After Shirley and I got married in October 1981, we lived in a terraced house in the Crookesmoor district of the city between Crookes and Upperthorpe. It's only two and a half miles from this house but these days I rarely go back to our old stomping ground. We lived there for eight years and it is where we began to raise our two children.
For whatever reason, I felt an urge to go back over there this morning - specifically to walk up Blake Street and to take a few photos of it. Blake Street was built in 1854 and was named after John Blake who was the city's Master Cutler in 1831. It is also the steepest residential street in Sheffield and one of the five steepest streets in England. The very steepest is Vale Street in Bristol.
On one side of the road there are railings to aid pedestrians and I noticed that the paving stones are specially textured - presumably to inhibit falls. At the top of the street, "The Blake Hotel" is still open for business. I believe it is still thriving - unlike my old local at Crookesmoor which is due to close for good very soon. We had some great times in that little pub. It was called "The Closed Shop" though I wish I did not have to apply a past tense.
The top of Blake Street
The bottom of Blake Street
Who would choose to live on a road like Blake Street? Certainly not me. The residents of Blake Street must all have bulging calf muscles. Going to work or paying a visit to the shops would be a daily challenge and on wintry days that road would be as treacherous as a ski slope.
Sheffield is officially Great Britain's hilliest city. Those hills provide vistas that you just do not get in flat cities. However, I am very glad that not all of our streets are as steep as Blake Street.
Great post. Steep streets are hell for mothers with prams and the elderly.
ReplyDeleteSteep streets have fascinated me since seeing Hitchcock's Vertigo as a boy.
I did not know Sheffield's Blake Street had such a crazy gradient.
I was on YouTube watching the steep streets of Manhattan, but nothing
will ever beat Jimmy Stewart driving up the white mountainous streets of
San Francisco ; seeing Kim Novak in the window of the old Gothic house.
Hitch wanted Grace Kelly and Cary Grant but they weren't available.
Hitchcock & Vertigo Filming Locations.
YouTube. The Magic Geekdom.
I understand your urge to return to Blake Street.
DeleteJohn Blake the Master Cutler is a friendly phantom.
What an Olympian image you captured of your great city !
I think I would be out of puff going up that street!
ReplyDeleteAs someone who grew up on the flat prairie, I believe hills are the work of the devil.
ReplyDeleteHey, another prairie kid.
DeleteIt must be a little tricky to drive up or down
ReplyDeleteBlake street. But then for us prairie boys we don't know how to walk up a hill.
I would rather walk it than have to drive a stick shift up it! Pity the person behind me.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't like to have to walk up that street, though going down would be okay.
ReplyDelete