Sheffield Gold Route - UK Landscape Award

Sheffield City Centre
Public Realm
The Gold Route
The journey from Sheffield Station to
Barkers Pool via the Heart of the City
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The Gold R
Sheffield’s ‘Gold Route’ is a series of spectacular spaces
and streets, centred on the Heart of the City project,
which has come to symbolise the city’s economic and
cultural renaissance. It is a network that takes a visitor
arriving at the station to the University of Sheffield
Campus. These include Sheaf Square, Howard Street,
Hallam Gardens and Hallam Square, the Millennium
Galleries, Winter Garden, Millennium Square and then on
through the Peace Gardens to Barkers Pool and the
proposed new retail quarter.
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Each space in the Gold Route has its own distinctive
character and elements such as water features, lighting,
and public art; but all the spaces belong to a family with
common themes and materials – flowing water, highly
crafted metal and Pennine sandstone, the fundamentals
of Sheffield’s history and character planned in the City
Centre Masterplan.
This important axis links the two universities and was first
identified in the 1994 City Centre Strategy. Much new
development is taking place along its length and where it
crosses Sheffield’s main shopping spine defines the
‘Heart of the City’.
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1. Sheaf Square
Cascade Weirs
Sheaf Square is the station gateway to Sheffield, and is set in
the Sheaf Valley, close to the Cultural Industries Quarter, the new
Digital Campus, Sheffield Bus Interchange and Sheffield Hallam
University.
Following a decision to invest £13 million in the refurbishment of
the railway station, Sheffield City Council and Sheffield One
appointed EDAW consultants and the Council’s Regeneration
Projects Design Team (RPDT) to carry out a masterplan for
development and public realm in the area surrounding the
station, known as Sheaf Square, then dominated by a large
traffic roundabout on the Inner Relief Road. The aim was to
reconnect the station to the City Centre, make an impressive
gateway space for visitors and ensure a clear and unobstructed
pedestrian route.
The Master Plan sets out an ambitious design that required the
acquisition and demolition of several buildings, paving the way
for a ‘World Class’ gateway to the city and creating four new
development sites for which proposals have been put forward.
Detailed design work was carried out by the City Council’s inhouse
Landscaping and Engineering design team and extended
to include the pedestrianisation of Howard Street which would
provide a clear and attractive route to the Heart of the City via
Sheffield Hallam University and the Cultural Industries Quarter.
Sheaf Square at night
Sheaf Square route to City Centre
Si Applied and Keiko Mukaide designed and collaborated in the
development of the Cutting Edge’ sculpture, an 81 metre long
blade of polished stainless steel and art glass.
Jeremy Asquith assisted in the re-design of the Heart of the City
street furniture so that it could be fabricated in stainless steel
instead of the original cast bronze created by his father Brian
Asquith.
The Design Team also included lighting consultants Sutton Vane
Associates, who designed the Station façade lighting and
amenity lighting in the Square together with feature lighting on
the Cutting Edge sculpture and Howard Street Rill. Many of the
luminaires in the water features and street furniture incorporate
low energy / long lifespan light emitting diodes, which also have
the added safety benefits of running on low voltages.
Cascade lights and misters
All of the new pavements and walling are crafted in natural
stone, the most common is the Crosland Hill Yorkstone used in
highway paving and throughout the whole cascade water
feature, designed by RPDT. Each of the 426 cascades run over
carved weir stones that have been hand finished by Yorkshire
Craftsmen from Johnsons Wellfield quarries of Huddersfield,
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Cascade Fountain
each carefully bedded and levelled by Vetter UK stonemasons
to maintain water flow symmetry.
The Cutting Edge sculpture, weighing approximately 80 tonnes
is one of the largest stainless steel sculptures in the UK and was
fabricated by Jordan Engineering using Sheffield steel. Water is
pumped from a large plant room under the main water feature to
the crest of the sculpture from where it flows over a very
accurately levelled weir and down the polished face of the
sculpture. As well as creating an attractive shimmering effect the
filtered and sterilised water has the added advantage of keeping
one face of the sculpture clean and graffiti free. The sculpture is
cantilevered over a dished channel that collects the feature
water and reflects light from dozens of blue LED lights set into
the underside of the sculpture. The channel runs into a shallow
pool at the ‘sharp’ end of Cutting Edge simulating the
quenching of a hot steel blade.
Cutting Edge
2. Howard Street and Hallam Gardens
The Howard Street project provides a vastly improved traffic-free
route to the city centre by re-arranging the university service
access and pedestrianising Howard Street including the
acquisition of land for a new public garden at Sheffield Hallam
University’s entrance on Hallam Square.
Hallam Gardens Rill Sink
The university, as partners in the Project, reconstructed their
main entrance at the top of Howard Street and incorporated a
new bookshop on land between Howard Street and Arundel
Gate to create a terraced amphitheatre and focal point for the
campus. A large development site was also created on Howard
Street as shown on the route map.
Regeneration Projects Design Team developed the design for a
simple terraced garden closing the top of Surrey Lane, which
has now become a service road to the University’s main delivery
area. The garden consists of 6 terraced lawns enclosed by a
stainless steel railing based on a crucible tong profile and
edged by a curved and ramped stone sitting wall containing a
small water feature.
Water runs from a low fountain at the ‘source’ though a mosaiclined
channel to a concave sink at the bottom of the garden. The
feature represents the teeming of molten metal and is side lit by
an innovative fibre optic ‘lightbar’, which in turn is powered by
eight projectors set in ventilated pits beneath the pavement. It
was designed and constructed by Mosaic Workshop.
Hallam Gardens Rill Source
Closing Howard Street to traffic has allowed the designers to
create a tree-lined avenue with 12 illuminated stainless steel and
granite seats for weary pedestrians climbing the hill. The bus
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gate at the bottom of the hill is lined with new stainless steel
bollards, each fitted with two high intensity light emitting diodes
to highlight the route from the Station at night.
Water for the rill feature is filtered and sanitised in a small plant
room that has been built into a raised shrub bed on the opposite
side of Howard Street. The plant room also supplies irrigation
water for the lawns, trees and shrub beds.
New paving consists of shot sawn Yorkshire sandstone, and
blue/grey granite cubes and flags from Fujian Province, China.
The granite flags are flame texture to improve grip in the wet and
are laid on a rigid concrete basecourse using the latest bonding
materials and techniques to eliminate expansion joints.
Howard Street at night
Semi-mature fastigiate hornbeam trees are planted and
anchored in large pits that extend beneath the paving using a
special topsoil mix that can be fully compacted to support
paving without affecting root growth. Custom designed ductile
iron tree grilles are fitted with adjustable uplighters to illuminate
the trees at night.
The stainless steel discs in the centre of each seat are a
temporary measure pending the sponsorship and production of
a set of artist designed plaques.
Howard Street - before
Hallam Square: Until 2000 an intrusive dual carriageway,
Arundel Gate, severed Hallam University campus from the civic
Heart of the City. The downsizing of Arundel Gate,
reestablishment of a surface pedestrian crossing and the
creation of boulevard planting allowed the formation of Hallam
Square. The project was funded by the Millennium Lottery Fund
and Hallam University.
Howard Street at night
Howard Street - after
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Plants in Winter Garden
Millennium Galleries
3. Millennium Galleries and
Winter Garden
The Millennium Galleries and Sheffield Winter Garden open on
to the Millennium Square, Tudor Square and Arundel Gate, and
so form a valuable link in the Gold Route from Howard Street on
up to the Peace Gardens.
Tudor Square entrance to Winter Garden
Both the Millennium Galleries and Sheffield Winter Garden were
designed by Pringle Richards Sharratt Architects, with the
Galleries opening in April 2001 and the Winter Garden opening
later in May 2003.
The Millennium Galleries is a modern, light and spacious
building made mainly of glass and white concrete, with marble
floors and high ceilings. The gallery breaks with the traditional
institutional image of an art gallery and the Millennium Galleries
create an outstanding venue for the visual arts, craft and
design, right in the heart of Sheffield.
Outside views of Millennium Galleries entrance
on Arundel Gate
With four individual galleries under one roof, there is free access
to a permanent metal craft and the Ruskin collections, and paid
access to other visiting collections and exhibitions. Built on two
levels to make best use of the sloping site, the Galleries has an
internal ‘avenue’ which leads from the entrance on Arundel Gate
to the Winter Garden, and off which the four galleries are
located. The information centre and shop are also located in the
internal avenue.
A Learning Centre hosts a programme of public activities
including talks and practical workshops. There are also
activities designed especially for schools, colleges and other
community groups.
Surrey Street
The Winter Garden is 70 metres long, 22 metres wide and is
constructed from wooden arches that are nearly 21 metres high.
The arches are made from Larch, a durable timber which will,
over time, turn a light silvery grey colour. The larch, derived from
sustainable forests, requires no preservatives or coatings. This
reduces the use of solvents and also avoids the use of
chemicals that could kill the plants. It is one of the largest Glue
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Laminate or ‘Glulam’ buildings in the UK (Glulam is made by
forming and gluing strips of timber into specific shapes).
More than 2,100 square metres of glass, 900 cubic metres of
concrete and 80 tonnes of steel have been used together with
400 tons of topsoil to fill the plant beds.
The building has an intelligent Building Management System that
controls fans and vents to make sure the plants are cooled in
summer and kept warm in winter. The system will ‘learn’ year-onyear
and has background frost protection to a minimum of 4
degrees Celsius.
Trachycarpus
4. Millennium Square
The space, directly links the two established and hugely popular
green spaces of the Peace Gardens and Winter Garden and
affords a magnificent view of the latter building. It also provides
the setting for the first completed private investments in the
Heart of the City – the St Pauls Mercure Hotel, No 1 and No 2 St
Pauls Place, a multi storey car park, the 32 storey residential St
Pauls tower and a further planned office block.
Millennium Square was designed by architects Allies and
Morrison. The same practice has also designed one of the
buildings adjoining the space, an office with ground floor cafes
called No 1 St Pauls Place. The other buildings around the
Square (actually more of a triangle in shape) are the Novotel, the
Winter Garden and the St Pauls Mecure Hotel.
Rain, Millennium Square - artists impression
Millennium Square is built on a suspended concrete slab, over a
large car park and servicing area, which belongs to the
occupiers of No 1. This has greatly added to the challenges
facing the technical designers of the nine separate water
features that sit in the space in respect of water supply,
drainage and waterproofing. The space is paved in a
combination of granite and sandstone paving, the surface of
which is set with hundreds of LED lights, imparting a sparkling
effect at night.
The water feature was the subject of a design competition
organised by the City Council in 2003. The winner was the artist
Colin Rose, who proposed a composition of nine stainless steel
spheres, of varying diameters from 300 mm to 2000 mm, each
standing in a shallow stone-edged pool of gently rippling water.
The spheres are animated by a constant thin film of water that
flows from an outlet in the top and drains over a weir into a
closed pumped system.
The title of the piece is ‘Rain’ and is intended to evoke the
moment when a drop of water, having precipitated from a cloud,
falls to earth. The stone edges therefore suggest a ripple effect
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Rain, Millennium Square - view to Peace Gardens

in the surface of the square. The intention is to subtly introduce
the themes of steel, craftsmanship, Pennine stone and water, but
in this case in a more reflective way, and with a reference to
Pennine weather as well!
Close-up of Rain, Millennium Square
Carving on stone plinth
From a practical point of view, the constant flow of water
ensures that the spheres should remain free of graffiti whilst
being attractive to touch and helping animate the space both
night and day.
Public reaction to the spheres since their opening in March 2006
has been almost entirely positive, and attracts a steady stream
of photographers.
Critical to the impact of the piece was the accuracy and
precision of the spheres and the surface finish. The water
supply to the spheres is regulated from a central control room in
the underground servicing area, as is the lighting, which can be
changed to provide any colour combination or sequence for
special effects. As with all the fountains in Sheffield City Centre
these will be maintained by the City Centre Management Team,
who provide technical maintenance, cleaning and security in the
square.
5. Peace Gardens
Originally a graveyard for the now demolished St Pauls Church,
the Gardens were completely rebuilt in 1998 as part of
Sheffield’s celebration of the second Millennium in accordance
with public request and to a design by the Council’s Landscape
Architects. The plantings reflect a contemporary interpretation of
the English Garden style, and the borders contain a rich
collection of perennials giving changing displays throughout the
year.
The walls in the Gardens are constructed from gritstone from the
Stoke Hall Quarry in Derbyshire which also supplied stone for
the Town Hall. The paving stones are sandstone from the
Rockingstone Quarry, West Yorkshire and granite setts from
Portugal.
Ceramic Rill and the Goodwin Fountain
Fragments of the old Churchyard walls have been retained
along Cheyney Row and at either end of St Paul’s Parade.
The Gardens contain a number of monuments reflecting aspects
of the city’s history:
Holberry commemorative plaque carved by Iuean Rhys
The Goodwin Fountain: the central fountain, with its 89
individual jets, is dedicated to the philanthropists Sir Stuart and
Lady Goodwin. Sir Stuart was the founder of the major steel and
tool making firm Neepsend Ltd. and a man of considerable
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wealth. The pump room is hidden underground and accessed
from a door in the first cascade. Tracey Heyes designed the
pavement of coloured stonework, from which the fountain
emerges, surrounded by the Goodwin inscription which was
carved by Ieuan Rhys.
Bronze Water Vessel
The Standard Measures: were displayed in a public place
so that commercial disputes about short measure could be
settled conclusively. This set, originally in St Paul’s Parade,
were not the first in Sheffield by any means but were
presented to the City by the Earl Fitzwilliam on the
occasion of a scientific conference in Sheffield in 1895.
The Cascades: replaced an earlier fountain in the entrance
to the Town Hall Extension also named after Samuel
Holberry. The stone plinths with references to the fish and
plant life of Sheffield’s eight main rivers were carved by
Nottingham sculptor Richard Perry in collaboration with the
Cambridge Carving Workshop. Eight Bronze Water Vessels
which represent the pouring of both water and molten
metal, were designed by Derbyshire metal artist Brian
Asquith.
Ceramic Rill detail
The ceramic weirs and rills by Sheffield sculptor Tracey
Heyes are inspired both by the flora of Sheffield’s rivers
and streams and by the many remains of water powered
factories to be found all over the city. The Holberry
commemorative plaque was carved by Iuean Rhys. The
wooden benches were designed and carved by Derbyshire
furniture maker Andrew Skelton, who also designed and
fabricated the cascade plant room door.
Safety and Security: One of the keys to the success of the
Peace Gardens was the provision of day and night
attendance by City Centre Management Team staff. These
ambassadors have ensured the artwork remains free of
vandalism and provide help and re-assurance to the throng
of people pausing or passing through the space every day.
The Cascades
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6. Town Hall Square and Surrey Street
The re-alignment and narrowing of Pinstone Street
allowed the in-house design team to create a new event
and gathering space outside the main entrance to the
grade 1 listed Town Hall. The space also incorporates
disabled access ramps to the Council Chambers, bronze
planters, with new paving in shot sawn Yorkshire
sandstone.
Surrey Street was also narrowed to give pedestrians more
space and create a better setting for the Town Hall, whist
the tarmac carriageway was replaced with cropped setts
in carefully detailed granite channels and kerbs.
The setts have slowed traffic to the extent that smooth
stone flag crossings (Caithness stone) allow pedestrians
to cross the road safely without special controls.
Additional features include a socket for the civic Christmas
tree or Easter cross, with power supply, several `pop up'
power supplies for outdoor events and new building
mounted highway lighting and CCTV cameras which cut
down the clutter of masts normally associated with city
centre spaces.
Street furniture was custom designed from scratch by
artist Bryan Asquith working in collaboration with the City
Council's Regeneration Projects Design Team. The suite
includes tree grilles, drainage grilles, granite and bronze
seats, planters, bollards and litterbins.
Outdoor seating for nearby bar
Town Hall, Surrey Street,
looking towards the top of Fargate
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Town Hall Square

Steel man outside the Town Hall
7. Barkers Pool
Sheffield's City Centre Masterplan identified the City Hall /
Barkers Pool Public Realm Project as a key part of the
regeneration of the City Centre and led the Council and
Sheffield One to commission BDP in 2002 to work up a
Concept Design.
City Hall rear
The City Council's Regeneration Project Design Team, with
technical support from in-house electrical and mechanical
engineers, was commissioned to produce a detailed design
based on continuing the high standards of craftsmanship
and aesthetic design developed in the award winning Heart
of the City project, to transform the space around a
refurbished City Hall into a high quality setting for new
commercial developments on Balm Green and Holly Street.
Features of the design include:
• The exclusion of all general traffic and parking other than
servicing of the City Hall stage doors, other direct frontages,
taxis and disabled badge-holders. All parking is in specified
bays only.
City Hall
City Hall Square
• The extension of the high quality palette of gritstone, granite
and bronze plus new seating, street furniture and pedestrian
lighting. The `giant' size of stone paving slabs around the Hall
have been retained from the original layout. The Heart of the
City palette is a prescribed selection of high quality natural
materials reflecting local distinctiveness, providing a uniform
and seamless public realm set out in the Sheffield City Centre
Design Compendium.
• Extension of smoother non-vehicular paved areas and
elimination of kerbs to accommodate cafe terraces and
pedestrian circulation around City Hall precincts wherever
possible.
• The establishment of offsite parking provision for vehicles
servicing the City Hall and not required for operational
purposes to minimise impact on the pedestrian environment.
• The replacement of trees (with the exception of certain trees
identified for preservation such as the Turkey Oaks in Balm
Green), and selection of more appropriate semi-mature
species to allow more room around City Hall, and to open
up visibility of the building from Barkers Pool.
Detail of fountain base
• The creation of a spectacular water feature creating a link
with the historic Barkers Pool the town's medieval water
reservoir. This comprises of two 7 metre square polished and
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flame textured granite plinths with cast art glass inset around
the sides. The water pool ‘floats’ above the coping behind four
large transparent acrylic beams over which the water flows
when the 4 metre high fountain is switched on. The acrylic
and glass elements are illuminated with a combination of
colour changing light emitting diodes and fibre optics. The
main feature pump is hidden in a wet well beneath the
fountain. All filtration and treatment of the water occurs in a
small plant room in the adjacent Balm Green Gardens. This
building also contains the main electrical feeds to the feature
lighting.
• ‘Bottom to top’ restoration of the Cenotaph.
• Careful design of Barker’s Pool to accommodate large crowds
and parades safely and to create a dignified setting for the
Cenotaph.
• Public art commissions have been integrated into the overall
design concept, particularly for the new seating and water
features.
• A co-ordinated, imaginative but easily maintained street and
flood-lighting scheme for the spaces and surrounding
buildings.
• The de-cluttering of the space and removal of level changes
has been welcomed by disabled groups.
The result of these improvements is to emphasise the
monumentality of the City Hall building, a building which is very
important to many Sheffield people for a variety of reasons, and
the creation of a unity and integrity to the public realm that flows
out from the building to the facades of the surrounding
buildings. The use of granite in the main square emphasises
movement into a distinct space that reflects the recto-linear
character of the 1930s City Hall building.
Barkers Pool fountain at night
Barkers Pool Square
Barkers Poll Table Seats
This de-cluttered and unified public realm provides a muchimproved
pedestrian environment, no longer dominated by cars
and other vehicles, feeling both safe and welcoming. The new
space has proved a highly attractive setting for major
developments, both completed and proposed. These
developments are a mixture of residential, new office space,
retail and leisure and will bring real and tangible benefits to
Sheffield City centre in the form of new jobs, better facilities for
residents and workers and will inspire further developer and
investor confidence.
Barkers Poll fountain
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Next Steps
The 2009 City Centre Master Plan identifies a second major
access - the ‘Steel Route’ as the next major focus for public
realm investment. The route runs from Moorfoot in the southwest
of the city to the Wicker Riverside in the northeast and links the
two major Business Districts as well as the Moor Markets,
Sevenstone Retail Quarter and Castegate Quarter, via the Heart
of the City.
Major new public space projects are under way on the Moor,
Furnival Square, Charter Square, Victoria Square, Wicker and
along the riverside.
Appendix 1: Project Outlines
Sheaf Square and Howard Street
Design Team
Facts and Figures
Client: Sheffield City Council
Programme
EDAW Apr 2004 to Dec 2006
Faber Maunsell and RPDT (Masterplan)
Site Area: 2.8 ha
Regeneration Projects (Detailed design)
Project Value: £23 million
Streetforce (Highway Design)
Sheffield Design and Project Management (M & E)
Implementation Team
Funding
Interserve (Partnering Contractor)
Part of the £40 million
Station Gateway Project
Fitzgeralds (Paving and Substructures)
DSM (Demolition) ERDF Objective 1
Vetter UK (Stone Masonry)
Single Regeneration Budget
Cutting Edge Sculptures (Jordan Engineering)
Department for Transport
Stainless Steel Street Furniture (Steel Line)
Yorkshire Forward
Water Feature Installation (OCMIS)
Railway Heritage Trust
Advanced Road Works (Hewletts)
English Partnerships
Electrical and Lighting (AMEC)
Sheffield City Council
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Millennium Galleries
Design Team
Facts and Figures
Client: Sheffield Galleries & Museums Trust Programme 1996-2001
Pringle Richards Sharratt (Architects)
Floor Area: 5,000 sq. metres
Buro Happold (Structural Engineers)
Project Value: £12.45 million
Arundel Gate: £2.5 million
Implementation Team
Interserve Project Management
Funding
Millennium Commission,
English Partnerships,
Sheffield City Council
Sheffield Hallam University
ERDF
Objective 2
Awards
RIBA Award 2003, Civic Trust Award 2001, Concrete Society Award 2002,
BCIA Awards finalist 2001
Winter Garden
Design Team
Facts and Figures
Client: Sheffield City Council Programme 1996-2002
Architects: Pringle Richards Sharratt Architects
Floor Area: 1540 sq. m
Project Management: Sheffield City Council
Project Value: £5.5 million
Structural & Services Engineers: Buro Happold
Landscape Consultant: Weddle Landscape Design
Implementation Team
Management Contractor: Interserve Project Services Ltd
Plant supply, planting and aftercare:
Rentokil Tropical Plants Ltd
Funding
Millennium Commission,
ERDF,
English Partnerships,
Sheffield City Council
Yorkshire Forward
Awards
RIBA Award 2003, Civic Trust Award 2004, Royal Fine Art Commission Building of the
Year Jeu d’Esprit Award 2003, Wood Award shortlisting 2003, Academy of Urbanism
Great Place 2007
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Millennium Square
Design Team
Facts and Figures
Client: Sheffield City Council
Allies and Morrison (Architects) Programme 2002 to 2006
Buro Happold (Structural Engineers)
Sheffield Design and Project Management
Floor Area: 2000 sq. m
Project Value: £3.3 million
not inc fees
Implementation Team
Management Contractor: Interserve Project Services Ltd
Funding
Millennium Lottery,
Yorkshire Forward
Private
Awards
Academy of Urbanism Great Place 2007
Peace Gardens
Design Team
Facts and Figures
Client: Sheffield City Council Programme: 1998 to 2002
(2 phases)
Regeneration Projects Design
Site Area: 5500 sq. m
Sheffield Design and Project Management
Project Value: £7.5 million
St Paul’s Parade: £500,000
Implementation Team
Funding
Interserve (main contractor) ERDF Objective 2
Invent (water features)
Single Regeneration Budget
Streetforce (paving and soft landscaping)
Private
English Partnerships
Yorkshire Forward
Millennium Commission
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Town Hall Square and Surrey Street
Design Team
Facts and Figures
Implementation Team
Barkers Pool
Design Team
Implementation Team
Funding
Facts and Figures
Funding
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