Blake
After Shirley and I got married in October 1981, we lived in a terraced house in the Crookesmoor district of the city between Crookes and Upperthorpe. It's only two and a half miles from this house but these days I rarely go back to our old stomping ground. We lived there for eight years and it is where we began to raise our two children. For whatever reason, I felt an urge to go back over there this morning - specifically to walk up Blake Street and to take a few photos of it. Blake Street was built in 1854 and was named after John Blake who was the city's Master Cutler in 1831. It is also the steepest residential street in Sheffield and one of the five steepest streets in England. The very steepest is Vale Street in Bristol. On one side of the road there are railings to aid pedestrians and I noticed that the paving stones are specially textured - presumably to inhibit falls. At the top of the street, "The Blake Hotel" is still open for business. I believe it i...