Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 February 2025
Down London Road
Tag: black and white
Office chairs
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 February 2025
Abbeydale Picture House
Originally opened in 1920, the Abbeydale Picture House served as a cinema for fifty-five years until it closed in 1975. The building, which achieved listed status in 1989, has performed a number of functions in the intervening years, including a furniture store, a ballroom, a snooker hall, a bar, and a performing arts centre. Recently the building was acquired by a brewery and hospitality company who intend to re-open the building as a premier entertainment venue.
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 February 2025
Rossi’s
Back in the 1990s, Rossi’s Italian restaurant, which occupied a former bank building just off London Road near the end of Sharrow Lane, felt like a regular destination for a night out with the people I worked with at the time. In reality it was probably only a handful of visits, but the memories persist and make it feel like more. I remember that Ann, one of the women I worked with, would always order the same dish: pollo a la crema. Except she always called it chicken pollo a la crema, which we would jokingly call her out about for adding the unnecessary English word. The food in the restaurant was good, the the tables were fancy marble affairs, and there was a statue of Michaelangelo’s David in the centre of the restaurant, if I remember correctly.
Rossi’s closed recently due to family circumstances (according to an article in a local newspaper) and has been up for sale. I’m not sure if a new owner has been found, or indeed what the new business will be (I would expect another restaurant though).
I’ve not visited for over twenty years, since the members of that team drifted apart and the night’s out fell away, and I don’t think I’ve seen any of those people I worked with back then for just as long (it’s quite possible that some of the older members of the team are no longer with us!), but the memories persist. And I still always think of pollo a la crema as chicken pollo a la crema.
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 February 2025
Uncovering a hidden river
Sheffield has several rivers. The main river is the Don, but there are a number of smaller rivers that join it along it’s course, including the Loxley, the Rivelin, the Porter, and the Sheaf. The latter is where Sheffield derives it’s name: Sheaf Field.
For much of it’s length through the city centre, the Sheaf is subteranean, flowing through a series of man-made culverts and tunnels. One of these, named the Megatron, sometimes has guided tours!
The section of the Sheaf just above where it joins the Don is being uncovered as part of a new park on the site of the old castle site, and it can be seen in the photograph today beneath the ladder-like series of supports in the lower part of the image. The area to the left of the picture will form the park when the work is complete, and the river will act as a border and feature of the landscape.
Ricoh GRIII
Taken on 10 May 2025
Looking up a curving path
Sheffield is a hilly city. It’s said to be built on seven hills, like Rome, although I’ve never quite worked out which hills count in that number, or where the statement originates.
While other parts of the world have infrastructure and housing built on much more precipitous slopes, Sheffield has its fair share of steep streets and homes built on hillsides.
In many places streets of differing altitude are connected by footpaths such as one shown below. There might be a germ of an idea for a photo project lurking in that thought…
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 February 2025
Tucked into a wall
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 February 2025
From beer to bikes
This curiously shaped building on Queen’s Road has been a bicycle repair shop for a number of years now, but it’s original purpose, until 2012, was as a public house – The Earl of Arundel and Surrey Hotel.
The building has a small date plaque on the front denoting that the building dates from1879 and also used to have a sign affixed which read:
“These premises have a unique claim to fame as the only remaining official pound house in Sheffield. It was built in the late 1880’s on land belonging to the Duke of Norfolk who was also the Earl of Arundel and Surrey and Lord of what was then still the Manor of Sheffield. These premises inherited the manorial rights of being a pound house. The Landlord was known as the Pinder and he had the right to round up and hold any stray animals-horses, cows, sheep-until their owners collected them. He could charge a fee for their return. The stables are still used to this day, to house two percherons belonging to Vaux Brewery in Sunderland, when they visit Sheffield for their processions and other person appearances. They are to be found at the rear of the building.”
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 February 2025
Through a gap in a window
I spotted this mannequin as I was walking past this shop and though it might make an interesting picture, so I did a u-turn a took the shot.
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 February 2025
A four-day week and other musings
The end of the three-day May Day bank holiday weekend is drawing to a close and I’ll be back at work again tomorrow. A number of businesses in the UK have trialed four-day working weeks recently, in most cases very successfully, but I don’t think my employer has any inclination to offer the same. Perhaps in time, as more places start to provide employees with these types of flexible working options, it will happen, but I’ll probably be on brink of retirement by the time it does.
A four-day week certainly sounds appealing though, even if it means working longer hours on the days I work. I could do a lot with an extra day, and it would expand the time I have for leisure, certainly. It would be like having a bank holiday every week!
I went out for a walk with a camera on Saturday, but nothing particularly focused – I needed some more DD-X developer, so went for a lengthy walk around town, snapping anything that caught my eye, although I only shot ten or eleven frames. I got my DD-X though, plus three rolls of 120 black and white film (I still have a huge stash of film to shoot but very little medium format B&W left, which is something I use quite often, so I got a few rolls to tide me over).
No photography related stuff today (unless I include uploading some new pictures to Flickr and posting here), but I went to see Thunderbolts* with my wife, which was good fun. Back to the 9-to-5 tomorrow.
And here’s a random picture of a building…
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 February 2025
Steel City Snapper photography 