4.4 Devonshire Quarter
Vision
The Devonshire Quarter will continue to develop as a vibrant urban
village within Sheffield’s city centre.
This village will provide a unique residential mixed use area to
rival Manchester’s Northern Quarter and reinforce Sheffield’s position
as a leading diverse and competitive European City.
City centre living will be encouraged in this quarter to create
a dense and vibrant inner urban neighbourhood. This will be achieved
with a ‘living over shops’ scheme on the main commercial streets
and mixed tenure residential on the secondary streets.
The quarter will become an (inter)nationally renowned cultural
entertainment destination with specialist retail outlets, a variety
of high quality cafe/bars/restaurants and specialist music clubs
offering a range of music genres from jazz to rock. All these elements
will propel Sheffield’s popularity as a destination for weekend
visitors, with the Devonshire Quarter enjoying the success of the
Temple Bar area of Dublin.
Division Street and West Street will be established as secondary
branches of the city centre retail spine, providing small outlets
for specialist and entrepreneurial commercial ventures. Small studio
spaces will also be established to support the development of the
city as a cultural industries destination.
These streets will be given a strong pedestrian focus, complemented
by a range of public realm initiatives. The activities of the shops,
cafes and bars will be encouraged to spill out onto the streets,
creating a distinct ‘urban village’ feel. The Devonshire Quarter
will host a variety of markets, stalls, local festivals and exhibitions.
These pedestrian links and the street activity will strengthen
relationship of the Devonshire Quarter with the activity of Sheffield
University, St. George’s and the emerging neighbourhood at St. Vincent’s.
Devonshire Green, the city’s largest urban park, will be further
developed. Consideration could ultimately be given to removing all
car parking on the Green to create more landscaped space and provide
an attractive setting for the West One development. The Green will
be a functional park which will host small annual festivals and
music events.
Outwith this ‘urban village’ the existing residential areas will
be retained. The Milton Street industrial area at the south of the
quarter will become a desired location for the remaining industrial
companies within the city. The development of this area as a high
quality industrial park has enabled the rationalisation and consolidation
of industry in other areas, creating a more buoyant and competitive
market.
Comparator projects
| Lisson Gallery,
London (Tony Fretton)
The Lisson Gallery provides an innovative mixed use design
solution with residential accommodation included on the upper
floors and gallery space below. The design is highly innovative
and contemporary, yet remains consistent with the existing
built form in terms of scale, proportion, doorway and window
alignment and storey heights. A transparent frontage is presented
at ground level to engage the activity of the street. Contemporary
interventions of this nature would reinforce the Devonshire
Quarter’s emerging identity as a dynamic and distinctive urban
area, which supports quality architecture and a range of activity. |
 |
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