These photos show those famous buildings under construction, and the workers who helped build the city as we know it today.
Some of the structures pictured are still standing proud many years later, including the 22-storey Arts Tower, which became Sheffield’s tallest building when it was completed in 1965, and the celebrated Park Hill flats.
Others have long since been razed to the ground, including the notorious Egg Box extension to the town hall, and the much-missed Hole in the Road subway and roundabout.
Walsh’s department store, Don Valley Stadium and Castle Market are also just memories, but the mighty Tinsley viaduct, spanning more than 1,000 metres, and the sprawling Meadowhall shopping centre which it overlooks, still shape Sheffield’s skyline.
As well as demonstrating how much the city has changed over the last 90 years, the fascinating images in this retro photo gallery celebrate the workers whose head for heights made it all possible.
Can you remember the days before these buildings existed, and which of the lost landmarks pictured do you miss most?
1. Cooling tower
A worker suspended 200 feet above the River Don in Sheffield prepares the new water-cooling tower at the Neepsend Power Station for a layer of reinforced concrete in February 1937 | Getty Images Photo: Fox Photos
2. Hole in the Road
Workers reduce the size of Walsh's department store to allow the road to be widened and the Hole in the Road subway and roundabout to be created at Castle Square, Sheffield city centre, in February 1967 | Picture Sheffield Photo: Picture Sheffield
3. Castle Market
Castle Market, Sheffield city centre, under construction during the late 1950s | Picture Sheffield Photo: Picture Sheffield
4. Walsh's
Walsh's department store under construction on High Street, Sheffield, in August 1952. The shell of the Westminster Bank building nextdoor is still standing empty, 12 years after the Sheffield Blitz.Press Photo Agency | Picture Sheffield Photo: Press Photo Agency