Paradise Square

Paradise Square is a Georgian square in the City of Sheffield, England. Located to the northwest of Sheffield Cathedral, the square is set on a slope and was formerly used for public meetings. History Paradise Square was built in the 18th century on the site of Hicks' stile-field, the stile being one of the entrances to the church-yard. The reason for the choice of the name Paradise Square is uncertain, but local historians R. E. Leader and S. O. Addy speculated that it may be an allusion to the ancient use of Paradise or Parvis as the name for a garden or enclosed space near a church. The area acquired the nickname Pot Square when crockery vendors were moved here from the High Street in around 1808. Buildings The east side of the square consists of five houses built in 1736 by Nicholas Broadbent on land leased from the trustees of the Shrewsbury Hospital. The other houses in the square were built by his son Thomas Broadbent, from 1771 to c.1790. Number 11 is dated 1787. Following bomb damage in the Second World War, parts of the square were extensively restored between 1963-6 by Hadfield, Cawkwell, Davidson and Partners, when numbers 18 and 26 were largely rebuilt using materials that were salvaged from buildings elsewhere. In the mid-1980s, an early 19th-century Gothic revival stuccoed building at number 10 was rebuilt with a Neo-Georgian facade. All buildings in the square are Grade II* listed. Public meetings Describing Paradise Square, J. E. Manning, Minister of Upper Chapel, wrote in 1900 "Paradise Square was not then [in 1831] so quiet as it ordinarily is now. It was often thronged with excited crowds who came to hear what their leaders had to say on all the stirring topics of the time." Number 18 was built with a Masonic Hall on the upper floor. This was accessed from the square via a staircase with a balcony at the top that became the rostrum for speakers at public meetings.