Gell Street Sheffield: The story behind much-loved hedge lady 'Gloria', inspired by rowdy street walker

Gloria, as the elegantly sculpted hedge outside retired art teacher Keith Tyssen’s Georgian terraced home is known, hit the headlines in 2018 when Keith complained about drunken louts pretending to have sex with her.

The reclining lady had been entertaining passers-by on Gell Street, just off West Street in Broomhall, for many years but the gifted metalwork designer and maker was getting frustrated with people trying to have their wicked way with her and damaging the hedge.

Thankfully, Keith, now aged 88, says the unwanted attention has died down and passers-by are admiring the topiary masterpiece from a more respectful distance.

“It was people from the lower end of society, wanderers, drunks and rowdies, who thought it was a wonderful idea to pretend to be s******* her, and they were wrecking the hedge and pulling it apart,” he said.

“I was thinking if they don’t stop this, I’m going to have to turn it into something else like a giraffe or an ordinary hedge, but thankfully it seems to have stopped.”

Keith told how Gloria had begun life as a row of privet bushes he dug up from outside a parade of Victorian houses which had just been demolished beside the nearby Hanover Way dual carriageway.

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Once they had grown, he trimmed them into shape and named the figure after an unruly prostitute who used to frequent the street.

“There used to be a street walker who would wander up and down the street and shout abuse at people,” said Keith, who taught at Sheffield College of Arts and Crafts, which is today part of Sheffield Hallam University.

“It was a pick-up street at one time, before they tore down the Georgian houses opposite ours and put up the soulless brick buildings.”

There used to be a row of griffins and monsters keeping Gloria company but they have been remodelled into a plain-looking hedge.

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Keith says the real Gloria, with whom he was not intimately acquainted, never got to see her namesake.

The father-of-four, who is still designing and creating metalwork, helped to design the Cutting Edge sculpture outside Sheffield railway station and examples of his work can be seen at Sheffield Cathedral.