Sheffield named one of the UK's best street art cities (again)

A study by Betway has found Sheffield to be one of the best cities in the UK for street art.

The actual report is a few months old, but only just seems to be surfacing online. I’d certainly missed this when it first came out. Regardless, it’s good to see Sheffield getting a mention. We come in fifth behind London, Bristol, Belfast and Manchester. Two years ago, a similar study by South Western Railways ranked Sheffield seventh.

Personally, I think the metrics used for the rankings are a little dubious. Some of the cities ranked below Sheffield have much bigger street art scenes, but it seems Sheffield is getting good at making some noise about the art we have. One of the key measures used by Betway was analysing social media posts.

The fact that we’re getting good at raising awareness of what we have here really pleases me. I’ve always found Sheffield to be very shy of celebrating the good things our city does. When I established Street Art Sheffield, almost 10 years ago, one of my aims was to raise awareness of the city’s street art scene. It’s nice to see the site has made some impact, along with several others that have also been doing a great job promoting what the city has to offer.

Collage of murals — Recent artworks by Phlegm, Rob Lee, Peachzz, Pete McKee and Faunagraphic

According to the study, Sheffield is better than the likes of Liverpool and Birmingham for street art. Having visited those cities I am not fully convinced. However, what we do have is really good. Take the last six months as an example, we’ve had incredible new murals from the likes of Phlegm, Peachzz, Pete McKee, Faunagraphic and Rob Lee. That’s just to name a few. Our street art scene is currently in a very healthy state. With plans in progress for a street art festival in the city next year, the scene is just going to get better.

Regardless of whether we should be in the top 5 or not, this sort of publicity is good for the city and the artists that create here.

If you want to discover Sheffield’s street art scene for yourself, check out our map and browse the ever growing archive of works. If you want a more guided experience, there’s still a few places left on Sunday’s street art tour. I’ll be taking people around the wider Kelham Island area exploring the fantastic murals and hidden gems to be found there.