Sheffield University

...Arena, City Hall, Theatres and Sheffield United Football.
- A fully equipped cinema (with a proper 35mm projector like at the Odeon and everything!), showing art and foreign films every Wednesday, Blockbusters every Friday and Saturday and classics every Sunday, with some special (and often free) showings in between.
- Two bars, Bar One for you standard student venue with cheap booze, the One to go fast food outlet, a beer garden and ...
...and located next to the Sheffield Hallam FM Arena, hosting many big and chart-topping acts (I saw Queen there just recently). Also at the other end of the cit, on the south east, is Crystal Peaks, with even more shops, and a UCI cinema (we're not short a few cinemas in Sheffield!) But I've not even told you how we get to all these places yet!

- Travel: Situated just off the M1, junctions 29 (through Chesterfield), 30 (past Crystal ... more

I'm a medical student, just entering my fourth year in August 2005, so in my three years here as an undergraduate, I've built up a good idea of the university and the city.

**** The University ****
- Background: The University is a traditional "red brick" university, and is a member of the Russell Group (the top 19 universities in the country, including Oxford, Cambridge and four of London's university colleges, like America's Ivy League). Many of the buildings are still in the traditional pretty red brick, including Firth Court (the Administrative centre), the Adisson and Alfred Denny Buildings (Biomedical sciences and biology/zoology/botany) and the Octagon centre. 29 subjects were rated "excellent" in the national Teaching Quality Assessments 1993-2001, the last time this survey was done (3rd in UK), 35 research areas gained 5 or 5* ratings and 19 subjects achieved top 10 places in the Times Good University Guide individual subject tables, 2004.

- Location: There is no "campus" as such, but most of the university buildings are based in the same area, and I shall refer to this as the "campus". The main campus is handily located in the S10, S3 and S1 locations of the city, occupying most of Western Bank, just a mile or two outside the city centre. Most students will be in this area, taught in the very imposing Arts Tower (the highest building in Sheffield) which links to the main library, the afore mentioned Adisson and Alfred Denny Buildings (with Perak laboratories), the auditorium in the Student's Union, the Hicks Building (physics) and Dainton Building (chemistry). Some lectures and seminars may also take place in the Medical School, 10 minute walk from the main campus or the St George's site (the converted church makes for a fantastic lecture theatre!), 5 minutes away. Medical students are also expected to go to the nearby Northern General Hospital for some lectures, and placements in 3rd-5th years can be anywhere from Rotherham, Chesterfield, Doncaster and Barnsley to Hull, Lincoln, Pontefract and Grimsby, although accommodation is provided free. Nursing students get the worst deal, being based at the Manvers campus at Wath upon Deane, although this was graded 5, and is one of the top 4 nursing schools I the UK.

- Residence: The University owns 6 Halls of residence, and every undergraduate (except nursing students) are guaranteed a place at a Hall of Residence. There are also a large number of self-catered flats. Five of the six Halls and many of the flats are located in the Ranmoor and Hunters Bar regions of the city (S10 and S11), to the West, and less than 2 miles from the university. I myself lived in Ranmoor House, possibly the furthest out, and it took me 25-30 minutes to walk to the main campus, 15-20 minutes to walk to the medical school, 35-40 minutes to walk to the St George's Complex, and about an hour to walk to the city centre. However, on the way to the main campus, one would need to walk through Broomhill, which from September - May every year becomes student central, with a Somerfield for all your shopping, hair dressers, independent CD/record outlet, hardware store, 5 or 6 charity shops (one in particular specialising in book and vinyl), and all the takeaway and food outlets you could need, from burgers and chips or pizza, to Indian, Thai, African, American and a couple of lovely cafes. There are also at least 6 pubs, see nightlife in the "city" section for more information. The remaining Hall of Residence, Tapton Hall is on the Broomhill/Crookes boarder, very close by. Crookes, Crookesmoor and Walkley by the way, are where you're likely to be living in your second and third years, and Crookes itself also had some great stores and more pubs. Most of the remaining flats are between the city centre and the main campus, close the St George's Complex. Most of these are all quite cheap, and will be easily covered by your student loan, even those of you on the minimum! After that, many houses can be rented in the Broomhill/Broomhall/Crookes/Walkley areas of the city, often for under £60/week! I'm currently paying £50/week, half rent over July/August, and I know a girl at Bristol paying £76/week! That £26/week more that I can spend pickling my liver!

- Libraries: here are a wide range of libraries, covering all the faculties and subject areas within the University. Most are on or around the central campus, but of course, where the teaching takes place off-campus; there is a library there too. This is a breakdown:
- Main Library - located on the central campus, linked to the Arts Tower, for Arts and humanities, social sciences (except economics and leisure management), sciences (animal and plant sciences), applied mathematics, biomedical sciences, earth sciences, molecular biology and biotechnology, probability and statistics, pure mathematics and physics), architecture, east Asian studies and archives of old books and journals
- St George's Library - located on Mappin Street in the St George's complex, for Engineering (chemical, civil, control, electrical and electronics, mechanical), materials (metallurgy, ceramics, glass technology, polymer science, composite materials), computer science, information studies, management, leisure management, business
- Health Sciences Library - three sites, one at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital (where the main Medical School administrative centre is housed), one at the Northern General (across the city, where some teaching takes place) and one at Manvers Campus, for the nursing/midwifery students. For (obviously) the Health Sciences, Medicine, dentistry, nursing
- Crookesmoor Library - located on Conduit Road in Crookes/Crookesmoor, next to the Department of Law, for Law, criminology, European Union
- Geography, Planning and Landscape Library - located on Winter Street, on the main campus (behind the Arts Tower), for Environmental subjects, geography, town and regional planning, urban studies, landscape architecture, developing countries
- Portobello Library - located on West Street, near to the St George's Complex. This is due to close in 2005, and the stock will be moved to the main St George's Library, for Social sciences, women´s studies, earth and natural sciences, history, archaeology, literature, film studies and photography
- Music Library - located on Taptonville Road, near Tapton Halls, for music.
- There are also "study centres" in the Hicks and Dainton Buildings, for Physics and Chemistry respectively

- Health: Upon registering at the university, you are also registered with the university's health service. This GP's are very good, and have recently moved to a purpose-built centre on Gell Street, just off West Street and near to the St George's Complex.

**** The Union ****
Well, what can I say? The Student's union has been voted best in the country some many times and by so many surveys, I can't even tell you! Please note that due to unethical business practices, the Union does not sell Nestle products, and all outlets sell fairly traded where possible. The Union Building itself houses:
- Endsleigh insurance, to make sure all your stuff is insured!
- Oxfam, well, we all need to have a conscience right? This is particularly good for music, especially classic vinyl
- U Shop, the main shop for you alcohol, newspapers and magazine, stationary, pre-packed sandwiches, crisps, chocolate and drinks, and the odd bottle of milk, loaf of bread, tin of soup etc.
- Studio, for photo processing (very cheap!) university branded clothing and trinkets such as candle sticks, fridge magnets etc.
- The sandwich shop
- The Proper Pasty Company (I've been asked to high recommend the Christmas pasty during the festive season!)
- The Loxley Food court, containing Sally's and other food outlets
- Natwest Bank (get you free 5 year young persons railcard!)
- STA Travel, so you can sort out buses anywhere
- Wash and Go, the laundrette
- Box Office, selling tickets for gig at the venues and club nights in the union, and some outside at the Hallam FM Arena, City Hall, Theatres and Sheffield United Football.
- A fully equipped cinema (with a proper 35mm projector like at the Odeon and everything!), showing art and foreign films every Wednesday, Blockbusters every Friday and Saturday and classics every Sunday, with some special (and often free) showings in between.
- Two bars, Bar One for you standard student venue with cheap booze, the One to go fast food outlet, a beer garden and the longest student bar in the country! Then there's the Interval Café Bar, which serves a variety of beers including some specialty and guest ales, and tea, coffee, FANTASTIC hot chocolate, and a good variety of food. Bar One all has a side room, the Raynor Lounge, which can be hired for private parties, and hosts the monthly Offbeat night - the alt indie night.
- Three Venues, the Fusion and Foundry in the Main Building, and the Octagon Centre located on the same concourse. Foundry and Octagon both house gigs, and I have seen Funeral for a Friend, The Others, JJ72, The Coral, and many other at these venues. In 2005, James Blunt, KT Tunstall, Bloc Party, Jimmy Eat World and other will play. Fusion and Foundry are used in the day time for sales and markets, including clothing and jewellery (often ethnic) books, posters and much more. The Fusion, Foundry and Octagon venues also house club nights, with The Tuesday Club on Tuesdays (Drum N Bass, and HipHop, often with live acts - Giles Peterson, Ugly Duckling, Scratch Perverts and Mr Scruff have played in recent history), Juice on Wednesdays, with Cheese in Foundry and Britpop in Fusion, Fuzz Club on Thursdays, with modern Indie/Rock in Foundry and Metal/emo/punk/hardcore in Fusion, and a live act every week in Foundry (Keane, The Killers, Dogs, Dogs Die in Hot Cars, The Dead 60's, Kooks, The Fallout Trust, Yourcodenameis:Milo and Agent Blue have played very recently) Frouk in the Octagon on Fridays, the traditional Friday dance music night out, and Pop Tarts on Saturdays, with 60's and 70's in Fusion and 80's 90's in Foundry. All cost less than £5 apart from The Tuesday Club (where prices vary) and all have drinks offers, usually centred around carling, Worthington, Snakebite, JD&Coke or Screamers. There are also monthly night like Climax, the Gay and lesbian night, Brighton Beech, the mod superclub, and occasional school discos too!

Then of course, run by the union are a variety of sport and activities, clubs, societies, working committees and political groups. There's rugby league and union, football, basketball, rowing, canoeing, sailing, caving, hill walking, high peaks (climbing, walking and mountain biking), Lib Dems, Tories, Labour, Socialist Workers and Revolution.

Everything too, is voted for by the student body, from the 8 Sabbatical Officers, to the member of the umpteen working committee, any Union member has a say.

**** The City ****
- Area: You may not know, but a tenth of what's contained within Sheffield's boundaries is National Park, mostly in the form of the Peak District. The city is England Fourth Largest (after London, Birmingham and Leeds) the second biggest city in Yorkshire, and the only city in South Yorkshire. It is officially the safest city in England, with the lowest crime rates per capita (4 biggest population, and 27 highest crime rate) and also England's greenest city, with the most parkland and trees (possibly due to the fact that there are so many hills, it's impossible to build on half of the land!)

- Nightlife and entertainment: WOW!! There are so many bars and clubs in Sheffield, there's no time to be bored. In Broomhill, there are at least six pubs, from the traditional to trendy student spots, many with pool tables, so once you've had a drink in your Hall's bar and the two Union bars, that's a good pub crawl! Crookes/Crookesmoor also have a good few between them, particular favourites of mine being the Olde Grindstone and the Hallamshire House (both of which have a snooker table) and the Closed Shop and Cobden View Arms (which stay open past normal licensing). See if you can find the Cobden View! It took me a few years!

Of course, we can start with the night at the Student's Union, but we've been there, done that, so progressing from the university to the city centre, you have West Street, for your typical student bars, and Division Street/Devonshire Street, with trendier bars, traditional pubs and restaurants (I can recommend the Devonshire Cat) and a few small clubs/bars, namely Ice Bar and Orchis, which link together, Halycon, a bar with a dance-floor, and Flares, the 70's pop club (free entry on Tuesdays and Thursday, Carling £1.25/pint and loads of fun games to play!) It's here we reach out first proper club - frequent haunt of mine - Corporation (on Milton Street) the city's alternative club, with music every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, ranging from Indie, Britpop, rock, metal, thrash, emo, punk and hardcore. This is the place to be for the alternative music scene, and with gigs by some of the biggest and rising stars in metal (think planes mistaken for stars, Amen, Mortiis, Yourcodenameis:milo and 65 days of static) on other days or preceding the club nights, you really can't go wrong. Just a stone's throw from the Devonshire Cat (a good stopping point) and the Washington (owned by the drummer from Pulp). A brief wander down the road leads to the Room (AKA Fez Club) which hosts many underground singer/songwriters and bands, including recently, the Towers of London, Martha Wainright, the Zico Chain, the Paddingtons and many more, and here we're not far from Charter Square, with Po Na Na and Bar Matrix - a couple of good night, with a chillout zone before 11pm, and open until 1am.

Back to Division Street, we have The Forum, a bar with occasional live music, and down the end we find Barkers Pool, which has the City Hall on one side (host to larger bands than Fuzz, Fez, Corporation or Foundry, and monthly club nights) and The Kingdom Superclub in one corner, for all you RnB, Chees and dance/house needs!

Continuing, we'd see Fargate, the main paved shopping street in front of us, but turn away to the right, and here we right the cultural quarter. Crucible, Lyceum and Studio Theatres (the largest theatre group outside of London) the Winter Gardens and Millennium Art Galleries (in the same building), the Graves Art Gallery and Central Library (in the same building) and we're only a stone's throw from the 10-screen Odeon cinema, showing the latest releases, and four-screen Showroom cinema, showing arthouse and foreign films from now and the past. We're now close to the Hallam Union (pah, spit), the station and the Leadmill, for more gigs and club night every night (and I mean EVERY night). The Leadmill will offer discounts with your NUS card of University U-card.

Back to the Fargate/Barker's Pool junction then, and we'll head down Penistone Street, to the Moor (more shops) and we're now close to Bar Zero (a former gig venue, still a club/bar) and the Republik (or Gatecrasher ONE as it's now named) for all you neon-toting Crasher-kids!

I've already mentioned some of the shops, in Fargate (your usual high-street with Banks, and shops like Top Shop, Burtons, M&S etc) and the Moor (with more department stores and the ever student friend pound stores (4 toilet rolls for a quid anyone?) but what else? How about Meadowhall, one of the largest shopping centres in Europe, with it's own 15-screen Vue cinema and Oasis, for a multitude of food and drink, and even a pub? On the way, there's Valley Centertainment, in the Don Valley, with a 20-screen UGC multiplex, bars and restaurants, bowling alley, and located next to the Sheffield Hallam FM Arena, hosting many big and chart-topping acts (I saw Queen there just recently). Also at the other end of the cit, on the south east, is Crystal Peaks, with even more shops, and a UCI cinema (we're not short a few cinemas in Sheffield!) But I've not even told you how we get to all these places yet!

- Travel: Situated just off the M1, junctions 29 (through Chesterfield), 30 (past Crystal Peaks and best for the South East), 31 (using the A57 Mosborough Parkway and A57 Sheffield Parkway), 33 (the Sheffield Parkway), 34 (via Meadowhall and Tinsley) and even 35 or 36 through Grenoside if coming from the North. Once in the city, the transport network is well linked, with the Sheffield Mainline Station, and smaller stations at Dore (interchange), Woodhouse, Darnall and Meadowhall (interchange). There's the First Overground service, running every 10 minutes at peaks times, and every 8 or 6 minutes on some services (the 60, 52 and 51 service Broomhill, Ranmoor, Crookes and University are three such services) the Yorkshire Terrier bus service, and the Stagecoach Tram, which is very quick and cheap, and links the Station, University, Valley Centertainment, Meadowhall, Crystal Peaks and Arena, as well as many other places. It also goes Granville Road (for my beloved Sheffield United Football), to Hillsborough, for the piggy Wednesday football :) and the Dog racing and Speedway at the Owlerton Stadium, Don Valley Stadium for Rugby League, and of course there's always the Stealers Ice Hockey and Sharks Basketball at the Arena! There are also talks of extensions to Dore and Totley, the Northern General Hospital, Broomhill, the Central University Hospitals and Ranmoor, Rotherham and Manvers, further integrating the network!

In conclusion, Sheffield is a fantastic city, a great place to study, and the place I'll probably settle (although I do already have ties here). With over 22,000 students at Sheffield University, and roughly the same at SHU, you'll never feel alone. It's probably more accurate to say that rather than the country's fourth biggest city, I live in the world's biggest village.
 

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