​A VISION FOR SHEFFIELD’S LOWER PORTER BROOK

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Aims:

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Sheffield has a long history of both trashing and restoring its rivers. The Porter Brook is an example of both. The Upper Porter Valley, once entirely given over to industry, became Sheffield’s first River Parkway as envisioned in the City’s first Development Plan of 1924 by Patrick Abercrombie. Its chain of green and blue spaces linking the suburbs to the moors remains one of Sheffield’s unique jewels enjoyed by residents and visitors alike and serving multiple functions.

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In stark contrast the Lower Porter, downstream of Hunters Bar, remained until very recently an almost invisible stream, flowing in narrow channels hidden behind terraces and workshops or running in underground to its ignominious confluence with the Sheaf under Sheffield Station, unrecogniasable as the same river that flows through Endcliffe Park.

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However this has already begun to change as the inner city has de-industrialised and begun to be re-imagined and re-occupied as a place to live, work and play. Many needs are driving this change:

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• Increasing flood risk from more extreme weather events makes ‘more room for the river’ a necessity.

• ​Reversing the widespread loss of biodiversity can be most immediately addressed in connected river and wetland corridors

• ​Active travel in a hilly city benefits hugely from segregated routes following the river valleys as much as possible, away from hazardous roads and polluted air

• ​The planned reclamation of the inner city as a place to live requires new green/blue spaces offering access to nature

• ​Restoring our inner city rivers strengthens Sheffield’s Outdoor City offer

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The Lower Porter corridor can deliver all these benefits if a focussed and joined up strategy can be applied through the planning process, and offers many quick wins which could largely be funded by planned development.

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Background

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Water powered industry lined the Porter from the early C18th requiring much straightening, canalisation and installation of weirs. Later land to the north of the river known as Alsop Fields, was laid out as a future residential suburb which was then overtaken by steam-powered factories. Demand for more workshop space led to piecemeal narrowing and culverting of the river.

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By the late C19th the Porter was used mainly as a drainage and waste disposal system and was largely paved or concreted with a narrow central low water flow channel leaving little opportunity for any remaining flora or fauna to survive.

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Water quality greatly improved in the last two decades of the C20th and opportunities to rediscover the river became available in the last twenty years alongside changes to the economy which saw metal working factories largely replaced by university, cultural, leisure and residential uses. The distinctive character of the quarter was recognised by 

declaration of Conservation Area. Much of that character derives from the river corridor.

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In 2017 the City Council and Environment Agency jointly funded the deculverting and restoration of a section of the Porter Brook to form the Matilda St Pocket Park as a demonstration of the potential for green-blue public space, habitat creation and making room for the river. The local bio-diversity also quickly improved. The project attracted widespread praise and public use and is seen as an exemplar.

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Two years later the Sheaf and Porter Rivers Trust was established to promote similar transformation along both rivers as part of a joined-up strategy.

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The Opportunities

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Along the Lower Porter from Sheffield’s main station to the Inner Ring Road at St Marys Gate an almost continuous succession of sites and buildings  are available for redevelopment.

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Several sites such as Persistence Works (YAS) , Matilda St Pocket Park, Speedwell Works and Platform Apartments have already provided some public access and channel improvements but these are not joined up or waymarked.

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At both ends of this river corridor by SCC and Homes England have identified large ‘Priority Areas’ for the development of new residential mixed use neighbourhoods- namely City Gateway (around the Station) and Moorfoot (focussed on the former council office building and adjoining sites}. Both offer substantial opportunities for river restoration and public

access with strong place-making potential.​

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Between these two locations most of the remaining ‘missing links’ lie within sites also available for redevelopment, including one in SCC ownership (AVEC/Matilda St) and others at Sylvester Gardens and Decathlon.

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For most of the corridor the Environment Agency has already commissioned and received outline design proposals for channel re-naturalisation and removal of barriers such as the Cinder Hill Weir.

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SCC Flood and Water Team and the EA are also working on a flood protection programme for both the Sheaf and Porter Valleys whose initial proposals are expected in the next twelve months and will need to be intregrated into the vision.

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Conclusion

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What is now needed is a strategic vision from SCC and its partners such as HE, EA and other major stakeholders combining environmental, active travel, amenity, health, heritage and climate resilience benefits in thecreation  of a new neighbourhood connected by its river.

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This should be given statutory force by more explicit reference and clear illustration in the Local Plan and then backed up by Supplementary Planning Guidance at the earliest opportunity.

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This short document is offered as a contribution to that process gathering together the pieces to form a simple easily readable vision.

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Sheaf & Porter Rivers Trust

Visualisations by Urban Wilderness Landscape Architects