Part of our series on Sheffield’s best neighbourhoods, which started when Time Out named Crookes one of the UK’s coolest.
If Crookes is the hilltop village, Ecclesall Road is the long, busy main street of south-west Sheffield. It runs out from the edge of the city centre past bars, restaurants, coffee shops and independents, through the Hunters Bar roundabout and on towards the Peak District. Along the way it gives you some of the best green space in any British city, all within walking distance of town.
The strip
The stretch of Ecclesall Road between the city centre end and Hunters Bar is where people go out: brunch in the day, cocktails and dinner at night, and a steady crowd of students and young professionals from the surrounding streets. Side streets like Sharrow Vale Road add the smaller independents, and Sharrow Vale holds its own community market several times a year.
The parks
This is what makes the area special. Endcliffe Park starts at the Hunters Bar roundabout, with its cafe, playground and the Porter Brook running through it. Follow the brook upstream and you are into the Porter Valley: Bingham Park, the historic Shepherd Wheel water-powered grinding workshop, and eventually Forge Dam, with its cafe and pond, before the valley climbs out towards the moors. It is one of the great Sheffield walks and you can start it from a bus stop.
Just off Ecclesall Road, the Sheffield Botanical Gardens are free to wander and host summer concerts and seasonal events. The outdoors hub has more walks and green spaces.
A bit of history
Hunters Bar takes its name from the toll bar that stood here on the old turnpike road out of Sheffield, and the old toll gateposts still stand in the middle of the roundabout. In Endcliffe Park, a memorial marks the spot where the American B-17 bomber Mi Amigo crashed in 1944 after its crew steered away from children playing in the park; all ten crew died. Local man Tony Foulds tended the memorial for decades, and in 2019 his campaign brought a flypast over the park that drew thousands of people.
A day on Ecclesall Road
Start with breakfast near Hunters Bar, walk the Porter Valley up to Forge Dam for a cuppa, and come back down through Endcliffe Park. Spend the afternoon in the Botanical Gardens or browsing Sharrow Vale Road, then head back down Ecclesall Road for dinner and drinks. It is the classic south-west Sheffield day, and you never need more than your feet and a bus.
Who it suits
Ecclesall Road works for almost everyone, which is unusual. Students fill the bars on the city end, families take over the parks at weekends, runners and dog walkers own the Porter Valley at dawn, and there is a steady stream of people heading out to the Peak District, which starts only a few miles further up the road. If you are new to Sheffield and want to understand why people say it is the greenest city in the country, this is the place to start.
What is on around Hunters Bar
Coming up in Hunters Bar 5 events
Coming up in Sharrow 17 events
Getting there
Frequent buses run the length of Ecclesall Road from the city centre, and it is a pleasant 20 to 30 minute walk from town to Hunters Bar. There is no tram. Area details are on the Hunters Bar area page, and you can compare every part of the city with the area finder.