Pinstone Street Sheffield: City centre street once visited by Queen Victoria undergoes transformation

Queen Victoria visited Pinstone Street in her diamond jubilee year of 1897 to open the new town hall without ever leaving her carriage before 50,000 schoolchildren sang to her.

Wonder what she’d make of the giant pink and green bikes that appeared on the modern, pedestrianised Pinstone Street?

Major work is going on as part of the Heart of the City masterplan for the area, which will see old facades of buildings retained and a Radisson Blu hotel, offices and shops appearing. At present, the Victorian shop facades look quite haunting as the windows look on to empty spaces.

Eventually, the street that links the shopping areas of Fargate and The Moor will look far more open and spacious than now, extending the Heart of the City area to Barkers Pool.