There's something about Sheffield

“I've travelled all over the world and never found anywhere that has as many good things as Sheffield.”

If that sounds like a bold claim, Mark Mobbs, city campaigns manager for Marketing Sheffield, has plenty to back it up.

“I was out running on the moors this morning, and then I jumped on a seven minute train into town,” he says. “That’s why I’m here, for that nature/culture balance. There's so much culture that happens at grassroots level here, there's always something to go and get involved in. We are the big city that doesn't feel like a big city.”

I’m speaking to Mobbs outside the Fat Cat pub in the Kelham Island area of the city, one of the city’s oldest manufacturing sites that now thrives with a buzzy industrial vibe. It’s not just any old pub – the Fat Cat was one of the trailblazers for the indie beer scene, having been taking on the brewing giants for more than 40 years.  

“There's something about Sheffield; when we do something, we tend to do it properly,” says Mobbs. “Sometimes that means it takes longer to happen - or it takes longer for people to realise what has happened. 

“Sheffield is one of the craft brewing capitals of the world. We've got more breweries per head than anywhere else in Europe. That's been happening since the 80s, but it's not something that has had massive investment. It’s maintained its independence, doing its own thing - and the people that know, know. And now people are starting to understand how the beer scene in this country has come about - and a lot of it's to do with Sheffield.”

It's not just craft beer that has been quietly thriving in Sheffield either. Advanced manufacturing has been a key sector over the last decade or so.

“The steel industry put Sheffield on the map in a way that nothing else ever did - but it meant we had an over-reliance on one sector,” says Mobbs. “As soon as the scale of that industry declined, there wasn’t a mass emigration from Sheffield of the people with their skill sets and that knowledge. Those skills have shifted from heavy industry into advanced manufacturing and other translatable sectors.

“The people that know credit Sheffield with being one of the most advanced places in the world where that innovation district concept is working really well. We’ve got Boeing, McLaren, Rolls-Royce, Formula One teams - they're all there already. But we have got on and done it in our own way rather than promoting something before it’s been in place.”

Steel may have shaped the character of the city, but it also has a softer side – something highlighted by its other nickname, The Outdoor City. Sheffield is the second greenest city in the world by green space, with one third of the city lying within the Peak District National Park. Indeed, the creation of national parks in the UK was partly down to people in Sheffield, who took part in the 1932 mass trespass of Kinder Scout. Mountain biking and road cycling are popular pursuits and the city stakes a claim to be the spiritual home of climbing in the UK.

From a sectoral point of view, health and life sciences and tech are where Sheffield is these days. Instead of one industry dominating, there are a few sectors that complement each other, with the universities wrapping around it all.

“It’s organic”, says Mobbs. “It’s the right combination of people that understand what's happening and use what they're good at to add and complement to it.”

 

A city of makers

The newly opened Cambridge Street Collective food hall, a game changing food proposition for the city. A sprawling multi-level conversion of an old industrial building is home to around a dozen food stalls showcasing the very best of the city’s diverse culinary offering. Crowd-pleasing pizzas, burgers and Greek platters sit alongside less familiar dishes from Eritrean, Malaysian and Palestinian kitchens, the very soul of something for everyone. There are places to play for kids big and small, with augmented reality darts and a children’s sandpit onsite, while upstairs a new Japanese restaurant will offer diners the chanvce to cook their own dinner over charcoal.

For organisers, Cambridge Street Collective is a bang-on-trend answer to the eternal question “what are our delegates going to eat?”, and a much cooler alternative to the traditional gala dinner option. It also works with local charities to provide an activity where groups can cook meals in the onsite cookery school, which are then parcelled up and shipped off to the local foodbanks.

As well as the cookery school, the rest of the building is available for hire, whether you need a whole floor or terrace, or smaller nooks and crannies, almost anything is possible.

Indeed, everywhere you go within England’s fourth biggest city you’ll find people grafting away, striving to build something.

Max Scotford, founder of Bullion Chocolate, is a case in point. In 2013 Scotford had a lucrative domain name windfall, which he used more wisely than most 21 year-olds would, setting up a bean-to-bar craft chocolate company. Bullion has gone from strength to strength, finding its way into stores such as Harvey Nichols and winning myriad awards. 10 years in and Scotford has just opened Chocolate Bar, a premium hot chocolate café in the city centre.

“I want to get bigger”, he admits, “but the quality of the product will always come first.”

For groups, Bullion offers factory tours, beer and wine pairings, chocolate making experiences and cocktail masterclasses.

Sally Clark, founder of Sheffield venues The Chimney and the Mowbray, is just finishing off her latest “ultimate reuse” project, The Victoria. The conversion of a 19th century industrial works and chapel is a real labour of love that began during the pandemic. The project has been fuelled by an eye for design and a commitment to sustainability. Almost every feature in the building has been reclaimed or repurposed from somewhere else, whether it’s the toilet doors that were saved from a skip, the clock that was salvaged from a Glasgow department store, or even the entire mahogany floor that Clark kept in storage for 14 years before finally finding the perfect setting for. The whole effect is a unique melding of styles that screams character and charm. The onsite kitchen opens up a world of conference and event possibility, from smaller trade fairs to board meetings and team building.