Solly Street

Carl Lee got in touch with me in December 2020. He asked me when the GA had moved from Fulwood Road to Solly Street. He is currently completing a PhD. You may also know Carl from the book 'Geography' that he co-wrote with Danny Dorling and is well worth reading.
Furthermore, he was asking why the GA moved to Solly Street because at that time the district was incredibly down-at-heel (but cheap to buy property in). He was asking because he was preparing - as an off-shoot of his ongoing PhD a paper for a GA journal, utilising the St Vincent's Quarter as the case study. 

St Vincent's Quarter is the name given to the area of the city of Sheffield which includes Solly Street and relates to the church, which remains, although it is now dwarfed by new student accommodation. It is close to the main site of Sheffield University.

An Action Plan for the area was published by the city council in 2017:

https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/home/planning-development/master-action-plans/st-vincent-s-action-plan

Image source: Action Plan document listed above

Here's a picture of what used to be on the actual site of the GA building - Sambourne Place - knocked down in 1927 as part of slum clearance programmes. Thanks to Carl for sending through the image.

Image copyright: Sheffield Libraries. 

In 1997, the GA moved its headquarters from Fulwood Road in Sheffield to 160 Solly Street, where it remains to this day.

I asked Keith Grimwade, former GA President for his memories of that time, as I remember him talking about that time, when Governing Body and the Education Committee would have been involved in this process of decision making. He told me that there were a few key reasons for choosing the Solly Street site from a number of options. They included:

- it was affordable

- it was accessible

- it had plenty of space for the growing publishing activity the GA was getting involved with, and for items of the Fleure Library (some of which were stored by Sheffield University, after arrangements made by Alice Garnett) - Fulwood Road was getting very cramped as it was too small.

At the time, the area was one frequented by members of what could be called the "night time economy" or sex workers. I remember this area was quite large at the time. When I was a regular night time visitor to Sheffield from my home town of Rotherham in the late 80s and early 90s, the red light district expanding out along Hillsborough Road and on the edge of Kelham Island as well, with a few areas of Attercliffe offering massage parlours. I remember coming out of a pub called the 'Cocked Hat' (now sadly closed) to see a defibrillator being rushed into one by ambulance crew...

Carl said that the area has undergone a lot of change since 1997, "when it was lets say 'a zone in transition' apart from nobody had a clue what it would transition into". It was felt it was an area that was on the up, and it was worth moving while rental values were low (Solly Street was eventually purchased as this was also financially preferable to continuing to rent). 

Keith said there were a few initial safety concerns, particularly for staff working late, but that quite quickly the area had improved, with lighting, signage and other security measures for Solly Street staff, and the area has now become one of student accommodation with plenty of footfall, close to the University.

Solly Street is now a little surrounded by the student accommodation, with more having been given planning permission including high rise developments. For the last few years, meetings in the Patrick Bailey room (named after a former GA President of course) have been slightly interrupted by construction noise. The views it used to enjoy up the valley have been blocked off for some years now. Wendy North has shared some of those views on her Flickr page.

When I worked there, John Lyon and I kept an eye on a few of the student areas, and there was one which had an ironing board which didn't move all year, but the wine bottles lined up along the window certainly grew.

I'd love any more memories of visits to Solly Street, or about and  from former staff....

More to come on Solly Street when I get to the period when I worked there - 2008-2011