In the beginning, the Moor was not much more than a swamp with a ditch and a path through it, between Sheffield and Little Sheffield. The street was originally named Sheffield Moor, then in the early nineteenth century was renamed "South Street". In 1922 it was again renamed to The Moor, in order to avoid confusion with a South Street near Hyde Park.

Until WWII, it was a thriving main thoroughfare. During the war it was destroyed in the Blitz and this changed its appearance and started it’s evolution to what we see today.

After the war, a number of companies obtained various leases and built properties on The Moor. These became the 60 or so head leases, which now form this 21-acre site. The oldest lease appears to be that of Baldwin Francis, which dates from 1946. The newest is Sainsbury’s long lease, although there are other 10-25yr leases which are newer. The last major build on The Moor was the Manpower Building started in 1979.

From 1946 to 1979, The Moor was an ordinary street with buses, cars and trams running down it (the tracks are still under much of the central section of The Moor under the market stalls). In 1979 when the Manpower building was built on what had been the last old part of The Moor, Sheffield City Council decided to pedestrianise it. The Moor was closed to through traffic on 2nd September 1980, to make way for pedestrianisation, and now market stalls occupy the roadway.

After pedestrianisation, the Council introduced a temporary market down the middle of The Moor. This was set up and demounted each day it traded, which was originally Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, then extended to Mondays and Wednesdays as well. The market thrived and brought welcome footfall to The Moor. However, it was tatty and after joint talks in 1989 between the City Council and key landlords and tenants, a partnership was formed to raise funds to redevelop The Moor for a second time.

In 1996, The Moor came under the attention of a local property developer William Warrack. He proposed to the Council the premise of buying a long head lease interest from them and then redeveloping the area into a shopping centre. This time the works included re-paving, renewing the lighting, improving the layout of the market stalls, refurbishing the bandstand, removal of one of the gateways and refurbishing the remaining ones. New street furniture was installed and tree planting was carried out. This third redevelopment was finished in 1998 and again culminated in a grand relaunch of The Moor.

Following this The Moor was run as a shopping area. The total estate is 21 acres and retail space is estimated to extend to over 1 million sq ft. The Moor stretches from "Moorhead" in the north (south of the Peace Gardens) to "Moorfoot" in the south, where the former Manpower Services Commission building blocks the route on to London Road.

Now the Moor is one of the main shopping streets of Sheffield. Along its length lie some of the most popular department stores, and it is seen as one of the primary retail cores of the city centre.