We live in the Sheffield muesli-belt, full of stealth vans, vegan shops, musicians, allotments, street art, community gardeners, home educators and activists, rock climbers and serious cyclists, antique shops, junk shops, upcyclers and recyclers.
Our incredibly steep, local park is full of picnickers in summer, reggae playing from makeshift, home-rigged bike trailer sound-systems. People lounging and chatting, lined up at the top of the park, gazing out over the city and the valleys leading out to the Peak District National Park to the west and the M1 motorway to the east. Doubtless they are plotting; making plans for their European vanlife or their next climbing adventure.
In winter, the park becomes a huge toboggan run. In heavy snow, it seems as though the whole of Meersbrook is out hoiking sledges, toboggans, skis and snowboards up through the park for thrills.
Bishops’ House stands at the top of the park. The original part of the house was built more than 460 years ago, making it the oldest timber-framed house in the city and it is open as a museum for visitors at weekends.
Meersbrook Park is also home to a number of community-driven, locally-focussed organisations which typify the area, and Sheffield in general. The Heeley Trust is a neighbourhood champion which aims to improve the lives of local people and protect green space. It is based in Meersbrook Hall, a Grade II listed former home of the Ruskin Museum, which has been given a new lease of life, providing courses and a community meeting point. The hall’s walled garden is run by Meersbrook Park Users Trust with support from Heeley City Farm and has been lovingly restored into a beautiful and productive space, open for community events, such as summer parties and Autumn apple days. The park is also bounded by two of the neighbourhood’s three allotment sites, the largest of which, Heeley and Meersbrook, covers an area almost equal to the size of the park itself.
We love our park, and we love our neighbourhood of free-thinking, creative, friendly, community-minded hummus dippers and salad munchers. It’s the ideal place to chill out, live frugally, plan our future and be inspired.
Do you live in Meersbrook but have a different opinion? Or do you have another favourite part of the city? Do you live somewhere else and want to sing its praises? Tell me in the comments below.
And some of us like to eat meat also.
We might not quite fit in with the utopian vision of the Meersbrook liberal elite that you describe, but it really doesn’t make us bad people, well not the kind of bad people that should be banished up the road to less free thinking, and unenlightened places such as Woodseats.
You’re absolutely right, Just a normal guy, there are lots of meat eaters in Meersbrook. I live with some and am therefore outnumbered in my own household. However, I love them dearly, despite their carnivorous ways, and would never banish them to Woodseats. Or to anywhere else without a Lidl.
Oh come on. I’m a lentil munching squeeze box player, but I don’t have lofty ideas about the area. I find those who do, wouldn’t even go in the park. They’re just aspirational types who don’t understand community.
It’s not about any of that. The community spirit comes from there being schools nearby, and a playground which facilitates meeting, and conversion with people you don’t yet know. I realise that the houses on Meersbrook park road and around the park are prohibitive to most people, but sliding down the hill in the snow is free. We’re lucky to have the park, and lucky that we have have a diverse community that appreciates it. I’m not clever enough to know what else makes this a nice place to live, but it’s nothing to do with some people being better than others.
I love that you are a lentil munching squeeze box player, but I have to disagree.
I have lived in many places with parks and schools and a diverse community, but have never before come across so many open-minded, tolerant, positive freethinkers as I have here. It’s the community that makes the schools and parks what they are, not the other way around.
Having said that, I do wonder whether the massive amount of allotment space nearby attracts more frugal, outdoor-loving, communal-minded people and that’s what makes this area so special.
Cost of living and affordable housing are issues in most places also, they don’t define Meersbrook.
I was brought up in Meersbrook and live here now. My family always had a couple of allotments and grew a lot of fruit and veg. I also enjoy painting. I’ve sold paintings. I don’t eat dairy. So you could say my childhood set me up to be as “Meersbrook” as you could be. However it has to be said that this recent “brand” which some of the newer Meersbrook inhabitants (who have a less deep connection or appreciation for the history and normality of the area) seem to be obsessed with creating and fulfilling, that it is a “lentil belt” is just getting tiring now. Come on, I love Meersbrook, it’s why I bought a house here and am raising my daughter in the same place I spent my childhood. But I love it because of the location, the park, the Victorian houses, the relatively ok schools, being close enough to town to walk to work, and honestly, Heeley Retail Park! But all that surface deep obsession with being a hipster ridden, creative, activist lentil belt and everything that comes with that stuck-on “brand” is so hilariously superficial and self centred, and a little bit show-offish! Yeah, there are more vegan eateries than in other bits of Sheffield and the creatives and hippies flock to live here because of the artificially created hype of the Meersbrook brand. But lets be honest, most people who live in Meersbrook live here because they just want to live near a nice park, close to the curry centre, with good amenities and kids that they don’t mind their children being friends with. Most people just get up, go to work, come home, make tea and watch TV. This illusion that we all spend all day saving the environment and campaigning for animal rights, and peeling avocados is just not the reality! I like to meditate and enjoy art work, and don’t eat dairy but I don’t identify as a “Meersbrookian”. I am a person who lives in Meersbrook.
City centre not curry Centre*!!
I’m thinking of relocating with my family to Sheffield. I’m from Nottingham originally and my partners from Stoke. We don’t want to go to Stoke and I think that makes him not want to go to Nottingham which is an awesome city in my opinion and we are both excited about starting somewhere fresh. Only dropping a note here to say I’m disappointed there isn’t a curry centre.
We live near lots of parks now which is ideal for the dog and would want to be five mins walk to one again soon. Allotments would be refreshing and while the appeal of artists is nice, we have seen our own art community over run with hipsters and eventually city slickers. How to keep the balance? I’m hoping moving back North will do it!
Good luck with your move Jo! I’m pretty sure you’ll love Sheffield. And yes, I think we do still have an authentic art scene here if you look for it. Loads of green space with woods, parks and allotments aplenty. Ha ha, no we don’t have a ‘curry centre’ but we do have the London Road which is full of different foods from around the world, so hopefully you won’t be too disappointed!
Thank you for your comment Ellen. I agree with you that in the years since I wrote the above, there has been something of a hype around the area and you could say this has created a Meersbrook ‘brand’ if that is the right word (it is certainly helping to sell houses around here!). I disagree that this is entirely superficial, however. While I do understand the frustrations of someone who was born here that the in-comers do not appreciate the history and development of the area, I don’t think it is fair to tar us all with the same brush. I am sure there are people who move here for the reasons you describe, but I think there is also a real desire for many to live among likeminded citizens; people who have a community spirit, an environmental awareness and a desire for systemic change (a quick look at recent polling data will confirm this). That most of us spend our time in work, commuting or watching TV does not mean that we don’t support a more just, equitable and sustainable way of life, it’s that the challenge of getting there often feels daunting and just struggling through the day, particularly during a pandemic, is enough for many. But living among similarly minded free-thinkers is a huge comfort. It has been for my family and I these past four years. Perhaps you have been lucky, Ellen, in your chosen home locations, but I know I have lived in places where, on the whole, the general attitude to life was very different than it is here and that alone for me makes Meersbrook a special place to live.