The silver larch arches
Laminated timber arches left unpainted so that age alone turns them silver.
Sheffield's answer to a wet Yorkshire afternoon is a glasshouse 70 metres long and more than 20 metres high, its parabolic arches made of laminated larch that was deliberately left unpainted so it would weather to silver. Queen Elizabeth II opened it in May 2003 as the showpiece of the Heart of the City regeneration that redrew the centre, and it remains one of the largest temperate glasshouses built in Britain in a century. Admission is free, with no ticket or booking of any kind. Inside are more than 2,000 plants from several continents: palms, tree ferns, eucalyptus and bamboo, with bedding displays swapped five times a year and the temperature never allowed below four degrees even on the harshest winter night. Be clear about what it is, though. This is not a botanical garden for quiet contemplation but a covered public thoroughfare linking the Peace Gardens to the Millennium Gallery, crossed by parents with pushchairs and office workers on their lunch break, with cafes and a few small shops opening onto it, and busy with shoppers at weekends. Fifteen to twenty minutes is enough for most visitors, so treat it as one stop on a loop rather than a destination: the Peace Gardens fountains where children splash about in summer, then the glasshouse, then the free Millennium Gallery next door. It earns its keep on Sheffield's rainy days and in dark December afternoons when outdoor sites have already shut; here there is light, warmth and a bench under a palm tree. The floor is level with no steps, so pushchairs and wheelchairs pass without trouble. It sits on Surrey Street in the city centre, about ten minutes' uphill walk from Sheffield railway station and a few minutes from the Cathedral tram stop. Open Monday to Saturday 08:00 to 20:00, Sundays and bank holidays 10:00 to 17:00; it may close after 18:00 for private events and shuts entirely only on Christmas Day.
Laminated timber arches left unpainted so that age alone turns them silver.
Palms, tree ferns, bamboo and eucalyptus, with bedding displays changed five times a year.
Peace Gardens, then the glasshouse, then the Millennium Gallery: all free, all adjoining, all in under an hour.
90 Surrey Street, Sheffield S1 2LH
No, if you have one choice on a dry day: the Botanical Gardens in Broomhill are far larger, also free, and a short bus ride away. The Winter Garden is a twenty-minute pass-through you will meet anyway if you are in the centre, and it only wins when it is raining or dark.
Only relatively: it is kept above four degrees to keep the plants frost-free, not a hot tropical house. Keep your coats on, but it is still a dry, bright refuge in January when everything outdoors shuts around four.