Music Maps

Some might see this as a bit of an obvious post (I’m trying to stay away from the more well known locations – people don’t need me to tell them where Salford Lads Club or that street on the front of Morning Glory is), but seeing as I walked past it at least twice every day for a year without realising, I thought it was worth including.

Coles Corner is the site of the old Coles Brothers department store (now known as John Lewis, which relocated to Barker’s Pool around the corner in 1963) and sits on the corner of Fargate and Church Street in Sheffield city centre. It shares its name with Richard Hawley’s 2006 Mercury Music Prize nominated album, as well as appearing on the album’s sleeve.

Now the site of a branch of HSBC, Mute.com has Hawley explaining the significance of Coles Corner to Sheffield:

Sheffield’s couples, lovers, friends, mums and dads or whatever, would meet there. I’ve always found it quite a romantic notion – how many kids in Sheffield are knocking about as a result of a meeting at Coles Corner? “I’ll meet you at Coles Corner…” People still say it, even though it hasn’t existed for years. It only exists, really, in the ether.

Coles Corner is also the name of the album opener and has been released twice as a single, failing to make an impact on the singles chart on both occasions, reaching 146 and 136 respectively. The video of the 2005 release, which was actually filmed at Buxton Opera House (about 30 miles south west of Coles Corner on the map), can be seen below:

Coles Corner is available to buy on CD and 12″ vinyl from Amazon.