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It came as a surprise to learn that the Pepperpot building on Pinstone Street once had a distinctive spire on top. The Victorian building will be transformed as part of Sheffield’s £480m Heart of the City II redevelopment. Only the façade will remain, and Hallamshire Historic Buildings are calling for a replacement steeple to go on top of the famous corner turret. The original one suffered from time, neglect, and weather, and disappeared in the middle of the Twentieth century leaving behind its truncated appearance and the nickname, the Pepperpot. It was designed by Flockton & Gibbs in 1884 for the mayor, William Henry Brittain, on a corner plot at the junction of Cambridge Street.

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People think their local newspaper is worse than others…not realising that people say the same things about the supposed better newspapers.

There are a few things we like to moan about in Sheffield – the Council, buses, potholes, empty shops – the list is endless. We should also add the Sheffield Star to this list, judging by comments regularly directed to me. Perhaps unfairly, I might add.

We have a stalwart editor in Nancy Fielder who isn’t afraid of hiding and posts on twitter almost daily.

In January, the newspaper (along with sister papers like the Yorkshire Post and The Scotsman) was taken over by National World, created by David Montgomery, and promises to ‘change the business model for print and digital news publishing.’ Its previous owner, JPI Media Publishing, had little resource, and I have to say that the look and content has certainly improved since.

However, the website comes in for a lot of criticism, not just because it is hiding behind a paywall, but because it appears clunky and slow to update. Blame the previous owners, because National World has embarked on a project to expand its website footprint in all Britain’s major cities.

Having quietly launched a new national newspaper online, nationalworld.com, it is extending its digital only ‘World’ brand into eight new markets. Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, and Glasgow are up and running, with new sites in London, Birmingham, Bristol, and Wales launching soon.

Which begs the question as to what will happen with Sheffield Star’s digital content? Is it about to become Sheffield World, or even part of a wider Yorkshire World?

And what future for the weekly Sheffield Telegraph, alleged to be put together by a team of only two journalists, and whose meatier content appears to be shifting towards the Sheffield Star in ‘The Sheffield Weekend’ supplement? 

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An interesting new name for Sheffield Arena. We should now refer to it as the Utilita Arena after a new 5 year seven-figure sponsorship deal with the energy supplier. It follows similar agreements with arenas in Newcastle and Birmingham. Utilita, based in Hampshire, claims to be the UK’s first specialist Pay as You Go Smart Energy supplier, and is already a junior and women’s football sponsor at Sheffield United.

Constructed at a cost of £34m, Sheffield Arena was opened by the Queen in May 1991. I’ve thought that since the opening of the Fly Direct Arena in Leeds, its star had dimmed somewhat. Not, according to Pollstar, the ‘voice of live entertainment,’ which ranks the DSA (sorry Utilita) Arena at No. 53 in its last world Top 200 Arena Venues chart, three places above our Leeds rival. The table, based on ticket sales, was last published in 2019 because last year’s figures were decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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There are murmurs of discontent from the old fellows who wander up and down the bar at the Benjamin Hunstman carefully examining the cask ale pumps through reading glasses.

They’ve learned that the former Sportsman pub further down Cambridge Street (aka Tap & Tankard) will have its interiors demolished as part of the Heart of the City II scheme. It is a cause already taken up by Ron Clayton, that down-to-earth historian, and friend of Sheffielder, who says that despite alterations over the years, it is still recognisably the pub built in 1883, along with a fine club room on the first floor. Once again, only the facade will remain, much the same fate as the former Henry’s Bar nearby.

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Construction workers renovating the disused Bethel Chapel on Cambridge Street have found a time capsule stuffed with a letter from 1938. Builders from Henry Boot Ltd found a small canister inside a cavity wall. It contained a letter which turned out to have been written by John Woodhouse, foreman of local plastering company Bradbury & Sons, listing the names of all the men on the site. Bethel Chapel closed in 1936 and was purchased in 1938 by George Binns, outfitters, who built the familiar front extension The list, secreted at this time, includes an apprentice called Boy Teddy – likely to have been aged about 14.

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© 2021 David Poole. All Rights Reserved.