I visited the road with Sheffield’s steepest slope – and it was literally breathtaking

If you think of Sheffield, you think of steep hills. The two go hand in hand.

But even in our city, Blake Street street reigns supreme when it comes to steep.

According to officials at the Ordnance Survey, the organisation responsible for detailed maps of Sheffield and the rest of the UK, Blake Street, in Upperthorpe, is the steepest in the city – and I went to check that out for myself and video the walk up the steepest hill in Sheffield.

And I also found out what the pros and cons are of living on the road, which is said to be the third steepest in the country.

I headed for the street, which was among the city locations which featured in the 1997 film The Full Monty, to take a look, and took a walk up the street, which is around 200m of steep striding, at a gradient of 16.6 degrees. That is more than five degrees more than Jenkin Road, in Wincobank, the road which featured as one of the steepest sections of the 2014 Tour de France route through Yorkshire.

The road had a railing next to the pavement most of the way up, and grips built into the concrete paving stones, to help those making their way along the incline.

It took me two minutes – and an increased rate of breathing – to reach the top. But on reaching the summit, marked by the Blake pub, and the entrance to Ruskin Park, there was suddenly a majestic view right across the city.

Residents love the street, despite the challenges living on Sheffield’s steepest street present.

Steepest street in Sheffield

And every Christmas, they get together to run up the huge hill. Resident Paul Travers said: “There’s a Santa Dash every Christmas, where everyone comes out in Santa costumes and runs up the street. We also get people coming here running up the road for training, some of them with weighted back packs.” He said he thought the steep hill was the reason he had been through a few clutches on his car, and admitted it was not a place to be when there was ice.

Morgan Pearce, another resident, said she tended to avoid parking on the street, because it could be tough to manoeuvre on the hill, but said it was lovely to see the view of the city it gave. We’ve heard it’s the third steepest in the UK, so it’s nice to be on a street that’s famous for something,” she said.

“People sledge down here in the winter, and I’ve done that myself,” she added. She said she doesn't enjoy reverse parking on the hill, but said he thought it was an exciting place to live, and liked it as a place to live.

Stuart Wyatt lives near the top of the street, and said it was not always fun to walk up. But he said: “We have fantastic views from my bedroom window and can see out over the whole of the city centre, and if we get snow it’s a hotbed for sledging. It’s a great place to live and it’s a nice community around here as well.”

In terms of Britain, it lags behind Old Wyche Road, in the Malvern Hills of Worcestershire, at 17.54 degrees slope and Vale Street, Bristol, which has a 21.81 gradient.