Category: Buildings

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Prudential Assurance Building

Not the best image of Costa Coffee at the Prudential Assurance Building on Pinstone Street, Sheffield. However, late night is the best time to explore the city. Behind the rubbish lies a story. When this was built in 1896 the doorway was the entrance to Birds Hotel, the shop front on its right forming part of the restaurant. It lasted about twelve months before Prudential Assurance booted William Bird out for not paying his rent. Here is the interesting part. The window to the left is actually the original entrance to the ground floor Prudential Assurance office, as architect Alfred Waterhouse designed it, later reconfigured and moved around the corner.

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Sheffield and Hallamshire Savings Bank

One thing is certain. They won’t build banks like this anymore, if they build any new banks at all. We know this old building as the Head of Steam, on Norfolk Street, but like so many bars it wouldn’t exist if it hadn’t been for banking.

The story of this building goes back to 1819, when the Sheffield and Hallamshire Savings Bank was established by subscription, the business being carried on at the Cutlers’ Hall until 1832, and afterwards in Surrey Street.

It was founded largely due to the influence of James Montgomery (1771-1854), newspaper editor and poet, whose friend was the Rev. Henry Duncan, who had set up the world’s first commercial savings bank (eventually becoming TSB). The Savings Bank appealed to working people (largely steelworkers) whose savings were too small to be accepted by other banks.

When the Sheffield and Hallamshire Savings Bank outgrew the Surrey Street premises, it bought a plot of land on nearby Norfolk Street, hosting a competition in 1858, asking for someone to design brand new facilities.

The challenge was won by Thomas James Flockton, whose plan was for a two-storey cube of three bays, flanked by single-storey entrance wings with projecting porticoes. It was embellished with a rusticated stone front with round and square Corinthian columns on the ground floor. “One of the first buildings in the town centre with any pretension of elegance.”

The new bank was built out of surplus funds of the Bank at a cost of £5,500, opening in June 1860, its business hours being 10am until 2pm daily and on Saturday evenings from 5 to 7.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Bank engaged in small-scale expansion by opening several branch offices. It wasn’t until after the Second World War, however, that significant growth occurred with 15 new branches opening.

In 1974, a rear extension was built (now leading into Tudor Square) by Mansell Jenkinson & Partners, part of a massive refurbishment programme that retained the façade and the dentilled cross-beam ceiling interior.

The TSB Act of 1976 led to the restructuring of savings banks across the country, and the Bank was amalgamated into the Trustee Savings Bank (TSB) the following year.

By the 1990s the Bank had closed, a small branch in a massive network, but the building deemed suitable for conversion into a bar.

The Fraternity opened in the late 90s, changing into the Old Monk at the Fraternity House, before becoming the Old Monk. The bar was operated by the Old Monk Company, founded by Gerry Martin, younger brother of Tim Martin, boss of the high-profile, larger J.D. Wetherspoon, but which collapsed into administration in 2002.

Gerry Martin bought back the Old Monk in Norfolk Street, along with bars in Cardiff and Birmingham, setting up a new company called Springbok Bars. In December 2015, Hartlepool-based Cameron’s Brewery bought the Old Monk in Sheffield, opening it as their eighth branded Head of Steam bar in April 2016.

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Heart of the City II

New images have been released of Sheffield’s Heart of the City II scheme. The £500million development is being built on land between Pinstone Street. Barker’s Pool and The Moor, including shops, two four or five-star hotels, offices, apartments leisure venues and a high-end food hall, all set around tree-lined streets and public spaces overlooked by rooftop bars and cafes.

The CGI images show the Victorian facades on Pinstone Street being retained. They also show the Five Ways area – the name being given to the pedestrianised interchange where Cross Burgess Street, Charles Street, Cambridge Street and Wellington Street meet.

There is also work to restore Laycock House, a late Victorian building that survives almost completely intact, as part of the Block B element of the scheme. Known as Athol House, it will provide space for restaurants or cafes on the ground floor, while the floors above will include office space.

Block C will be known as Isaacs House after Victorian-era paper-hangings merchant David Isaacs. Behind the Pinstone Street frontage the re-imagined building will contain workspaces, prime retail and leisure space.

Heart of the City II is one of Sheffield’s key economic projects. Backed by Sheffield City Council, with Queensberry as its Strategic Development Partner, it is not just a retail scheme, but mixed-use development.

The scheme builds on the hugely successful original Heart of the City project that kick started the regeneration of Sheffield city centre at the start of the Millennium.

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Isaacs Building

I hope I wasn’t the only one caught unaware when the Heart of the City II project announced that Block C was going to be called Isaacs House, named after Edwardian-era paper-hangings merchant David Isaacs.

The new block will sit on a triangular piece of land bordering Pinstone Street, Charles Street and Cambridge Street. The Victorian fronts on Pinstone Street – including the Pepper Pot façade – will be retained with new workspaces, prime retail and leisure space constructed behind.

David Isaacs (born 1873) was the son of Lewis Isaacs, a wallpaper merchant, and his wife Mary, both Russian-British subjects, and influential members of Sheffield’s Jewish community.

The family wallpaper business was established at 94 The Wicker, later opening a second shop at No. 4 St. Paul’s Parade, in the town centre.

In 1904, David Isaacs, now heading the business, commissioned a new building on a wedge-shaped plot cornering Charles Street and Cambridge Street. The Isaac’s Building contained new showroom premises for Isaacs – The Wallpaper People, on the corner, opposite The Hippodrome theatre on Cambridge Street.

Isaacs Building was an example of Edwardian entrepreneurship, the ground floor containing seven shop units with an assembly hall above, its entrance being from Charles Street. The top floor of the building contained offices and several workshops, mostly rented by enterprising tailoring businesses.

The wallpaper shop opened in 1905, a newspaper advertisement declaring that “Isaacs, The Great Wallpaper People, begs to announce that they have opened their new premises, Isaacs Building, Charles Street, with the cheapest, largest and best variety of paper hangings in the world.” The shop advertised a wide range of paper hangings – raised papers, engrain papers, plain papers, gilt papers, varnish papers, sanitary papers and pulp papers.

The Independent Labour Party quickly established a base within the assembly rooms and, along with the nearby Athol Hotel, the area became a hub of political activity. As well as offices for the ILP, the building was also home to the ILP club and the ILP-supporting Sheffield Guardian newspaper.

For the first few years Isaacs Building regularly advertised shops suitable for a hairdresser, milliner, chemist or sweet shop. The assembly hall, originally known as Stanton Hall, became regular home to the Sheffield Ethical Society, while other meeting rooms were known as the Central Rooms.

In 1911, the ILP rooms were taken over by Sheffield Trades Hall, a business that survived until 1930. It was regularly targeted by the police, believing that illegal drinking and gambling were taking place inside, and making several prosecutions.

It appears that Isaacs Wallpaper on Charles Street wasn’t the success it intended to be. Its proximity to St Paul’s Parade might have been the reason, and in 1908 the shop was closed, the business transferred to another new shop at 17 King Street… advertisements using the tagline “Waiting to be Hung.” In the shop’s place, Isaacs opened an auction mart “open to receive goods of every description.” By 1910, the shop at The Wicker had also closed.

In 1930, it was announced that Sheffield Trades Hall Ltd had gone into liquidation, a development that cost David Isaacs dearly. The following year he was declared bankrupt, the freeholds of Isaacs Building, approximately 346 yards long, being offered at auction. The properties were sold in lots – Nos. 2, 4, 6, 8 Upper Charles Street (No.6 being Sheffield Trades Hall), and Nos.35,37, 39 and 41 Cambridge Street – all fetching £8,350.

For the next 88 years the property, no longer referred to as Isaacs Building, was occupied by numerous businesses. In time, the old assembly hall was converted into a nightclub, its various incarnations being Faces, Raffles, Charlie Parkers and Freedom, and for a time part of the old basement being used as Charles Street Underground, a faithful reproduction of a London Underground station.

As I write, the building still stands, long boarded-up and the only evidence of recent occupancy being a chicken takeaway where Isaacs Wallpaper shop once stood. But not for much longer, with demolition scheduled in the next few weeks.

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Mirador

Developers are taking advantage of the resurgence in the Kelham Island area. Next to be granted planning permission is a £70million 24-storey private rented sector (PRS) development on a site at Hoyle Street, Shalesmoor.

This will stand in a prominent position beside the busy inner ring road.

The Mirador development will comprise a series of blocks, with the tallest standing at 24 storeys. In total, 500 PRS flats would be created, along with communal lounges, a residents’ gym and management suite. Two commercial units would be developed on the ground floor, with 78 car parking spaces and communal outside space also provided.

Urbana Town Planning submitted the application on behalf of the Scotfield Group. Adam Murray, managing director at Urbana Town Planning, said: “It will deliver a brilliant new development on a massively underperforming site at the gateway to the city centre from the north, and will contribute to the ongoing success of this part of the city centre.”

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Concept House

We’ve hated this building, but its owner is hoping we might forgive and forget. This is Concept House on Young Street, next to the Moorfoot Building, better known as HM Revenue & Customs, scheduled for closure in 2020-2021. The seven-storey office block was built in 1995 and now planning permission has been granted to Royal Sun Alliance Insurance allowing them to convert it for residential use, with plans for 83 flats.

An application has also been submitted to convert part of Concept House into a hotel and commercial units. Under these plans, a total of 161 bedrooms would be created across the upper floors. A bar/restaurant unit would be created on the ground floor and operate independently from the hotel. The basement, which is currently used as a car park, would operate as an independent gym.

UPDATE: Planning permission was granted, subject to conditions, by Sheffield City Council in November 2019.

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Davy’s Fargate

The next time you pop into WH Smith on Fargate, cast your eyes towards the third floor. High above you might just be able to make out the carved heads of a sheep, cow, pig and ox, all clues as to the former use for this building.

For generations, this has been WH Smith, but its history goes back to 1881-1882, designed by Sheffield architect John Dodsley Webster for Alfred Davy, provisions merchant. This was arguably the flagship store for Davy, renowned for his sausages, hams, potted meats and pork pies.

Alfred Davy (1838-1902) was the son of James Smith Davy, a well-known member of the Society of Friends, who had a shop in the fruit market, now Fitzalan Square. Educated at Ackworth, he opened a provisions shop on Castle Street about 1867, subsequently opening other shops at Broomhall and Rotherham High Street.

Davy was alert, enterprising and good-hearted. He was described as upright and straightforward in his trading, having a good word for everyone, and never taking advantage of humbler competitors.

Like many contemporaries, he was a Churchman, sometime warden of St. John’s Church at Ranmoor, and was largely responsible for the formation of the Sheffield branch for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. His chief recreation was chess and became a prominent member of the Sheffield Athenaeum Club.

In the early 1880s, Davy found that the Castle Street branch had grown beyond all bounds, and there being no further room for expansion, found it necessary to secure additional accommodation.

His opportunity came when the west side of Fargate was being redeveloped as part of an improvement scheme. Alfred Davy bought Nos. 38 and 40, as well as premises at the rear, employing J.D. Webster to build his fourth shop.

We’ve seen before that the Victorians were shrewd businessmen when it came to property. Above the shop he asked Webster to create a suite of offices on the first and second floors, known as Exchange Chambers, suitable for renting, and accessed by a spacious Serpentine staircase. (In later years, the shop expanded upstairs, utilising the first floor as the Victoria Café).

When the store opened in December 1882 it was designated as one of the “ornaments of Fargate.” The business claimed to sell seven tons of sausages and poloney every week, inspiring Davy to place one of three Williams ‘Perfect Silent’ Meat Cutting Machines in the window. From here, customers were able to see the machine in action, capable of mincing and mixing 3cwt of meat each hour.

In the days before supermarkets, Davy’s was where all respectable citizens bought their food. He boasted selling 2-3 tons of Danish, Normandy and French butter every week, British and Continental cheeses, Wiltshire, Cumberland and Derbyshire bacon, as well as Irish, American and Canadian Hams. He was also a purveyor of tinned fish and meat, pure leaf lard and appears to have cornered the market with Scotch oatmeal.

A newspaper at the time raved that Davy had adopted electric lighting, then in its infancy, and installed by Tasker and Son. “The steadiness and brilliance of these little lamps in Mr Davy’s shop are like a new revelation, and show what rapid strides are being made in the application of electricity for illumination.”

In 1887, Alfred Davy opened a large factory in Paternoster Row, used to produce meat and baking products, and which later doubled-up as its Head Office.

Alfred Davy built a house called Hill Crest on Ranmoor Cliffe Road, originally called Upper Ranmoor Road, and it was here that he died of nerve paralysis in 1902.

His sons, Arthur Cedric Davy (died 1935) and Ernest Richard Davy (died 1951) took over running of the business and masterminded the company’s rapid expansion. By 1924, Davy’s had 16 shops and two cafes in Sheffield, but the business soon expanded across the north.

The Davy family sold the business to Associated British Foods in 1958, disposing of it completely in 1974, although some branches were retained as Sunblest shops.

Afterwards, the store was bought by WH Smith which has remained ever since. However, in recent years it temporarily relocated to allow for repairs on the old Victorian roof that had started to collapse. The store was refurbished and reopened earlier this year.

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Sheffield Citadel

The latest on the decaying Sheffield Citadel building on Cross Burgess Street. WMA Architects, on behalf of Tandem Properties, County Durham, have submitted a revised planning application to Sheffield City Council. Designed by William Gillbee Scott and built by W.T. Fish and Son for £7,500 in 1892-1893, it has stood empty since the Salvation Army moved out in 1999.

The new application replaces a previous submission that asked for a second floor extension. The plans suggest alterations to the building and a change of use to form a restaurant/bar with the formation of a terrace to the first floor, removal of internal walls, adjustment of levels, and alterations to windows and doorways.

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Montgomery Hall

Here’s the Montgomery Hall on Surrey Street, known today as a theatre and arts centre, but its heritage tells a very different story. We must go back to the 1880s and the long running saga of the Sheffield Sunday School Union, which had been looking to build a new hall and rooms in the centre of town.

The union was founded in 1812, with the intention of educating working children on Sundays, especially in literacy, and fighting for child labour laws to keep children out of chimneys. By 1884 the union comprised 108 schools, 3,340 teachers and 27,751 scholars. One of its founders was James Montgomery (1771-1854), local poet, journalist and reformer, and the new hall was to be named in his memory.

After first obtaining a site at (New) Church Street in 1873, the land was sold to Sheffield Corporation. Another site was secured at the bottom of West Street, adjoining Holly Lane, but this was also sold on. In 1883, union trustees bought 892 square yards of land between Fargate and (New) Surrey Street from the Corporation at a cost of £4,700.

The foundation stone for the Montgomery Hall was laid in July 1884 by the Right Hon. Anthony John Mundella (1825-1897), MP for Sheffield and president of the Sunday School Union of England and Wales. No sooner had work started, and it was temporarily abandoned, the building not completed until 1886. Built in Domestic Gothic-style at a cost of £15,000, it was designed by Sheffield architect Charles John Innocent (1839-1901), the union’s honorary secretary, and constructed by George Longden and Son.

Once completed, the Montgomery Hall contained a large galleried hall seating 1,000 people and a smaller hall for 350. The front of the building contained several committee and classrooms, a library, reading rooms, a reception room, ante-rooms, cloakrooms, kitchens and caretaker’s accommodation.

A newspaper described the building at the time.

“The front will be a welcome addition to the street architecture of the town. Built entirely of stone, in the centre of the front is the principal entrance, on either side of which are two shops built as a source of maintenance income. At each end of the front is another entrance. Over the shops are large windows which light the committee rooms and classrooms, the hall is at the back. Over each of the entrances an oriel window, with a slight projection, relieves the front and helps make it more prominent, while immediately over the door is a medallion bust of Montgomery.”

And so, the Montgomery Hall thrived, a home to Sunday schools, rented by other religious institutions, later becoming home to community theatre groups, schools and dance classes.

The union later became the Sheffield Christian Education Council with the hall always being used as a theatre, except during World War Two when it was used by the Government.

It was remodelled as a 427-seat auditorium after a devastating fire in 1971 and continues with an art gallery on the first floor and the old library being used as a space for workshops and rehearsals.

There are now plans for a multi-million pound refurbishment to be completed by 2023, concentrating on front of house, a new main frontage, the main auditorium and backstage facilities. Included in the project is the installation of a lift, a concept unheard of when the building was originally designed.

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Montgomery Hall

A door that goes unnoticed. This door is to the left of the Montgomery Hall on Surrey Street. The principal entrance is in the centre of the building, on either side of which are two shops, originally built to provide a source of income that could be used to cover maintenance costs for the building. At each end of the front are two doors, this one included, one of five doors leading to staircases to the main hall behind. When the Montgomery Hall was built in 1884-1886, designed by Charles John Innocent, the staircases and corridors were described as being “fireproof”. This is also the entrance to an art gallery on the first floor.