Anders Hanson

One of the many advantages of living in the city centre is that I now have new places on my doorstep that before would take a bit more planning and a longer journey.

Two of those places I went to on Monday, when I went for a walk from my flat up through Norfolk Park and across to the Cholera Monument Gardens. Norfolk Park is one of Sheffield’s bigger parks and is also one of the oldest in the country. It is just minutes from the edge of the city centre but as soon as you start walking through it, it could be in the middle of the countryside. But the best bit is what you meet at the top of the hill - the view across the city. I’ve written before on this website about how the hills are one of the best things about the city. That is certainly true in the case of Norfolk Park, which has amazing views across the city centre, across the city as a whole and then out in to the countryside.

I then walked through the neighbouring residential streets past the impressive Shrewsbury Hospital Estate, and then to the Cholera Monument Grounds. I felt as though I knew this park as you can see the Cholera Monument from some distance across the valley, but I realised that I didn’t. It is a beautiful park that is made up of carefully trimmed lawns and a tree-lined avenue leading from the road. It is quiet and secluded and yet right at the heart of the city. By the monument itself you then have yet another dramatic view across the city. It is great that the high-rises of Claywood Flats also no longer block out part of the view as they once did.

Sheffield may not be known as a beautiful city, but if an outsider came to both of these places they would rapidly change their mind.

SHEFFIELD CITY COUNCIL: Norfolk Park

SHEFFIELD CITY COUNCIL: Cholera Monument Grounds

FLIKR: Anders Hanson’s Sheffield Collection