Revealed: 111 amazing places in Sheffield

They were only young, 14 or so, and one of their mums usually brought them when they came; nice kids.

Andy led them into the room, which wasn’t at all fancy, with a black sofa, table, and ripped cork on the walls to offer a bit of soundproofing. A bicycle was hanging off the wall halfway up, and there was a portrait of Elvis a little higher still, looking down like some rock deity. Ratty maroon carpeting and whitewashed brick walls finished off the cavernous room whose main feature was a hefty Marshall amp.

The kids came regularly, most days after school, a really dedicated bunch, Andy thought. He and his wife had taken a shine to them, listened to their songs, fed them, his wife even taught the lead singer, a kid named Alex, how to sing. Good times.

Today, 15 years on, the room, at Yellow Arch Studios, is largely unchanged. Except now, everyone who comes here wants to see it, the room where those working class kids from High Green wrote and recorded their debut album. There’s even a photo of them hung on the wall.

“We call it The Arctic Monkeys Room,” says Andy with a smile.

“Those kids were really good – just four ordinary kids with a consuming passion for guitar thrashing.”

The Arctic Monkeys Room is one of 111 Sheffield sites that have been identified and celebrated in a new book by author Michael Glover – 111 Places in Sheffield That You Shouldn’t Miss. This unique city guide, which is due to be released on December 6, highlights all that is quirky and magnificent in the Steel City; drawing out those places hidden in plain view, that even the residents themselves may not realise are there.

“The 111 Places guidebooks are incredibly successful, and have been written about some of the biggest cities in the world,” explains Michael, who was born in Fir Vale and lived in the city until he left for Cambridge University, aged 19.

“I love Sheffield, many family members still live there and I knew it would make an exceptional addition – and luckily the series’ publisher, Emons Verlag in Germany, agreed with me.”

Michael, who now lives in London, began writing the guide nearly two years ago, taking regular trips back to his hometown and quizzing friends and family about their favourite spots in the city, until he had a list of 111.

“I had a huge list of places by the time I was done, and visited every one in order to cut them down to 111. I had to go and get a feeling about them,” says Michael, aged 68.

“What’s wonderful is what it stirred up and inspired in everyone I asked, who insisted on picking me up and driving me around in their cars to show me these places. The fact is Sheffield is magnificent. George Orwell once described it as the ugliest town in the world, after spending just three days there, but the truth is quite otherwise. Sheffield is a place of unanticipated delights which have as much to do with the rural as the urban – a significant proportion of greater Sheffield is contained within some of the most dramatic countryside in England, and the drama of its landscape is one of Sheffield’s glories.

“It’s also a restive place, independent of spirit, cussed in character, a place which has always had singular opinions.

“I knew Sheffield to a good degree when I started writing the book, from my memories of growing up there, but I found I was rediscovering it as a slightly different place, appreciating it anew. By focusing on the interesting, the unusual, the underappreciated, I discovered so many curiosities, delights and local treasures that will now have the opportunity to be given their due in front of a much larger audience.”