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| A square and compass on the former masonic hall on Surrey Street |
A week after I had a very quick walk around Sheffield to look at some of its historic architecture, I set out again to look around Ranmoor, to start my preparation of a talk that I had been asked to give to the Ranmoor Society on the subject of the local geology and historic architecture.
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| The former masonic hall |
With the sun shining and being in no great hurry to get to Ranmoor, I took the opportunity to have another walk around the centre of Sheffield to photograph various historic buildings, starting at the old masonic hall (c1850), which is built with coarse grained Chatsworth Grit and is decorated with roundels containing various masonic symbols.
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| A detail of the former masonic hall |
The extension to the building, which was added c1875 is finished with painted stucco that now looks shabby and is quite unremarkable, except for the finely carved Portland stone shell hood to the doorway, which has a large radiating sun, with a smaller sun and moon, further masonic symbols and egg and dart mouldings.
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| The shell hood to the 1875 doorway on the former masonic hall |
On the opposite side of Surrey Street is the Sheffield Central Library (1934), which is one of my favourite buildings in Sheffield and is built in a simple Art Deco style, with some fine carvings by Alfred and William Tory that includes the Egyptian style frieze high on the south-west corner.
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| A relief sculpture on the Sheffield Central Library |
I have taken many photos of the library over the years and it has featured in an 'urban geology' field trip with the Sheffield U3A Geology Group, to look at the building stones of Sheffield, where the fossil oysters in the Portland stone cladding to its steel framed structure and the Italian travertine and the Swedish Green marble in the lobby have been highlighted.
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| The floor of the lobby at the Sheffield Central Library |
Continuing along Surrey Street, I stopped to take a few photographs of the Grade I Listed Sheffield Town Hall (1897), which is built in Stoke Hall stone from the Kinderscout Grit at Grindleford in Derbyshire, but it was too early in the day to be bathed in light.
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| Sheffield Town Hall |
Sheffield Town Hall is a very large building that has very many interesting details, which I often try to capture when passing at a time when the light is right but, on this occasion, I just took a few photos of the clock tower before heading down Fargate – one of the early Heart of the City developments in Sheffield that I had featured when writing for Stone Specialist magazine.
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| A detail of the clock tower at Sheffield Town Hall |
The former Yorkshire Bank building (1889) on the corner of Surrey Street is the first of several Victorian buildings on one of Sheffield’s busiest shopping streets that are not listed, but which are adorned by dragons, lions and other fine carvings, which add character to the City Centre Conservation Area.
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| The former Yorkshire Bank building on Fargate |
It is built to the design of the architects Perkin and Bulmer of Leeds, with buff coloured medium grained gritstone ashlar, which is from either Derbyshire or West Yorkshire, and a light grey granite used for the plinth and door surrounds. I didn't stop to examine it closely and instead carried on to the other side of Fargate, after taking a few quick snaps of Yorkshire House (1884), by Flockton and Gibbs, which is the site of Sheffield's 1 o'clock time signal.
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| Yorkshire House |
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