This terrific trio give South Yorkshires capital city a green heart. The Winter Garden is a haven of architectural splendour, boasting the largest temperate glasshouse in any European city centre; The Peace Gardens sit around an award-winning public square with spectacular fountains and water features; and the Botanical Gardens offer a prestigious collection of trees and shrubs in stunning glass pavilions dating back to 1836.
Weston Park & Kelham Island Museums
Egyptian mummies, Snowy the polar bear, live bees and a traditional butchers shop yes, its an odd combination of treasures, but its one that has brought crowds flocking to Weston Park Museum for generations. Kelham Island Museum, which stands on a manmade island thats more than 900 years old, has a more serious tone, but is just as interesting. Opened in 1982 and revamped over the last couple of years, it offers an archive of material telling the citys industrial story from the Little Mester to mass production, revolutionary processes, invention and innovation like the famous Sheffield Simplex car, built in 1920.
Millennium Gallery & Yorkshire Artspace
The elegant, innovative and welcoming Millennium Gallery is a vibrant venue for the visual arts, craft and design at the heart of the city. It comprises four individual galleries under one roof offering treasures from the past, masterpieces from Britains national collections and new creations by both famous and up-and-coming artists.
Some of those artists will almost definitely have benefited from the generosity of Yorkshire Artspace at some point in their career as it is one of the largest and most established studio providers in the UK, which offers affordable workspace to more than 80 artists and craftspeople.
Showroom Cinema
Based in a once derelict 1930's building near the railway station, Showroom is now one of the largest independent cinemas in Europe with four luxury auditoria, education spaces and a popular cafe bar. It presents a lively programme of films from around the world, both contemporary and classic, and regularly hosts festivals and creative events.
The Crucible & Lyceum
The 980-seat Crucible auditorium, built in 1971, is the main producing venue in the Sheffield Theatres complex. The main performance area is a thrust stage, enabling the audience to watch the action on three sides from no more than 22 metres away.
The Lyceum is considerably older, having originally opened in 1897, and is a traditional proscenium arch theatre with 1,068 seats. It closed in 1968 and endured spells as a rock venue and bingo hall before undergoing a 12 million renovation and reopening as a touring venue in 1991.
Sheffield Arena & Sheffield City Hall
The massive 34 million Sheffield Arena was built to host the World Student Games and opened by the Queen in 1991. Since then, it has hosted numerous concerts, ice shows, theatre productions, sporting events, exhibitions and conferences.
Its home to the Steelers ice hockey team, who play around 30 games a season under its substantial roof, and International Super-cross races, which involves 100 truckloads of soil being dumped on the ice floor to create a six-lane dirt track.
Since its gala opening in 1932, Sheffields landmark City Hall has played host to most of the famous names of the 20th century and continues in the 21st as an exciting, elegant entertainment and arts venue. It currently hosts more than 600 events a year and is the proud home of the Sheffield International Concert Season.
