Archaeological Building Recording at Sites 31 36 - Dwellings, Inner Relief Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire

Historic buildings which functioned as dwellings were located on two sites. These were sites 31: 195-213 Gibraltar Street and 36: 83 Spring Street. Site 31: 195-213 Gibraltar Street (SK 352 879) fronted Gibraltar Street to the north, and was bounded by Cupola Street to the east, Copper Street to the west and waste land from demolished workshops and back-to-back housing to the south. Site 36: 83 Spring Street (SK 3540 8790) was positioned on the corner of Spring Street and Bower Spring. It was originally a weighbridge office with two dwellings located within a predominantly industrial area, but had been used as an RSPCA veterinary surgery since the 1960s. Historic buildings which functioned as dwellings were located on two sites. These were sites 31: 195-213 Gibraltar Street and 36: 83 Spring Street. Site 31: 195-213 Gibraltar Street (SK 352 879) fronted Gibraltar Street to the north, and was bounded by Cupola Street to the east, Copper Street to the west and waste land from demolished workshops and back-to-back housing to the south. Site 36: 83 Spring Street (SK 3540 8790) was positioned on the corner of Spring Street and Bower Spring. It was originally a weighbridge office with two dwellings located within a predominantly industrial area, but had been used as an RSPCA veterinary surgery since the 1960s. Both of these sites contained dwellings which were unusual in a predominately industrial area within Sheffield, which underwent a massive slum clearance in the early twentieth century. The majority of dwellings to have survived the demolition programme were those attached or encompassed within industrial works. Site 31 contained a significantly unusual and early pair of single cell dwellings constructed pre 1850. These had been amalgamated into the rear of a later works with shops fronting Gibraltar Street. Site 36 comprised of mainly twentieth-century buildings along with an early twentieth-century structure and a well-built mid-late Victorian office and dwellings. Again, this was a scarce survival within the area and was of a higher quality construction compared with the more commonplace back-to-back housing.