Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire in central England. The city’s history begins in the Anglo-Saxon and Danish era, when settlements were established in the area. After the Norman conquest of England, a castle was built in Sheffield to defend the local settlements, and the city grew around the castle. At the end of the 13th century there was a market in Sheffield and the city became known as the market town, and later manufacturing also developed in Sheffield.

Industrially, the city became a leader in knives and cutlery, and later Sheffield plate, a new way of processing tin, and significant steel production emerged. Despite a decline in exports from the 18th century, Sheffield boomed with the Industrial Revolution and the population grew from circa 60,000 in 1801 to over 450,000 in 1901. During World War II, the city became a bombing target due to the large steel and weapons production that was in the city.

Today you can make some pleasant walks in the center of Sheffield. You can start at the Peace Gardens square, which is laid out with a green area on the site where St Paul’s Church stood until 1938. The church was demolished after renovations that resulted in smaller congregations, and today the square is a beautiful urban space where can see the city’s neo-Gothic Sheffield Town Hall.

The town hall was built 1890-1897, when Queen Victoria inaugurated the building that replaced the town hall, which today is called the Old Town Hall. The Old Town Hall can be seen a little to the north-east of the present Town Hall and was built in the Neoclassical style in 1808-1809. From the Peace Gardens you can also walk the city’s cobbled streets, and Sheffield Winter Garden is also close by. It is a garden with more than 2,000 different plants, which are under glass-covered arches of larch wood.

Just west of the Peace Gardens is Barker’s Pool, where Sheffield’s war memorial stands. Here you can see Sheffield City Hall as well, which is a large concert hall that was built in neoclassicism in the years 1929-1932. It was originally planned to be a memorial hall for the victims of the First World War, but the plans changed and since then many concerts and other events have been held on this stage.

A little north of here you can visit Sheffield Cathedral, which was a parish church until 1914, when Sheffield was established as a bishop’s seat. The cathedral was built from around the year 1200, and it was built upon over many centuries and right up until 1966. Therefore, Sheffield Cathedral today is a mixture of architecture from different periods. The interior is nice with quite a few stained-glass windows and a mixture of old and new styles.

There are also several museums to visit in Sheffield. You can see changing exhibitions at the Millennium Gallery and various art exhibitions at the Graves Gallery, both located in central Sheffield. To the west of the city is Weston Park Museum, Sheffield’s classic museum with collections in archaeology, history and natural history.

Not far from here, you can see modern architecture unfolding in the university building The Diamond, and opposite The Diamond is St George’s Church, which was consecrated in 1825. You can also go south of the city center to Bishops’ House. Bishops’ House is one of Sheffield’s oldest preserved houses, and it was completed around the year 1500 as a beautiful half-timbered building. Today, the house is open as a museum. You can see a similar old house in the center of the town, where the Old Queen’s Head from the end of the 15th century is located.