Sheffield is readying for a new normal in more ways than many other cities around the world. As well as preparing to operate in a completely transformed way following the major shifts in working and living patterns brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, the city has welcomed a new chief executive of the council in Kate Josephs and a new council leader with the appointment of Bob Johnson on 7 December.
“It’s very rare that a city of Sheffield’s size sees a new chief executive and new leader appointed at the same time,” says Alexis Krachai, chief executive of the Sheffield Property Association. “That’s going to bring change. It’s difficult to predict what that change is, but change is good.”
Change is good, and so too is difference, says Krachai, and that is exactly what Sheffield believes it has to offer.
The city is one of the greenest in the country. Some 60% of the city is green space and a third of the city is in the Peak District National Park. Its challenge now is making sure everyone recognises its outdoor credentials and targets the city with their business, their investment and their desire to call it home.
“The challenge in Sheffield is going to be explaining to the wider world why some of the fundamentals of our city are going to be more attractive in the post-Covid world,” says Krachai. “For the last five years we’ve talked about Sheffield being the outdoors city. Our challenge is making sure that story is heard loud and proud around the world. And I think it is a story that people are going to be increasingly tuning in to.”
The weirdification of Sheffield
But it is not just Sheffield’s abundance of green space that will help the city stand out from the UK’s other major cities as the return to a normal begins. The city is weird, says professor Vanessa Toulmin, director of city and culture and co-director of partnerships and regional engagement at the University of Sheffield. And weird is something to be proud of.
“Sheffield has always been known as the cool city,” says Toulmin. ”We’ve got 58 recording studios in Sheffield. We’ve got 63 small breweries. We’ve got 115 artist studios in one mile in the city centre. But we’ve never really made the most of that. The weirdification of a city is a really important aspect and Sheffield does weirdification better than anyone.”
For Toulmin, celebrating the weirdness, the culture and the creativity there is within Sheffield will be vital in making sure that the city finds its heart. A heart that she believes is not the city centre, but all the arteries and veins that link the city together.
“We should celebrate the fact there are different aspects and great creativity in the city,” she says. “I think the pandemic has made us realise that the vision we have for connecting the Heart of the City development – Fargate, the High Street and Castlegate – is about connecting this one linear path through the city and turning it into a voyage of discovery.”
The very fact that Sheffield was not as advanced as some other regional cities in the redevelopment of its centre is providing a unique opportunity for the city not only to create a voyage of discovery for its inhabitants but to go on one itself.
“Our city centre can no longer just be about retail,” says SPA chair Martin McKervey. “There has been a fundamental shift. I don’t think we’ll return to city centres as we necessarily had them before the pandemic, and I think Sheffield is well positioned to grapple with how it might shape its new future in the years ahead.”
At a crossroads
Kellie Hatton, a partner at Shoosmiths, agrees: “Sheffield is very fortunate that we are pretty much at a crossroads right now. We’ve done some city centre regeneration, but there’s a lot still to go. And we are at a perfect crossroads now to say: OK, what does this new world order look like? What do we want the city centre to be?
“I think all cities are grappling with what a city centre is for, but I think it is right that the centre remains the heart of that city,” she adds. “That is what’s going to put it on a global platform and make it identifiable to the rest of the nation and more globally. So it does need to have a strong city centre with a clear identity.”
That identity should stop being one of humility and modesty, says Scarborough Group International development director Mark Jackson, and start to be one of belief. He, like Toulmin, McKervey, Krachai and Hatton, believes the city has an abundance of opportunities to seize upon as 2020 is left behind.
“Sheffield is getting there, but it has really got to be root and branch that the place believes in itself,” he says. “After 30 to 40 years of post-industrial decline, it is easy for the culture of a city to feel a bit battered, bruised and beaten, but you have just got to believe in yourself.”
“Without a doubt, 2020 has been challenging. There have been some really dark moments,” adds Krachai. “But as we start to think about vaccines, as we start to think about a post-pandemic world, we are really confident in Sheffield. We are a sleeping giant, and next year people are going to hear a lot more about the momentum the city has got.”
The big, green, weird giant that is Sheffield has awoken.
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