The decades of change and evolution that led to Devonshire Green becoming Sheffield city centre's popular green space

Created from the ashes of the Blitz

Despite its historic sounding name, it is actually a fairly recent creation, but with an interesting story which shows how chance events, plus creative ideas from both local business and communities have interplayed with town planning.

The space we now call Devonshire Green first emerged as a result of the Blitz which destroyed large swathes of Sheffield’s city centre including houses and factories between Eldon St Wellington St and Fitzwilliam St.

After the war it was acquired by the Council as part of a 1946 plan for a grand boulevard of Eastern European scale linking to Barkers Pool.

This however was soon abandoned and the space used for car parking through the 50s and early 60s.

However, occasional outdoor events were staged like the travelling ‘Cinerama’ big top.

Sheffield’s short-lived and notorious Broomhall Flats

In the early 1970s, Sheffield Council’s Estates Department launched a more modest plan to build small factory units, starting on Wellington St where they can still be seen.

On the opposite side of Fitzwilliam St in 1968 the Council had built the notorious and short-lived Broomhall Flats – an ultimately disastrous experiment in system-built housing constructed of grey concrete slabs around small courtyards.

The future Dev Green was used as a temporary factory to manufacture the slabs using a huge ‘Goliath’ crane.

Among many other problems including chronic damp and plagues of pharaoh ants, the new residents soon complained of noise and disturbance from children playing ball games in the echoing courts.

The plan for Devonshire Green becoming a green space

In 1980 in a bid to deflect this issue tenants proposed to planners a new green space and playground on the remaining part of the bombsite.

This cut across the factory plans of the Estates Surveyor and a lengthy Town Hall battle ensued which the planners, supported by the community, won.

The green space was duly laid out albeit rather cheaply and with few features except basic grass, trees, swings and the tarmac kickabout and was duly named Devonshire Green, bounded slightly incongruously on one side by the factory units.

A small concrete block in the centre offered a rather low key memorial to the Sheffield Blitz.

In the 80s, Broomhall Flats were demolished and replaced by the much more successful low rise Broomspring Estate incorporating a number of small green spaces in it. Dev Green fell into relative disuse and acquired a somewhat dodgy reputation for substance abuse around the abandoned kickabout.

A muddy diagonal desire-line path became its distinctive feature.

The revival of skating in Sheffield

In a memorable incident a police car chasing a suspect across the Green one night ran straight into the diminutive Blitz Memorial and came to a loud and abrupt halt!

In the early 90s Devonshire St and Division St took on new life as they became a major conduit for students and other young people between the two rapidly growing Universities. Starting with the Forum and Mr Kites (now the Green Room) independent shops and bars began to replace more humdrum uses.

The idea of a distinctive ‘Devonshire Quarter’ began to be used by traders and residents.

Kane Yardley and Charlie Chester, co-founders of the Forum, began discussions with the Council to create a bar terrace across Eldon St and into a corner of the Green.

They proposed a Barcelona/mosaic theme inspired by Gaudi’s Parc Guel.

Meanwhile, skateboarding began its revival in Sheffield. Skaters initially took over Tudor Square in large numbers spawning edgy clashes with theatre goers.

Council planners (including the author) then worked with skaters and BMXers to find a better location- the abandoned kickabout on Dev Green - develop an innovative design and raise money for it.

Dev Green skatepark

In a notable example of ‘co-production’ they succeeded. The Dev Green skatepark, opened in 2000, constructed using the relatively new technique of sprayed concrete.

The Green became the weekend meeting place for young people seeking something alternative in the city centre.

Meanwhile housing returned to the city centre, initially in the Devonshire Quarter and most noticeably with West One. ‘Section 106’ funds (sometimes called Planning Gain) were collected from developers by the Council to contribute to an improved green space.

In 2008 the Green was totally reshaped to create a shallow bowl with grass terraces, focused on the skatepark.

Serpentine concrete planters combined sprayed concrete used in the skatepark with the

Forum’s Gaudiesque aesthetic to create a cheerful and relatively inexpensive informal event space overlooking the bowl and diverting the walking route slightly.

The new space immediately attracted an even larger range of users and a popular beer garden.

The beginning of Tramlines

Soon after, in 2009, the first Tramlines Festival was conceived as Sheffield’s distinctive ‘inner city music festival’ inspired in part by this attractive new green space.

Many other events continue to use it alongside a varied social life of skating, ball games, picnics and hanging out.

Why am I telling you this? Because it is interesting, but also because its a great example that could inform the tentative steps now being taken by the Council to consult on the future of the former Castle Market site.

Dev Green is successful because it was the work of many hands - albeit delivered by a listening Council.