Sheffield is the city of Seven Hills, George Orwell wrote in ‘Road to Wigan Pier’
“The town is very hilly (said to be built on seven hills, like Rome) and everywhere streets of mean little houses blackened by smoke run up at sharp angles, paved with cobbles which are purposely set unevenly to give horses etc, a grip”
We don’t have many horses heading up and down hills any more, nor are our houses mean, but it does feel like we are missing a bit of a trick. The city centre has its ups and downs, steps, ramps and in one particular office block, a slide..
So if an office building can have that, how about a slide in some other parts of the city. At this point I should fire up a photo editing app with a picture of the site in the city and overlay an amazing ‘artist’s impression’ of a slide. Maybe I’ll do that another time. For now though, here is an example of some outdoor thinking in the Netherlands at an entrance to a railway station in Utrecht
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1uurSegIH4
This is what we want, some super duper slides installed, imagine what an economic edge it would give to Sheffield!
In the mean time, until we do get more slides, here is one way of getting down an escalator in a hurry…