Things to do in Sheffield

Nightlife · North-west of the centre, on a man-made island in the Don

A wedge of former works and foundries between the river and a twelfth-century millrace, now the densest run of breweries, taprooms and small restaurants in the city, with an industrial museum in the middle of it.

Local tip: The museum runs the River Don Engine, the most powerful working steam engine in Europe, on scheduled firings — check the day before you go, because the difference between seeing it turn and seeing it stand still is the whole visit. The Fat Cat and the Kelham Island Tavern have both been running since long before the area was fashionable.

Nature · Inside the city boundary, west of Hallam

Four miles of gritstone edge above the Hope Valley, the birthplace of British rock climbing, reachable on a city bus and technically still Sheffield.

Local tip: The 271 and 272 run to Castleton and the 65 towards Bakewell, so you do not need a car to get on the moors — but the last bus back is early and the timetable thins sharply on Sundays. Check it before you set off rather than at the top of Higger Tor in the dark.

Culture · City centre, between the Peace Gardens and Arundel Gate

One of the largest temperate glasshouses of any UK city, free, open to the street and used as a shortcut, with the Millennium Gallery and the Ruskin Collection attached to it.

Local tip: The Ruskin Collection exists because John Ruskin founded a museum for Sheffield's working metalworkers in 1875, on the theory that people who make things should be able to look at beautiful ones. It is free, it is small, and almost nobody walking through the glasshouse next door realises it is there.

Food · Two miles south-west of the centre

The city's best independent food street and the road behind it — greengrocers, fishmongers, delis and small kitchens, with a monthly street market that closes the road.

Local tip: Sharrow Vale Road is the one locals shop on; Ecclesall Road is the one they drink on. Come on a market Sunday and walk up to Endcliffe Park afterwards — the Porter Brook path runs from there all the way out to the moors, which is the single best thing about living in this part of the city.

Nightlife · West of the centre, around Devonshire Green and Division Street

Record shops, tattooists, independent bars and the venues — The Leadmill a few streets away, Network and the O2 Academy nearby — that made Sheffield's music reputation.

Local tip: The Leadmill has been fighting an eviction dispute with its landlord since 2022 and the position changes; check it is still trading before you plan a night around it. Sheffield's music history is not just Pulp and the Arctic Monkeys — the Human League, Heaven 17, ABC and Warp Records all came out of a few streets here.

Culture · Sharrow, between Ecclesall Road and Sharrow Vale

An 1836 nonconformist burial ground built into a steep wooded valley, with an Egyptian-revival gateway, a Greek-revival chapel and 87,000 burials under the trees.

Local tip: It is a public park now, run largely by volunteers, and it is the strangest quiet place in Sheffield — half arboretum, half Victorian death architecture. Go in on the Cemetery Avenue side and walk uphill; most people who live two streets away have never been in.