Virtual return for city’s hole in the road

SHEFFIELD’S ‘HOLE in the Road’ is to be brought back to life after 20 years in virtual reality form.

The complex of walkways and shops, created beneath a roundabout in Castle Square and open to the sky in its centre, was concreted over in the mid1990s when the trams came, but its memory has lived on among Sheffield residents as a unique place with a somewhat mixed reputation.

As part of Sheffield University’s Festival of the Mind from September 17 to 25, Park Hill-based creative agency Human has been commissioned to design a virtual reality experience based on the landmark.

Visitors to the Millennium Gallery will wear headsets and headphones, and use computer joysticks, to explore a ‘video game standard’ recreation of the city centre site, complete with its unusual glass fish tank.

The Hole was created in 1967 when streets damaged by wartime bombing were finally cleared to make way for the Arundel Gate dual carriageway. It deteriorated over the years and became a magnet for muggers and vandals, particularly at night.

Nick Bax, Human’s founder, said: “There was nothing else like it. People took it for granted but you couldn’t avoid it – it was the main route and conduit into the city. All walks of life used it. We thought it would be a fun thing to experience – people will be able to relive something, or experience it for the first time.”

Mr Bax said the project was not simply about ‘recreating the ’80s’. “The concept is that the Hole in the Road is still there, looked after and lovingly restored. We’ve got the inspiration from Park Hill and the way that’s been cleaned up.”