About the School of Geography and Planning

The school is housed in an award-winning, purpose-built building on the edge of Weston Park, lying close to the University Library, the Students' Union and central lecture theatres.

It offers a range of facilities for staff and students, including a state-of-the-art urban design studio, a computer teaching laboratory, postgraduate and undergraduate physical geography laboratories, and image processing facilities, which provide an important component for teaching and research in remote sensing and geographical information systems (GIS).

History of geography at Sheffield

The University of Sheffield received its Royal Charter in 1905, and the Department of Geography was created not long afterwards.

At a meeting of the University's Court in 1907, the President of the Royal Geographical Society, Sir George Goldie, gave an inspirational speech to the room, which included William Edgar Allen, the Chairman of Edgar Allen & Co Steel Works.

Compelled by Goldie's speech, Edgar Allen offered £150 a year for five years to introduce the teaching of geography to the University.

In the early years, the geography department was located in Western Bank and was small, with one lecturer - even by 1914 it had only 15, predominantly locally based, students.

The First World War saw reduced student numbers, apart from a ‘special course’ related to the war effort, for which 41 students enrolled; probably studying map reading and surveying. Post-war student numbers soared, reaching 50 in 1919.

In 1923, Sheffield University was contracted to train staff for the new London and North Eastern Railway company and Rudmose Brown taught ‘Railway Geography’ to 133 students. After 16 years with only one staff member, 1924 saw the arrival of Alice Garnett as an Assistant Lecturer and the establishment of a BSc degree in Geography. A BA degree in geography followed in 1928.

Alice Garnett’s enduring legacy to her department was her lobbying for a purpose-built building for geography, where the geography annexe had been on Winter Street. The building - which geography still occupies - was opened in 1970 by the then head of department, Ron Waters. Terraced houses on Winter Street were demolished for the new geography building, which was integrated into Weston Park. This and other features - including the hexagonal teaching rooms - earned the building a Civic Trust commendation.

The building contained a library, a map library, a physical research laboratory with a huge flume, an aerial photograph analysis room and teaching rooms sufficient for all but the biggest first and second-year lectures. It also had offices for academic staff, tutorial rooms, a workshop, photographic and cartographic suites.

Before merging with the Department Urban Studies and Planning in June 2024, we were one of the largest geography departments in the UK.

We continue to have a diverse student body and research that is not only international, but world-leading.

History of planning at Sheffield

We have been teaching and researching planning here at the University of Sheffield for 60 years. In 1965, the Department of Town and Regional Planning was set up as part of a wider university initiative to boost teaching in building science, landscape, and town planning as part of a new Faculty of Architecture. The then Chief Planner at the Ministry of Housing, J. R. ‘Jimmy’ James became the first Chair of Town and Regional Planning in 1967, remaining at Sheffield for eleven years. We still award the J.R. James Prize to enable students to undertake independent study or travel to study an aspect of town planning. 

The Department started by teaching a BA in Town and Regional Planning, with the first students graduating in 1968, and also taught a Postgraduate Diploma and from 1969 its MA course in planning. In the 1970s, the Department set up its first Urban Studies programme, setting our undergraduate planning teaching on planning within the wider context of urban change, drawing together architecture and design with geography, urban sociology and economics.  This broad approach to planning has continued to this day, and the MPlan in Urban Studies and Planning is our largest undergraduate programme. 

Over time, the Department grew, adding programmes in real estate, urban design, geography and planning, and applied GIS. Its research also expanded including setting up the Sheffield Centre for Geographic Information and Analysis and extending work into property studies. 

The Department has always had an international outlook, including early work to develop a Joint Degree with Dhaka University in Bangladesh in the 1970s, and in 1987 setting up the Centre for Development Studies. Originally located in Shearwood Road and Claremont Place, the Department moved in 1988 to share the Geography and Planning Building on Winter Street, the home it still occupies. 

In 2015, the Department celebrated its 50th anniversary, welcoming back the original BA Town and Regional Planning graduates of 1968. In the same year, it changed its name to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning to recognise the broader focus of its teaching and research, and in 2024 merged with Geography to become part of the School of Geography and Planning.