Shuts of Shrewsbury No 3 - Seventy Steps

Pride Hill - Raven Meadows

Seventy Steps, previously known as "Hundred Steps Shut" or "Wagon and Horses Shut", was before 1987 a straight flight of steps, fully out in the open, which lead from Pride Hill to Raven Meadows. When the Smithfield was in the Raven Meadows area, the passage extended through the sheds and pens of the market. Then in 1987 the idiots who built the Darwin Shopping Centre decided not to do one of two decent things: 1) build on top of the steps and close them for good, or 2) integrate the steps with the shopping centre and make them usable.

Instead they kept the steps, partially altered the course of them, covered them up for most of the way and designed the altered sections so that they would attract scum. For this reason the borough council are now looking at either closing them at night or closing them for good. I just hope that they are improved when the Link Mall is built.

Anyway, enough whinging (though I do feel strongly about the mis-use of these steps as a haven for drugs and drunks). We start our journey on Pride Hill, near to the Darwin Shopping Centre's main entrance and where the Body Shop is...



Seventy Steps is written clearly in Darwin Shopping Centre masonry on both ends of the shut. The steps end up, after much twisting and winding (these days), on Raven Meadows, opposite the town centre police station there. There are today a total of 105 steps on the route.





Next door is the site where the new Link Mall between the two present shopping centres will go. At the back of this site you can see the MacDonalds' building and other parts of the town walls. Currently the site is a car park.

Note - seriously, don't use these steps. I've only included them as they are a historic and important shut of the town. If you're really desperate, take a reasonably sized militia with you. :ph43r:

Clearly the pics were taken in the day, did you encounter any problems during going up or down the steps?

i have used them recently without any problems,i think that it would be a good idea to avoid them after dark,but i would say that about any alley.

closing them is surely not the answer as you would just move the drinking etc to somewhere else and have to then close that place and so on ad infinitum.

Yeah I went down them yesterday when I took my shut photos - strong smell of alcohol and urine. Not very nice.

I certainly don't want them to be closed fully, but I think they should be closed at night - well, that's why shuts are called so!