About LS

Hello!

Welcome to our little corner of Sheffield, the LoveSheffield blog. This blog was set up by a local resident (Rosie) in early 2010 as a project to see how much interest there would be in a blog about life in Sheffield. Since then, two more bloggers (Komal and Aurore) now contribute, with a fourth concocting ideas as we speak.

So, who are we?

Rosie: Well, I’m a civil servant working for the Department for Work and Pensions in the city centre, now part time as I also work part time for a local women’s service providing help for women and children who have been through domestic violence. In DWP, I’m also a trade union officer for PCS, representing members across Sheffield. You can see our branch wordpress website here. Apart from that I volunteer with a rape crisis helpline for women, and through the (now sadly defunct due to budget cuts) RIES service with the Northern Refugee Centre.

One of my favourite things to do in Sheffield is best described by the French word flâner – to stroll around aimlessly. That makes me a bit of a flâneur, which is fine by me. When on holiday I have purpose, when at home I like to discover my town as much as I can. One of the reasons I wanted to start the blog was to give myself a reason to do this kind of exploring, so thank you for reading and making it possible!

I’m really into music – I used to book bands and put on gigs at university so this is a great way for me to get to gigs and do some reviews. I’m also obsessively into food, but money stops me from going out more. That’s why I leave most of the food reviews to our resident foodie – Komal!

My favourite Sheffield haunts are as follows (by no means an exhaustive list!):

- The Harley (especially Thirsty Ear and DubCentral)
- The Sheaf View, Heeley
- The Blue Moon Cafe
- The Greedy Greek, Hunters Bar
- Taste/Zerboni’s, Ecclesall Road
- Taylor Taylor, Surrey Street
- Graves Art Gallery (top floor of the Central Library)
- The Showroom Cinema
- Sheffield Antiques Centre, Little London Road
- Pho 68 restaurant, London Rd (try the aubergine and tofu clay pot!)
- Bahn Thai, Ecclesall/London Rds (amazing decor, big fat menus, excellent food. Try the corncakes for a starter, they’re lovely)
- The Wick at Both Ends, Glossop Road
- The Washington
- The Cremorne
- Sheffield General Cemetery
- East One Noodle Bar, West One complex

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Aurore: As you may have noticed, I have an uncommon name, that you may not be able to pronounce, or to remember if you meet me. I am the Frenchie of the group. I arrived in Sheffield in October 2010 to work in school in Wath-upon-Dearne as a teaching assistant.

But I knew the city before coming, actually I fell in love with this city six years ago during a school exchange with Tapton School, impressed by its richness of culture and history. I loved it so much that I managed the impossible – to come back and settle. After four years of university in France, improving my linguistic skills in different languages: English, French, Spanish and Russian, I landed here for good.

Here, for me it’s a new life, I have to improve and try everything; I have to adapt myself to new customs, habits, night life, making new friends, and building my little nest down here. Through these little articles, I bring you with me in my improvement of Sheffield life.

I am interested by everything, I am a greedy person not only in terms of  food but in terms of culture: music, dance, literature, languages. I love meeting new different people. In meeting people we can open ourselves to new cultures and improve our lives.

As I said, everything for me here is new and different, I am easily amazed by little things of life, I have really simple pleasures. Does that make me a kind of « Amelie »?

Let me take you in my French « Flânerie » through the streets of Sheffield! My favourite places are:

- The Sheaf View pub, Heeley.(where you can get the best ales of england, served by lovely bar staff)
- the Rude Shipyard, on Abbeydale road.(lovely and calm Tea/Bookshop , where you can get a good coffee, reading a good book, enjoying a bite of guiness cake.)
- Meersbrook Park (for the beautiful view of Sheffield)
-the Washington Pub (near Devonshire Green)
- Lush (great handmade cosmetics)
- Cocoa (tea/cocoa shop,where everything is based on Chocolate)
- the Showroom Cinema (independant cinema, just near the station)
- the Boardwalk pub (good venue for gigs)
- the Porter Brook bookshop (on Sharrow Vale)
- Soyo (near West Street, free concerts every Monday night)
- Yabba (on Abbeydale road, great Caribbean food)
- Pho 68 (Asian restaurant, good food for small amount of money)
- Cafe Ceres (on Sharrow Vale, when I need a little French touch)
- Rare and Racy (on devonshire street, great bookshop)
-  the Crucible Theatre (city center)

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Komal: I’m a food obsessed chef who is currently working at the lovely Fusion organic cafe in the city center.

The things I love about sheffield are the the great selection of cafes and restaurants we have, our galleries and museums, charity shops and local food shops as well as all the lovely friendly people and the fact you can’t leave the house without bumping into someone that you know.

When I’m not obsessing over food I like to read, obsess over cats, watch films and travel. I recently went to china and I’ve also been to most of europe and america but eventually I get homesick and miss the nice-ness of sheffield.

My favourite bits of  sheffield include:

- The Cremorne pub, London Road (great for gigs)
- Lush, city center (lovely handmade cosmetics)
- The Showroom  (amazing independant cinema)
- Bragazzis, Abbeydale Road (lovely Italian deli)
- East and West, Abbeydale Road (best indian food in Sheffield)
- Noodle Inn, London Road (very good Chinese food)
- Cubana, just outside city centre (great tapas and cocktails)
- The Sheaf View, heeley (great pub and lovely ales)
- Car boot sales just outside of sheffield in Chesterfield or Dronfield (for bargains)
- Clothes market, city centre every Wednesday (more amazing bargains)
- The Rude Shipyard, Abbeydale Road (lovely cake and the bonus that it’s a bookshop)
- Meersbrook Park (awesome view of Sheffield)
- Care and Share shop, Abbeydale Road (3 for £1 books! Including big cookbooks)
- The Red House, just outside city centre (great for gigs and now they do food too)