Chapel / Chatham Street
Cross Chapel Street / Swinton Street
Bridgehouses, Sheffield
Then & Now
My great grandfather Thomas Marsh Crossley was born at 7 Court, Chapel Street, in 1886. His mother lived at Stocksbridge and I do not know why he was born here. I have widely researched the families who were living at Court 7 in between 1881 and 1891 but I can find no connections - although he was, frustratingly, born right in the middle of the two census returns!
Chapel Street was renamed Chatham Street in 1886. Cross Chapel Street, which ran off it, became Swinton Street. 7 Court was also known as 3 Court Cross Chapel Street, and as Bailey Court. The court was entered by way of an entry between nos 3 and 5 Cross Chapel Street and between 15 and 17 Chapel Street. Click on the photos to enlarge them.
The three photographs below are looking down Chatham Street with Swinton Street leading off to the right. There were two shops on the corner of Swinton Street; numbers 1 & 3 Swinton Steeet were a house and shop, and on the opposite side of the road, nearest the camera, was a newsagents run for many years by Mr. Stoney Lees, at numbers 23 Chapel Street & 2 Cross Chapel Street.
The next three photographs are looking along Swinton Street to Chatham Street. The houses which can be seen here on the left were the odd numbers. On the other side of the road were the even numbers.
These three photographs are looking along Swinton Street to Pitsmoor Road. The houses on the left were odd numbered and those on the right were even. I think the houses in the near foreground on the left with the lower roof line were numbers 1 & 3; you can just see the entry into Court 7, which is marked on old maps. Next there are the four houses, which were back-to-backs, numbers 5, 7, 9 and 11. The backs of these houses faced into Court 7. Then comes a larger entry way, also marked on the old maps. It does look as if there is a house on the other side of this entry, but a map of 1889 shows the Temperance Hall here, which was opened in 1887
The next three photographs are taken looking up Chatham Street to the corner of Swinton Street and the older one has been captioned by Picture Sheffield as “unidentified shops, Chatham Street near the junction with Swinton Street (formerly Cross Chapel Street).” I think that these are numbers 17, 19 and 21.
Picture Sheffield have identified the photograph below: “extreme left is No. 27, John William Walker's, bakers and confectioners.”
The old photograph was taken in 1939 at the bottom of Chatham Street where it meets Bridgehouses. Picture Sheffield have identified the National Health Insurance Dispensary of Phillip Stanley Glover at 18 Bridgehouses and Chas. Hellenschmidt, pork butcher, at no. 3 Chatham Street. Court no. 1 was behind these buildings, reached through the entry that can be seen between the two shops. The road along the bottom is Mowbray Street.
The old photograph was taken in 1939 at the bottom of Chatham Street where it meets Bridgehouses. Picture Sheffield have identified the shop on the corner as a chemists shop belonging to Philip Stanley Glover, the National Health Insurance Dispensary. The road along the bottom is Mowbray Street.
The older photograph dates to 1965. Greasy Vera's burger van once stood here, opposite the pub which is behind the trees on the right, now known as The Riverside.
“Greasy Vera’s” (in)famous burger van. Previously sited at the bottom of Chatham Street and immortalised in a wonderful painting by Joe Scarborough, Swinton Street was the van’s second location, almost on top of the location of the house Thomas Marsh Crossley was born in! I have been unable to find out who owns the copyright to these photographs.
This photograph, taken from Google Earth, shows just how small the actual area was that all those houses and courts were crammed into. Chatham Street in yellow, Swinton Street in green, the location of 7 Court in blue, Bridgehouses in purple and Pitsmoor Road in Orange.
This large scale map from Sheffield Archives is dated 1889. The four houses in 7 Court are highlighted in yellow. Chatham Street joined up with Pye Bank.
