The industry started to falter in the 19th century and eventually lost out to more established tanning areas in Walsall and Leeds.

In 1712 John Goodwin and Robert Littlewood were appointed by the town trustees and the Duke of Norfolk to pipe water from springs at the White House, Upperthorpe to Townhead in the centre of Sheffield.

By the late 1780s the water from the Upperthorpe dams was insufficient to supply the growing town of Sheffield and a new chain of reservoirs was built at Crookesmoor.

[4] Ebenezer Elliott, the Corn Law Rhymer lived at Upperthorpe Villa between 1834 and 1841, a fact marked by a blue plaque on the building.

Each villa had a plot of land of one rood (quarter of an acre) and were occupied mainly by steel industry craftsmen and their families with the original occupants including scissors, spring knife and cutlery manufacturers.

[5] Sir Stuart Goodwin (1886–1969) founder of the Neepsend Steel and Tool Corporation was born at 120 Upperthorpe; he was one of Sheffield's top industrialists in the inter war period.

The blocks were re-clad between 1993 and 1996 in a brown and white colour scheme by local contractors Henry Boot PLC at a cost of £7 million.

After the late sixties redevelopment, a recreation area, known as The Ponderosa was created next to the tower blocks on the site of demolished terraced houses.

The flats were replaced with an estate of conventional housing and the Philadelphia Green Space, a small recreation area featuring mature trees and wildlife.

Apart from the library and the pool, the centre offers a gym, café, office space and meeting rooms.

The fourth building, Victoria House is newly built and was constructed around 1990 and is located towards the south-western part of the grounds.