Barkers Pool
Writing Challenge 2023
Posted by Chris Sissons on Jun 14, 2023
Writing Challenge ยป Chris Sissons
The photograph is of Barkers Pool. The water in the foreground is not the original pool. That pool was a dam and when the dam was released water flowed downhill, along Fargate and down to the Castle area. This was how they kept the city streets clean. At some point, they thought of a better way and so filled in the pool.
The tower on the left is the Town Hall and the City Hall is behind me as I took the photo. If you look closely at the building in the middle, it is the old Gaumont Cinema, you’ll see it’s being refurbished as part of the current developments in the City Centre. You can see one of the cranes in the distance. (And if anyone can tell me how they erect cranes, I’ll be very grateful; it’s been bothering me for some time!)
Now the building on the right is the point. Cole Brothers was a department store and it was originally located on the corner of Fargate and High Street. This was known as Coles Corner and it was where young men hung out to hook up with young women at a time when no-one knew about social media.
Coles moved to Barkers Pool in the 1960s. It was always popular and people visited the City Centre to go to Coles. Then a few years ago, in the teeth of history, it changed its name to John Lewis. They owned the building and presumably, their computers coped better when everything they owned was called John Lewis.
My fear for my City is low-level incremental grief. In the 60s, Sheffield was the go-to shopping centre in the UK, after London. You could walk from Moorfoot to the Castle Market without crossing a road, using one bridge and underpasses including the splendid Oyl int Rowad. But by the time I returned to the city in the 1990s, the centre was in decline. The fish tank down the Oyl was inhabited by one huge fish that glowered and scared young children (ok it scared everyone). Then they opened Meadowhall, a huge out-of-town shopping centre, and the number of department stores fell from 5 to 3. The Supertram was built in the early 1990s and for a time the centre was a mess.
We then witnessed the slow decline of the centre, as more retail went online until the lockdown. Like many places across the country, Sheffield lost loads of shops and 2 of its department stores, including John Lewis.
Yes, there are plans to regenerate the city centre with arts and coffee shops and parks and loads of residential blocks. John Lewis was a part of these plans and situated right in the middle of the new developments. And then it wasn’t.
During the lockdown, many people experienced grief and perhaps we’re forgetting that experience now. But grief comes in many shapes and sizes. Grieving is a process, a voyage from which you return but your return is to a new landscape. But micro-grief, grief in tiny doses, the inconvenience of losing a shop you used to frequent has little impact. But small doses accumulate, without the usual waymarks because each grief is too small to mark with more than a shrug.
John Lewis is a constant reminder of what we’ve lost. One day someone will work out what to do with the building and then how will we mark its passing and welcome the new normal? The changes of the 60s happened as a response to the blitz, where all had time to grieve. What happens when a population becomes inured to grief?
This year's Writing Challenge, fueled by prompts, is about the City of Sheffield. Be surprised by what's included and even more surprised by what's left out. This is Post 10 and there are 21 altogether. Share your thoughts and your love for the City in the comments. The first Post 0 is Context: Sheffield. The last post 9 is Intimidation as Blessing. The next post 11 is The Invisible Castle.
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