CITY
SHEFFIELD Something bright here, stainless and built to last; A city sitting in valleys and rising into hills Knowing that history’s not just a photo of the past But a springboard to leap from as the skyline fills With ideas of how the city can become itself Not a lazy idea of what a Northern place could be Not a slice of regeneration taken off the shelf But something organic, bespoke, like it should be: Here are seats of learning bursting with thinking Here are darkened spaces where the music sings Here are busy streets built round eating and drinking And all the shining futures forward planning brings. A city splashed by water, a city forged from steel; That keeps it Yorkshire, keeps it Sheffield, keeps it real. Partly in the Peak District National Park, Sheffield is England’s greenest urban area containing 150 woodlands and 50 public parks. It has a population of 582,500 with 100 languages spoken. An increasingly diverse city, Sheffield was the first to become a ‘City of
Sanctuary’ and the first to formally recognise Palestine as a state. The city’s new brand, built around an inherent truth of people being at the centre of what makes the city tick, is summarised by ‘Sheffield makes people and people make Sheffield’ – a special,
two way, reciprocal relationship. It is a city where good things actually end up being a partnership, a collaboration, a co-production or any other description of how multiple people from multiple organisations work together to create or regenerate spaces and places.