Carver Street: The Sheffield city centre street busy with workers by day and plagued by violence by night

By day, Carver Street is bustling with office workers based on the city centre street, and nearby. Plenty of footfall also comes from people visiting the wide array of independent shops and coffee houses based on Division Street, which flows through Carver Street; from those using the street as a thoroughfare to get to West Street, and from those using the Carver Street car park.

Carver Street feels safe enough during the day, but by night, it is awash with people getting involved in fights and police officers stationed there as a precaution, deterrent and to offer help.

The street, which is lined with bars, is popular with revellers, particularly on weekends and student night on a Wednesday.

It is also one of Sheffield’s worst-hit streets for violent offences. In the last seven months alone, there have been at least four stabbings on Carver Street, two of which resulted in young men being slashed in the neck.

In the first of the incidents on September 22, 2022, a young man was stabbed in the neck.

Video footage captured at the scene shows a young man sat in a chair with police officers surrounding him and a door supervisor assisting. He could be seen putting pressure to a wound at the base of his neck.

Then, on October 8, 2022, a 17-year-old boy was arrested by South Yorkshire Police on suspicion of Section 18 assault after an 18-year-old was found with gash wounds to the neck on Carver Street.

An initiative to pedestrianise Carver Street between 9pm and 5am was brought in at the end of the last year, in time for the busy Christmas period. Councillor Mazher Iqbal told The Star the move was made at the request of South Yorkshire Police in the ‘interests of safety’.

In January 2023, South Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Dr Alan Billings, said the scheme ‘seems to have reduced incidents in the area’ since it was implemented last year.

Despite that, there have still been several reports of violence being carried out on the street during 2023.

On February 5, 2023, a 19-year-old was injured in an incident in which he was stabbed and chased by a group of men. South Yorkshire Police said emergency services were deployed at 4.11am. The force said there had been an altercation and the teen was ‘chased by an unknown group of men’ and stabbed.

A police statement read: “It is reported an altercation took place and the victim, a 19-year-old man, was chased by an unknown group of men. He was stabbed twice by one suspect, before the offender left the scene on foot.”

Less than a week ago, a man was arrested on the street for assaulting a doorman. A spokesperson for South Yorkshire Police told The Star: “Officers attended reports of an assault on Carver Street in Sheffield at 10pm on Saturday 15 April. It is reported that a man assaulted door staff. One man was arrested on suspicion of assault.”

South Yorkshire Police has been contacted for comment.