The Peace Gardens are an

inner city The term inner city (also called the hood) has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Soc ...

square in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

, England. The Gardens themselves front onto Sheffield's gothic

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

, not to be confused with

Sheffield City Hall Sheffield City Hall is a Grade II* listed building in Sheffield, England in Barker's Pool, one of the city's central squares. It was built and is owned by Sheffield City Council. History The building was designed in 1920 by E. Vincent Harr ...

(a concert venue), or the Sheffield Old Town Hall at Castle Market.

History

The Gardens were first laid out in 1938, following the demolition of St Paul's Church. Originally named St Paul's Gardens, they were immediately nicknamed the "Peace Gardens", marking the contemporary signing of the

Munich Agreement The Munich Agreement was reached in Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the French Third Republic, French Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy. The agreement provided for the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–194 ...

. The Gardens were originally intended to be replaced by an extension to the Town Hall, but due to the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, this was never built.The Peace Gardens
,

Sheffield City Council Sheffield City Council is the local authority for the City of Sheffield, a metropolitan borough with city status in South Yorkshire, England. The council consists of 84 councillors, elected to represent 28 wards, each with three councillors. ...

In 1985, the space was formally renamed the "Peace Gardens". The Sheffield gardens are a fine example of the network of similar gardens created between the two world wars and presage later gardens and community spaces in London and other urban centres. In 1997 work commenced to remove the former St Pauls graveyard, and the whole space was re-modelled. Water features and a central fountain were introduced, with the channels representing the rivers of Sheffield. The construction work was carried out by Tilbury Douglas Construction (now Interserve) under a Management form of Contract, with the design work carried out mainly by Sheffield City Council. The "topping out ceremony" was carried out by Prince Charles, and a plaque on Pinstone Street was unveiled to mark this event. The Peace Gardens were substantially completed by the end of 1998, then the Sheffield Millennium Galleries works commenced and the old egg-box council offices were then demolished. This allowed the remainder of the Peace Gardens to be completed in a second phase, which is also known as Millennium Square.

Features

It has

fountains A fountain, from the Latin "fons" ( genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were o ...

at the centre, and cascades around the outside. These are to represent the flowing molten

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

, which made Sheffield famous, and also the water of Sheffield's

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

s, the

Sheaf Sheaf may refer to: * Sheaf (agriculture), a bundle of harvested cereal stems * Sheaf (mathematics) In mathematics, a sheaf (: sheaves) is a tool for systematically tracking data (such as sets, abelian groups, rings) attached to the open s ...

, River Don,

River Rivelin The River Rivelin is a river in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It rises on the Hallam moors, in north west Sheffield, and joins the River Loxley (at Malin Bridge). The Rivelin Valley, through which the river flows, is a long woodland vall ...

River Loxley The River Loxley is a river in the City of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its source is a series of streams which rise some to the north-west of Sheffield, England, Sheffield on Bradfield Moors, flowing through Bradfield Dale to converge ...

and

Porter Brook The Porter Brook is a river which flows through the City of Sheffield, England, descending over from its source on Burbage Moor to the west of the city to its mouth where it joins the River Sheaf in a culvert beneath Sheffield railway stati ...

, which were used to power the mills which drove

's industry. The site contains several memorials for citizens of Sheffield who served in wars, including in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

and another plaque commemorating Sheffielders who gave their lives in all conflicts, including the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. It also contains a memorial to

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...

, unveiled on Hiroshima Day, 8 August 1985, in the presence of three survivors of the atomic devastation.13. "The New Peace Gardens" in More Sheffield Curiosities by Duncan & Trevor Smith. Other memorials include the Holberry Cascades, named for local Chartist leader

Samuel Holberry Samuel Holberry (18 November 1814 – 21 June 1842) was a prominent Chartist activist. Early years Holberry was born in Gamston, Nottinghamshire, the youngest of 9 children. In 1832 he joined the British army, leaving in 1835 and moving to Sh ...

, the

Bochum Bochum (, ; ; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 372,348 (April 2023), it is the sixth-largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German federa ...

Bell, donated by Sheffield's German twin city

, and a set of standard measures. The measures had previously been located by a wall alongside St Paul's Parade, just outside the Peace Gardens.

Gallery

File:PcGdnWar.jpg, War plaque File:PcGdn1936.jpg, Spanish Civil War Plaque File:Holberry2068.jpg, Holberry Plaque File:HeartoftheCityShef.jpg, Heart of the City File:MeasuresSheffield.jpg, Standard Measures of yard and metre

References

{{SheffieldCityCentre Tourist attractions in Sheffield Squares in Sheffield Gardens in South Yorkshire Peace gardens

History

Features

Gallery

See also

References