’ll let you decide that one.