All Saints Square
All Saints Square is the big square right in the middle of town in front of the Parish Church. It was created in the 1930s when a block of buildings fronting on Little Church Yard were demolished and the resulting space was used to provide a terminus for the buses. When I was small many of the buses still used to leave from here but it was pedestrianised when the new bus station was built in Frederick Street.
To the south of the square (which isn't really square) is All Saints Churchyard and the overwhelming presence of Rotherham Parish Church of All Saints' now Rotherham Minster. There are shops and offices around the other sides. It is a pleasant place with seats and a fountain and lots and lots of pigeons. In any town abroad this would be full of bars and cafés with outside seating and big umbrellas. I know this is Britain and that the weather is not always of the best but all you get is a few tables outside a couple of the cafés.
The square had had more re-vamps than Madonna and to much the same effect. There is a new fountain, new paving and new seating every decade or so but underneath it all All Saints Square remains the same. The latest addition to the square is a ginormous outdoor television scene which really puts the seal on naff. Various games, concerts and performances are shown here but I don't know if anybody comes to see them. Personally I find the resolution of the screen unwatchable and dislike the constant sound, but then I'm an old git.
On the corner of Upper Millgate and Bridgegate, fronting All Saints Square is the Rotherham Visitor Centre. This is part of the White Hart Buildings, a substantial edifice that runs to the left on Upper Millgate and to the right down Bridgegate.
Next to the church steps is a very nice building called I believe 'Church Steps'. It was subject to a major fettling about 2002 and it has scrubbed up well.
For a long time there was Davy's Grocery shop on the ground floor with Davy's café above. This was renowned in my youth as the only place in town where you could order "A pot of tea for one ...... and two cups please", and get them. Upstairs is now a solicitors' office. I was long frightened of the Church Steps themselves as, when I was three or four, I saw a woman lying in a pool of blood at the bottom after falling down the whole flight. Until I was quite advanced in years I used to walk around the churchyard so I did not have to use the steps.
