Brenda

When the seaside comes to you

This is a repost of one of my early shares from July 2022 when I was on holiday in Sheffield. The city is again having their seaside in the city centre from 27th July until 29th August from 10am – 6pm daily. Read on and, if you’re in the neighbourhood, a visit to Sheffield during August should prove to be fun. Regrettably I’m not visiting Sheffield this summer.

I woke up in my hotel room in the heart of Sheffield City Centre, opened my curtains and outside I could see that the Peace Gardens were being transformed into the seaside.  I had wanted to go to the seaside as part of my visit to Sheffield, but had decided it was too far to travel.  Imagine my delight – the seaside came to me – distance to travel – 10 steps.  Its certainly not every day you can say the seaside (or other attraction) comes to you. 

The idea of the seaside, I have to admit, was more about the atmosphere, exploring the quaint seaside towns and the memories – candyfloss, excited children playing – sand, sea, rides.  I’ve not been one to lie on the beach so I was excited to watch this quiet garden convert into the beach – watching the helter-skelter being constructed; laying out the deckchairs, filling the sand pit etc ready for the public – young and old – to arrive.   I was excited and couldn’t wait – almost like a child myself.  Like the holiday, the anticipation of something special is magical.

I decided that my first blog from Sheffield should be about sharing that magic and the preparation and to observe the seaside develop in front of my eyes – this is not something you would normally be able to witness.

What a perfect opportunity for families – a day into the city if you’re local will be much easier than trying to get the family organised and off to the beach – you can avoid the long journey and if you need to do other things in Sheffield, you still have the other amenities of the city at your fingertips.  Plus it is the UK, if it rains there are plenty of other things to do.

Sheffield

Sheffield is a landlocked city in South Yorkshire and from my calculations, you would be 2-3 hours away from the coast.  Sheffield is bordered by the Peak District and the Pennines, so it would be more normal to anticipate trips from the city to include rambling in the countryside, hill climbing and visiting charming country villages and perhaps lunch/dinner in a local pub.  It seems the locals may be used to the seaside arriving in the city, but as a visitor, it was an exciting surprise for me.

Creating the Seaside

Sat in Caffe Nero in Sheffield just off the Peace Gardens, I was able to enjoy a good coffee (I’m biased, I like Neros) and watch the Gardens turn into a construction site.  I had a perfect view of the helter-skelter under construction.  How carefully the “builders” put together the tower and to see it every morning from my hotel room reminded me that I’m on holiday and if I was excited that the seaside had come to town, how excited must the children be.  I visited Sheffield last in 2019, before Covid, and remember the seaside coming then too, so there is a very real possibility that children will remember the start of the summer holidays also means the beach in Sheffield.  You can visit the seaside/beach without leaving the city.

I can’t wait to see what the Seaside looks like when finished.  But I’ll need to be patient as I can’t visit tomorrow as there are other things arranged first.  I’ll just need to watch from afar for a few days.  As an adult we forget to let ourselves dream and get caught up in the excitement we can experience.  I decided this time to embrace what I was feeling and enjoy the journey.

Have you visited the Seaside in Sheffield?  What memories does it hold for you? 

copyright 2022 – All opinions expressed are those of the author

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33 comments

    • It was fun – and after saying I was limiting myself to 4 posts a week, I do 2 on one day lol. However, this was just a repost and the beach in Sheffield is live now for the month of August – so needed to get the information out there

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  2. Was a lovely day but whole week was. Should’ve mentioned the furries that were getting married. I’ve got a couple of videos if you want them sending

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  5. Thank you for resharing, Brenda.

    I enjoyed reading about your thoughts and experience via this blog post.

    Those pictures reminds me of the fun of life.

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    • Thanks Lokesh, I think that’s what I was going for – the fun and excitement of the beach – but actually seeing it be constructed was also exciting. It also helped that my hotel bedroom looked right over the Gardens

      Reply

    • I’d need to go back and check, but this might also have been my first post – or it was certainly that week – so it was nice to revisit and remember starting off on this journey too – the excitement of beginning the blog too

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    • They used the gardens’ fountains as the water, setting up deck chairs around it .. the gardens are the square outside the town hall, so it is mainly concrete etc … so it was easy to set up the fairground and stalls etc. They erected a ‘pen’ with wooden fences and some sort of heavy duty plastic lining to hold the sand

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  9. Okay, I’m in. Gotta add Sheffield to my lengthy list of places to visit when I’m king of the world and money is no object. What a cool place. Of course, you had me as soon as you mentioned candyfloss (called cotton candy here in the US) in the 2nd paragraph)!!!! Ha ha

    Reply

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