2.3 Use & Perception

Public Spaces: a network

Public spaces offer the opportunity for people to spend time in the city - a place to relax and watch the world go by, or a refuge from the city centre’s busy streets.

Sheffield has a number of public spaces of diverse character and function ranging from civic use to informal recreation. The last twenty years has witnessed the reclamation of public space from car parks (for example Tudor Square and Devonshire Green) and the improvement, indeed the transformation in some cases, of the environmental quality of many of the key public spaces in the city centre.

The Peace Gardens is an example of a highly successful civic space, and illustrates the positive impact that investment in quality design and construction can have on the public life of both citizens and visitors to Sheffield.

The Masterplan promoted the development of a public space network, consisting of a ‘fine – grained network of smaller spaces’ which are each central to the character and use of the distinct areas of the city centre. There are a variety of committed projects currently under construction such as those within the Heart of the City. Many more are nearing the final design or implementation stage, including the re-design of Sheaf Square as a major arrival gateway to the city centre.