Peace, Plants and Pictures in Sheffield

In Brief.

This visit was to the heart of Sheffield, where the Peace Gardens occupy the square beside the Town Hall, Plants fill a modern Winter Garden and Pictures are among the objects on show in the Millennium Gallery. In fact, the Millennium Gallery more strongly features craft items, and the nearby Graves Gallery is the place to go for paintings. All of these are deserving of attention, and the compact town centre seems to have emerged strongly from a series of development initiatives.

Sheffield Town Hall from the Peace Gardens

What's Here?

Perhaps the Peace Gardens are the definition of the centre of Sheffield, occupying the public space in front of the town hall. It won't take long to visit them, but the combination of lawns, water features and levels, from the late 1990s, manages to be be both stately and calming in the middle of the bustling town centre.

The Winter Gardens


The Millennium Gallery and adjacent Winter Gardens were the original focus for my visit. Neither are huge, but the Winter Gardens provides a distinctive entrance to the Gallery, as well as a place to sit and appreciate some varied greenery. The Millennium Gallery has several exhibition spaces off a wide corridor that hosts the museum shop. These spaces include a metalwork collection that charts the history of Sheffield Steel, complementing the Kelham Island Museum, but with an emphasis on craft skills. It was particularly interesting to see, alongside historical collections, some graduation show pieces from recent students at Sheffield Hallam University who are keeping alive and developing new metalwork skills.

Nearby, on an upper floor of the same building as the library, is the Graves Gallery. Trudging up the stairs I wasn't sure what to expect, especially as the paintwork on the stairs is not in the best shape.  However, the gallery itself was excellent. Not only was the decor just fine, several rooms contained something that really caught my eye, a much better strike rate than is usual in art galleries. This included Grayson Perry's stonking Comfort Blanket, but there were also engaging temporary exhibitions and several striking sculptures in different media.

Practicalities.

Distance from Manchester Town Hall: 39 miles

Drive Time: 1 hour 20 mins

Price: $: The Millennium Gallery and Graves Gallery ask for donations.

Parking: I parked at Q-Park Charles Street (S1 2NJ) which is a clean and modern carpark with decent sized spaces, but which certainly charges city centre prices. It's even quite striking from the outside, which is not something that can be said for many multi-story carparks.

Food and Drink: There is a somewhat anaemic cafe with friendly service, satisfactory cake and proper crockery in The Millennium Gallery. There are lots of cafes and restaurants in the surrounding area.

Retail Therapy: There is a varied gift shop in The Millennium Gallery, with the expected art items and books, but also local crafts and foodstuffs.

Child Friendly: I didn't see a lot of stuff explicitly for kids other than a "can you find challenge" in the Millennium Gallery.

Toilets: Yes - in the galleries.

Do it justice in: an hour each for The Millennium Gallery and Graves Gallery.

Inside-Outside: 90:10

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