Parkour has been part of Sheffield’s streets for two decades. As the city’s original and longest-running parkour community, we thought it was time to tell the story — how a small group of friends training on the city’s steps and walls grew into a movement that has introduced thousands of people to parkour and freerunning across South Yorkshire.
2005: where it started
Sheffield Parkour & Freerunning began in 2005, when a handful of local friends started meeting up to train in the city centre. Inspired by the founders of the discipline in France, they saw what everyone in Sheffield walks past every day — the steps, rails, walls and gaps of the Steel City — as a training ground. There were no coaches, no classes and no parks built for it; just a group of people teaching themselves and each other, week after week.
Building a community
Word spread quickly. What began as a few friends became a genuine community, with regular sessions, a busy online forum and newcomers turning up every week to learn. From the very start the ethos was simple and it hasn’t changed since: parkour in Sheffield should be open, friendly, non-competitive and free. Everyone was welcome — children, complete beginners and experienced practitioners training side by side.
Over the years we’ve helped thousands of people across Sheffield, Rotherham and the wider South Yorkshire region take their first jump. Many who started with us as teenagers now coach and lead sessions of their own.
On the map — and on the telly
As the community grew, so did its profile. We demonstrated and taught parkour at Sheffield’s Cliffhanger outdoor sports festival across several years, introducing thousands of festival-goers to the discipline. Our traceurs featured on BBC Look North, and Sheffield became a regular stop on the RGB Parkour Tour, hosting jams that drew practitioners from all over the north of England. Trips further afield — from Paris and Lisses, the birthplace of parkour, to further-flung adventures — brought new ideas and inspiration back home to Sheffield.
A home at Endcliffe Park
For years the community trained on found spots around the city. Today, Sheffield is lucky enough to have a purpose-built parkour park at Endcliffe Park, and it’s become the heart of the local scene. Working alongside our partners at Northern Parkour, we run free, open sessions there several times a week — carrying on exactly what was started back in 2005.
Twenty years on
Two decades is a long time for any grassroots community to keep going, and we’re proud of it. Parkour in Sheffield has always been about more than jumps and vaults — it’s about useful strength, creativity, confidence and the friendships you make training with people who cheer you on. That’s what has kept it alive for twenty years, and it’s what we’ll keep doing.
If you’d like to be part of the next chapter, you’re welcome any time. Come and train with us at one of our free Sheffield sessions, or say hello on our community Discord.