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Buildings

St. Mary’s Church: “An order came from headquarters to stop proceedings.”

Let me take you down the subway at the roundabout which links Eyre Street, St. Mary’s Road, Bramall Lane, and St. Mary’s Gate. Once you get into its tree-lined centre, stop for a moment, and consider that several decades ago you would have been standing in the corner of a  graveyard.

It is true.

The construction of Sheffield’s ring road required the widening of St. Mary’s Road and a roundabout. It meant that the graveyard at St. Mary’s Church was deprived of land, and where graves once stood, the subway has become a popular route for students and football fans journeying to Bramall Lane. Come down here at night at your peril because it is also the haunt of muggers and the like.

In a few years’ time, St. Mary’s Church will celebrate its bicentenary and where other big churches have faltered, it will be content that it still operates as a place of worship.

Let us start at the beginning.

The year is 1818 and to celebrate the recent end of the Napoleonic Wars, parliament passed the Act for Building New Churches, allocating £1 million for the task; the buildings that resulted were often known as the Waterloo churches.

The church was in crisis, a situation brought about by changing demographics and altering religious affiliations: the surge of the working-class population in major cities, especially in the north, and the drift to nonconformity.

The Church Building Commission turned to the government Board of Works, and its three advisory architects, John Nash (1752–1835), John Soane (1753–1837), and their junior, Robert Smirke (1780–1867), to set guidelines and advise on practicalities.

It stated that no church should cost more than £20,000, and by the end of the Commission’s term, in 1856, some 600 new churches would stand across the country.

In Sheffield, three churches were commissioned under the chairmanship of Rev. Thomas Sutton  of Sheffield’s Church Building Committee– these were St. George’s, Portobello, St. Philip’s, Netherthorpe, and St. Mary’s at Highfield.

St Mary’s Church was the last of the three to be built and was constructed on land that had been gifted by Henry Charles Howard, the 13th Duke of Norfolk (also the Earl of Surrey). The foundation stone was laid  by his wife, Lady Charlotte, Countess of Surrey, using an engraved silver trowel, in front of a huge crowd.

“With this trowel, Charlotte, Countess of Surrey, laid the foundation stone of St. Mary’s Church, Sheffield, 12 October 1826.”

The foundation stone contained a bottle in which were deposited coins and documents, but a few weeks later, a letter to the Sheffield Independent revealed that the stone had been removed the same night, and the bottle conveyed to the vicar’s house so that it would not be stolen.  

The country was amid depression due to suspended credit and impoverished markets and the cutlery industry had suffered badly. For this reason, workmen employed on clearing the site and preparing the foundations were ‘able-bodied and willing minded cutlers’ who had fallen on hard times.

Original sketch by J. Potter and J. Rogers. Image: Picture Sheffield

The church was designed by Joseph Potter (1756-1842), a Lichfield-based architect, who early in his career had been employed by James Wyatt to supervise works at Lichfield Cathedral, Hereford Cathedral, St Michael’s Church in Coventry (now St Michael’s Cathedral) and the rebuilding of Plas Newydd, a house belonging to the 1st Marquess of Anglesey. He was the County Surveyor of Staffordshire for 45 years, as well as an engineer for the Grand Trunk Canal Company.

Potter’s eldest son, Robert (1795-1854), supervised the works at St. Mary’s, and he developed an attachment to the town because he opened an architectural practise here and built his home on Queens Road.

Building work was undertaken by Thomas Henry Webster of Stafford and the last stone was laid on top of the pinnacle at the southwest corner of the 140ft tower in November 1828, the occasion marked by the rising of the Standard of England and two other flags.

The church needed a minister and Rev. Sutton, Vicar of the Parish, appointed the Rev Henry Farish, Tutor of Queen’s College, Cambridge, at St. Mary’s in July 1829.  

St. Mary’s Church. Clough Place in background. Image: Picture Sheffield

The church accommodated 2,000 people and had cost £13,927, the Church Building Commission covering the cost, as well as contributing £40 towards the cost of a bell in its tower. It was consecrated by the Archbishop of York on 21 July 1830.

However, its four-year construction had not been without its problems, but it took a letter to the Sheffield Daily Telegraph in October 1926, to reveal what had happened.

“By the original plan, the interior of the church was formed by two fine stone arcades into a handsome nave, with clerestory, and two side aisles, each vaulted, groined, and corbelled in stone. And the powerful buttresses, now on each side of the church, were built to take the weight and thrust of the internal vaulting. When the outside walls had scarcely reached the height of the parapet, an order came from headquarters to stop proceedings. It is supposed the million fund was about exhausted, but particulars were kept dark.

“This calamity completely stultified matters and new arrangements were made to finish the church with the least possible outlay. The result was the present lath and plaster imitation vaulting, supported by long thin cast iron props in lieu of stone pillars. This, I believe was the first and only instance of the use of cast-iron for such a purpose; its use here was owing to cheapness, and although these arrangements were a clever way out of a difficulty, they were always stigmatised by Robert Potter himself as an abortion and architectural curiosity, with which he disliked being associated.”

This revelation is backed by an old document that states that the plumbing, glazing, and imitation of stone on the walls and vaulted roof was by Robert Drury of Howard Street.

St. Mary’s Church had been in semi-rural surroundings. Its construction coincided with the growth of Sheffield, and once the old bridge over the nearby Porter Brook was replaced, the town expanded towards Little Sheffield, a hamlet that once stood in the London Road area that was swallowed up.

A lot has changed since then.

The west part of St. Mary’s was damaged by wartime bombing and was redeveloped by Stephen Welsh into a community centre in 1950. The division of the church was softened by APEC Architects in 1999-2000, who removed the 1950 work and created a new community centre of two floors and a mezzanine that filled all but the chancel and the two east bays of the nave, which is still used for worship.

At the beginning of World War Two, a decision was made to remove the stained glass windows and safely store them. Unfortunately, their location was lost until 2020 when Colin Mantripp, a wood carver from Buckinghamshire, bought what he thought was a box of fragments of stained glass at auction.

When he collected the box, it turned out to be an 8 foot by 3 foot wooden box full of 13 stained glass panels. The outside of the box had St. Mary’s scrawled on the side. After careful research, he discovered that the windows had come from St. Mary’s Church and offered to gift them back providing they could be put back where they belong. The church declined because it wouldn’t have been practical to put them back. The panels are probably from the east window, which was filled with a new commission by Helen Whitaker in 2008.

One of the missing 13 stained glass panels from St Mary’s Church bought by Colin Mantripp at auction in Buckinghamshire. Image: Sheffield Star

Finally, as already mentioned by a previous correspondent, let us remember Lily Hawthorne, who was a cleaner at St. Mary’s Church and was murdered here on December 4, 1968. There is plenty of speculation surrounding this tragic incident, but the facts are that Hugh Mason was tried at the Sheffield Assizes in January 1969 on a charge of murder and, after hearing the evidence of three doctors that he was suffering from mental illness, the jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity. He was admitted to Broadmoor Hospital and later transferred to Sheffield’s Middlewood Hospital in 1972.  

©2024 David Poole. All Rights Reserved.
All images / DJP /2024 unless stated.

Former interior of St. Mary’s Church. Image: Picture Sheffield
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Places

He asks if I’d noticed the dodgy character who’d followed us

We cut through an alleyway that had once been the driveway to Clough Place, a house that had once belonged to William Hall, a file manufacturer, and which stood on the left. A substantial portion of that house has been demolished, but a section remains at the end of Charlotte Road looking onto St Mary’s Road.

To the right is a narrow basketball court that was once part of the garden to the house and had been adorned with carefully planted trees and shrubs.

I tell my colleague that I call this stretch of footpath ‘death alley,’ not as a joke, but because this was where a Sheffield solicitor had been shot dead by two assassins. My colleague is shocked.

It is broad daylight but there is a dark and looming presence that is St. Mary’s Church, and which casts a huge shadow over everything.

We continue up the path to where it opens into the graveyard. A man walks his dog on a stretch of grass, oblivious that the ground beneath him had once been the final resting place of the dearly departed, the gravestones removed. People sit on benches and appear harmless, happier drinking from their cans of beer. This is now called St. Mary’s Church Park, still a pleasant place to sit amongst the few remaining graves, but there is menace around.

There is a man loitering under a tree and he moves towards us. I don’t want to alarm my colleague, but I tell him to keep walking. I’m used to situations like this, but the best option is to keep a distance.

We cross Clough Road and head into Chaucer Yard where there is a vintage clothes shop and coffee house. My colleague goes in search of a bargain while I remain outside and light a cigarette.

The man appears on the other side of the road and stares. I recognise him and stare back. This isn’t a street drinker but someone who will rob for a living. He decides that I’m too tall, too clever, or perhaps not worth the effort, because he turns and disappears.

I lean on the wall and see Bramall Lane at the end of Clough Road where there is a constant flow of traffic, people walking up and down, and not the place where misdeeds are going to happen.

A police car turns into the road and hovers outside the gates of St. Mary’s Church, before making a left turn and cruising slowly along its driveway and vanishing on the other side.

Two men appear at the end of the road and walk quickly towards me, all the time casting furtive glances at the church gates. In no time at all, they pass, but before disappearing around the corner into Countess Road, they look back to make sure that nobody has seen them.

Moments later, a female comes from Bramall Lane, a student, but she is being followed by two more shifty characters. She knows that they are behind her and when she is level, stops and pretends to look for something in her bag. The two men pass and turn into Countess Road. Her eyes are alert, glad to see the back of them, and when she smiles, I know that she is grateful that I was there.

I finish my cigarette and cross the road to where I can see through the church railings. The old graveyard is empty, the loiterers have disappeared, and the guy who I thought was a robber had gone. They have seen the police car and know that it hasn’t returned, and that danger lurks for them too.

When my colleague returns, we go for coffee, and he asks if I’d noticed the dodgy character who’d followed us. I tell him not to worry.

But there is an issue because we are only a stone’s throw from the city centre and all its problems.

St. Mary’s Church Park is a bolt hole for those wanting to escape something or someone and is also a suitable retreat for peace and quiet. I consider that the church is for everyone: fellowships of every denomination, no social class, where God’s love can be shared, and that should apply to the outside.

Days after writing this post, I return to St. Mary’s alone and take photographs. It is a fabulously sunny day, and the light makes the old church shine. There are cars parked outside and I remember that this is still a working church, the website would indicate a thriving one, but today the former graveyard is deserted.

I sit on a bench, take in the surroundings, and think that this is quite a picturesque spot, and that its troubles are no different to those elsewhere in the city centre.

At that moment, a robin descends and hops on the ground in front of me. I notice that the flagstones are really gravestones, laid flat to form a path. I take it as a sign that our descendants are still around, and, in the spiritual community, it might be a visit from someone dead whose gravestone is missing.

©2024 David Poole. All Rights Reserved.
All images / DJP / 2024

Categories
Buildings

Health hub plan for former Church Street bank

Plans have been lodged for the redevelopment of the Grade II-listed former Royal Bank of Scotland on Church Street in Sheffield city centre to create a new health hub.

Sheffield City Council is behind the plans that would feature two GP practices and flexible shared bookable spaces for other health providers.

Under the plans, alterations would be made to the listed building, but demolition is limited to the creation of a new entry point on the west elevation of the building through the shared access with Cutlers’ Hall.

The building replaced an earlier bank for the Sheffield and Rotherham Bank in 1866-1867, designed by Flockton and Abbott, and constructed by Mr J Niell of Bradford and Sheffield.

In 1907, the bank was acquired by Williams Deacon’s Bank of London and Manchester, later becoming Williams & Glyn’s Bank and subsequently disappearing within Royal Bank of Scotland, which closed the branch in 2022.

Planned designs for the new Health Hub (Images: Race Cottam Associates)

©2023 David Poole. All Rights Reserved.

Categories
Buildings

King Edward VII School: Plans to refurbish the Caretaker’s House

In the same week that William Flockton’s The Mount is subject of a planning application comes news of another one of his buildings that could also be restored. It is one that most Sheffield folk will probably not have heard about.

A planning application has been submitted by King Edward VII School for the refurbishment of the ‘Caretaker’s House’ on the upper school site. Once completed, the building would be used for small group work, a therapy, meeting, and isolation space, as well as a transition unit for students with complex needs and additional space for work with SEND students.

Externally the school wishes to bring the building ‘back’ into the secure school site as it currently is outside of the school’s fenced boundary, requiring all users to exit via the pedestrian site gates to gain access. The school also suggests that they are intending to use the external area to the front of the building for a sensory garden or similar, within existing trees.

Although the building is referred to as the caretaker’s house, it has not been used for this function for several decades and is currently being used for storage, small group working and music practice.

The plans by Jump Architects show no changes to the overall appearance of the building beyond the replacement and refurbishment of the existing fabric.

The Grade II listed building is believed to date from about 1838 and designed by Wiliam Flockton, originally built as the caretaker’s house to the main school building, which itself dates from 1837-38 and was built as the Wesleyan Proprietary grammar school.

William Flockton (1804–1864) was the son of Thomas Flockton, a carpenter and builder in Sheffield. He was brought up in his father’s trade and established himself as an architect in 1833. From 1845 to 1849 he operated the business with William Lee and his son Thomas James Flockton as Flockton, Lee and Flockton, continuing in partnership with Thomas James Flockton as Flockton & Son until his death on 24 September 1864.

Categories
Buildings

The Mount: A new proposal for ‘Flockton’s Folly’

More news about one of Sheffield’s architectural gems. Back in early 2022 it was announced that plans had been submitted to convert The Mount, on Glossop Road, into fifty-five residential apartments. The application was approved but work never started.

That was probably because there had been a rethink, and a new planning application has now been submitted by Axis Architecture that could see the Grade II* listed building turned into eight townhouses and four apartments instead.

This involves the removal of internal corridors, stairs and lifts associated with the former office use, and the reinstatement of internal dividing walls from front to back to form the townhouses and apartments, with new external stepped accesses to each entrance. The previously approved proposals included eighteen apartments within the main listed building.

The remaining new apartments would be built within the 1950s office block that stands behind Flockton’s building.

The Mount was an ambitious attempt to recreate the grand terraces of Bath’s Royal Crescent and London’s Regent’s Park. It was built between 1830-1832 by William Flockton, aged twenty-six, a builder, and forever famous as one of Sheffield’s leading architects.

Pevsner described it as “a palace-fronted terrace of eight houses, seventeen bays long, with an Ionic giant portico of six columns carrying a pediment and end pavilions with giant columns in antis.”

It was referred to as ‘Flockton’s Folly’ because for the first eight years after construction one person only occupied it. But its popularity increased and became a place of literary fame when James Montgomery lived and died here, while John Holland, another noted Sheffield poet, lived in one of the houses.

It was used as the model for the nearby Wesleyan Proprietary Grammar School in 1838, later Wesley College, and better known now as King Edward VII School.

In 1914, John Walsh, the department store owner, bought The Mount and served notice on its tenants. The need to expand his city centre store meant that his live-in shop assistants needed new accommodation. Numbers 10-16 were used for the purpose, and when the Blitz of 1940 destroyed the store, the building was used as temporary retail space for a year.

It was bought by United Steel Companies in 1958 and converted into offices, with extensive additions to the rear.

In 1967 it became the regional headquarters of British Steel Corporation and in 1978 was purchased by the insurance company General Accident, later becoming Norwich Union.

Aviva, formed from the merger of Norwich Union and Commercial General Union, later owned The Mount, and subsequently rented it to A+ English, a language school, which conducted significant improvements to the offices.

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Buildings

John Banner: the building might be considered a memorial to two men

John Banner Ltd. Designed by Frank W. Chapman of Chapman and Jenkinson, Norfolk Row. Following his death, the scheme was finished under the supervision of Mansell Jenkinson and Eric Chapman. Image: British Newspaper Archive

The news that Leeds-based developer Citu has bought the John Banner building at Attercliffe is a major boost for the area. The regeneration of Attercliffe has been a long time coming, and with Kelham Island quickly filling up, developers are finally looking at this neglected part of Sheffield.

The developer already has plans for a nearby 23-acre urban regeneration scheme known as Attercliffe Waterside that will transform brownfield land either side of the Sheffield and Tinsley Canal into more than 1,000 homes.

Citu has suggested that there will be ‘significant investment’ to restore the John Banner building, including the preservation of its façade to retain many of its original features. It is currently a mix of shops and offices with 25 occupiers including Co-op Legal Services, Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, Wosskow Brown Solicitors and EE.

More than once, it has been described as Attercliffe’s flagship building, but most of our younger generation will fail to see its significance.

It is named after John Banner (1851–1930) from Kimberley, in Nottinghamshire, who was eleven when his parents moved to Attercliffe. His first venture was a little shop which opened in October 1873, the same week that horse-drawn trams started to run between Attercliffe and Sheffield.

The millinery and drapery business were in what was known as Carlton Road, which together with the adjoining High Street, became Attercliffe Road. It was almost opposite what became Staniforth Road but was then known as Pinfold Lane reflecting the area’s rural aspect.

On the other side of the road were two houses, one with a large orchard attached, and fields stretched from the Zion Congregational Church. The pastor of that church was the Rev. John Calvert who occupied one of the two houses while a doctor lived in the other.

To get the business on its feet, John Banner worked elsewhere for five years while his wife, Sarah, looked after the shop. He eventually gave up his other job and came up with the slogan for his business, ‘The House for Value’.

Seven years after starting, larger premises were needed, and a move was made further up the street almost opposite what became the present building.

Fourteen years later, further development was necessary, and he crossed the road to the present site, building shops in the gardens of the two houses mentioned above that took up the corner at Shortridge Street.

Banner was joined by his four sons – Harold, Ernest, John and Cyril – each becoming co-directors after gaining experience, and two of his three daughters worked in the Attercliffe business, as well as at a new shop on Barnsley Road at Fir Vale.

When the opportunity arose, the intervening property between Shortridge Street and Baltic Road was purchased, including a shop which had once been Attercliffe sub-post office. These properties were pulled down and the building of a new shop commenced in 1928 that would fill the space between the two streets.

This photograph was taken by Robinson & Kershaw in 1928 and shows the steel framework looking from Attercliffe Road. Shortridge Street is to the left. It provides an important clue as to how construction was completed in two phases. The final addition, completed by 1934, would have been to the right looking towards Baltic Road. Image: British Newspaper Archive

By this time, the range at John Banner had been developed to include ladies’, men’s, and children’s wear, boots and shoes, and kitchen and household utensils, china, pictures, prams, and fire screens.

It is worth mentioning that the new John Banner department store took six years to complete. It was built in stages and by the time it was finished in 1934 both its founder, John Banner, and its architect, Frank W. Chapman, were dead.

John Banner died at his home on Beech Hill Road in 1930 and was buried at Crookes Cemetery.

The design of the building was a modern phase of Renaissance, the elevations having pronounced pilasters which ran the height of the two upper storeys, carrying well-proportioned entablature with a parapet surmounted by handsome vases. The pilasters were sub-divided by similar pilasters and the breastwork between the floor filled with effective panelling.

The style of architecture lent itself to the clothing of the steel construction both in pillars and beams which supported the building, and the whole of the casing was finished in dull glazed grey terracotta.

It was built by T. Wilkinson and Sons of Midhill Road, and the steel frame was made by Robinson and Kershaw of Temple Ironworks, Manchester, who had been responsible for other Sheffield buildings including Glossop Road Baths, the Baptist Church at Hillsborough, and extensions to the University of Sheffield and the Royal Infirmary.

The entire frontage of the ground floor was devoted to window display, and a spacious arcade stretched over the whole of the Attercliffe Road frontage on which there were three main entrances. The shop windows were supplied by H.N. Barnes of Fulham with the floor of the arcade covered with marble terrazzo laid by Italian workmen.

The interior lights on all four floors were installed by H.J. Couzens of The Moor, and a novelty was the 300 shop window reflectors and on top of the building, ten attractive Flambean fittings, The first and second floor windows had handsome leaded lights supplied by T. Foster of Norfolk Street who were artists in stained glass and leaded lights.

John Banner Ltd. This photograph was taken shortly after completion in 1934. The project had taken six years and provided Attercliffe with one of its flagship buildings. Image: British Newspaper Archive

The last stage of construction, extending the building to the corner of Baltic Road, was built by John Middleton of Hoyle Street with steel skeleton frame manufactured by Thomas W. Ward.

The internal decoration was undertaken by William Chatfield, and it was complemented with wooden counters, shelving, and fittings, that were supplied by Rothervale Manufacturing Company of Woodhouse Mill.

The floors were served by a passenger lift and staircase at the rear of the store in a central position while the first and second floors could be accessed by wooden escalators, the first to be installed in Sheffield.

Shoppers were also fascinated by a system of pneumatic cash delivery tubes, installed by the Sturtevant Engineering Company, that ran from 75 cash stations to a double-sided desk in the offices.  

One of John Banner’s sons, Ernest, died in 1931, and by the time the building was completed in 1934, the business was in the hands of Harold, John, and Cyril Banner.

John Banner Ltd survived the Second World War but a decision was made afterwards to sell the business to United Drapery Stores.

As people moved away from the area, the store’s fortunes went the same way as Attercliffe. It suffered a decline in sales, and for a time the basement area was leased to Grandways Supermarket.  Along with the ailing fortunes of UDS , the decision was made to close John Banner in 1980.

John Banner shortly before closing in 1980. Image: Picture Sheffield

The building was subsequently divided into offices with retail space on the ground floor. It goes without saying that most of its rich interiors were lost in the transition.

Until this year it was owned by the John Banner Centre which went into administration in May. It has been acquired by Citu which is dedicated to preserving its historical significance.

The John Banner Building on Attercliffe Road today, with office space above and retail space at ground level. Image: Tim A. Wells

John Banner Biography

“There was a kindly smile to John Banner and rare civic spirit, devoid of self-seeking, and a sincere desire to express a Christian spirit in service. He had a great sense of loyalty and executive ability in getting things done, and never tired of a good cause.”

These words appeared in the Sheffield Independent following his death in 1930.

John Banner was born at Kimberley in 1851, the son of a carrier, and began work at the age of seven. His parents moved to Attercliffe when he was eleven, and John never forgot the hard struggles of his early life, and of the parents who, if they could not give him wealth, gave him character and good example.

Despite the growth of his millinery and drapery business he was never spoilt by success but looked at life and the struggles of others as he knew them.

“I can never forget those days, and knowing the hard lot that most folks have, it is my bounden duty to try to make things better for them.”

He was a keen Liberal, working in Attercliffe, but refused to seek election for the city council, and was instrumental in the formation of the Attercliffe Liberal Club where he was treasurer for more than quarter of a century. He was on the Sheffield Board of Guardians for 21 years, losing his seat in April 1922, and represented the Guardians on the Attercliffe Nursing Association. He was also on the South Yorkshire Joint Poor Law Committee.

His religious activities were at Shortridge Street Methodist New Connexion Chapel for 36 years. He was treasurer of the Sunday School and the church, a teacher at the Men’s Bible Class, and helped reduce the debt on the church from £1,950 to £250. When he moved to Oakledge at 16 Beech Hill Road, he worked with Broomhill United Methodist Church, and represented it on the Sheffield circuit conference.

John Banner married Sarah Ann Higgett in 1873 and had four sons and three daughters. Sarah died at the age of 81 in 1927.

John Banner died at Oakledge in 1930 and his funeral was at Crooke’s Cemetery after a service at Broomhill United Methodist Church. His shop on Attercliffe Road closed for the day as a mark of respect for its founder.

©2023 David Poole. All Rights Reserved.

Categories
People

The forgotten face behind many of Sheffield’s buildings

Central Library and Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield

No matter where you look, there is evidence of William George Davies’ work in Sheffield. The Shropshire-born architect designed several landmark buildings, but his name remains unknown to most people. The few mentions he gets refer to him as W.G. Davies and it takes a bit of deep digging to discover his full name.

He’s best known for designing the Central Library and Graves Art Gallery on Surrey Street, built between 1929 and 1934, a building that is crumbling and currently languishing behind metal barriers to prevent injury to passers-by.

W.G. Davies was born in 1888, and educated at Wem Grammar School and Shrewsbury School, subsequently taking his degrees at the Liverpool University School of Architecture. After qualifying as an architect, he gained experience as the assistant architect at Bradford Corporation, before joining Essex County Council to design elementary and secondary schools, and oversee maintenance for about 474 schools, mainly within the London area.

In 1924, Davies became architect to Belfast Education Committee where he stayed  for two years. When Frederick Ernest Pearce Edwards stepped down as Sheffield Corporation’s city architect in 1926, Davies beat seven applicants to the post, and remained until his retirement in 1950.

It was a lucrative role for Davies because Sheffield Corporation designed its own public buildings and had embarked on a massive housebuilding programme to replace its slums.

One of his first jobs was to inspect housing estate construction at Wybourn and Manor, and by 1938-1939 the total number of new flats and houses handed over by his department was 2,928, an average of 56 new properties a week.

War aside, Davies’ tenure resulted in dozens of new public buildings. Some remain but many have been lost: –

Division Street Fire Station, Edward Street Flats, Firth Park Library, Norfolk Secondary School, High Storrs School, annexe to Mappin Art Gallery, Prince Edward School, the Maternity and Child Welfare Centre in Orchard Place, Niagara Recreation Ground and Pavilion for the City Police, Lodge Moor Hospital extensions, Tenter Street Tram and Bus Depot, Sharrow Lane Blind School and Workshops, Wisewood School, King Edward VII Swimming Pool, Arbourthorne School, Woodthorpe Baths, Shirecliffe School, the City General Hospital extensions and the restoration of Beauchief Abbey.

Former Division Street Fire Station, Sheffield

Two of his last jobs before retirement were the construction of Manor Library and the conversion of Totley Hall.

We must also thank Davies for saving the remains of Sheffield Castle which will hopefully see the light of day again soon. In 1930, he designed the new market at Castle Hill, allowing walling and timber beams, relics from the castle, to be preserved in its basement.

Another of his projects, Graves Park Pavilion in 1927, gained recent notoriety after the Rose Garden Café was closed due to its unsafe condition. It mirrors the fortunes of his best work at the Central Library, and while Sheffield was good at constructing public buildings it struggled to maintain them.

W.G. Davies was replaced as city architect by J. Lewis Womersley in 1953.

William George Davies

©2023 David Poole. All Rights Reserved.

Categories
Buildings

Clergy House – “It was a good thing to shut up a public house and get rid of a licence.”

Clergy House, now The Art House. Image: DJP/2023

We recently looked at St. Matthew’s Church on Carver Street that was built in 1854-1855. Next door is an equally important building that is known today as The Art House, a trading name of St Matthew’s House, a charity set up in 2011 to support people with mental health issues and allow them to engage with the creative arts.

It was originally called Clergy House, built in Tudor Gothic style in 1896 as a home and parish rooms for the Rev. George Campbell Ommanney, vicar of St Matthew’s Church between 1882 and 1936, and two assistant priests.

The old vicarage, as far away as Highfield, was sold in 1884, and for several years the vicar and his clergy lived in seedy rented accommodation at No. 71 Carver Street, close to the church.

“A vicar who is willing to make the sacrifice involved in taking up his abode in such a dingy, insalubrious district at that which contains St. Matthew’s ought at least to live in a comfortable house,” wrote the Sheffield and Rotherham Independent in 1896.

At that time, houses beyond those of the very poorest class were scarce in the central parts of Sheffield. All the large ones had been sacrificed to the demands of commerce.

The parishioners sought to remedy the situation, and Rev. Ommanney was able to secure a freehold site adjoining St. Matthew’s Church at a cost of £900. The site had been a public house – the Stag Inn – allowing the vicar to say, “it was a good thing to shut up a public house and get rid of a licence.”

The amount required to build the new Clergy House was £2000 and the vicar used money from the sale of the old vicarage as well as the interest which had accrued against it. The York Diocesan Church Extension Society subscribed £150, and the Sheffield Church Burgesses gave a similar sum. The vicar contributed £450, and two members of the congregation subscribed £100 each. To make up the balance, the vicar intended to borrow £500 from the trustees of Queen Anne’s Bounty, but further subscriptions flooded in and the crowning gift was a grant of £7000 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. It allowed the house to be built debt free.

Clergy House was once the site of a public house. “While the public house existed, men frequently came into the church during the Saturday night prayers under the influence of liquor. These visitors joined in the service in such a peculiar fashion and made so much noise, that occasionally Rev. Ommanney had to stop the service, take off his surplice, and eject them.” Image: DJP/2023

The architect was John Dodsley Webster, and it was built in red brick with stone facings. The basement contained the large parish room, on the ground floor were the drawing room, kitchen, and offices, while the first floor contained sitting room, study, bedroom, and bathroom. Five bedrooms occupied the top floor.

Land at the back, on Backfields, was later bought to add parochial buildings, including a Sunday School.

According to the Art House website, time took its toll on the building and the building deteriorated to an extent that a major refurbishment had to be undertaken. A small group of people from the congregation devised a plan to restore St. Matthew’s House to its former glory, and once again play a part in serving the needs of the local community. The Art House Charity was established in 2011 and spent four years raising the £1.5m needed to refurbish the dilapidated building. A modern extension was added to the rear in 2015.

The building is leased to the charity by St. Matthew’s Church at a peppercorn rent.

Modern extension for The Art House. Image: Our Favourite Places

©2023 David Poole. All Rights Reserved.

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Buildings

Planning application for George Street listed building

35-37 George Street. Image: 5Seventy3

There might be a new use for one of Sheffield’s Grade II listed buildings. A planning application has been submitted for 35-37 George Street, formerly used by the NSPCC.

The application requests internal alterations and use of the first floor as a self-contained residential apartment, and use of the ground, mezzanine and lower ground floor as a private members club providing food and beverages with ancillary living accommodation at mezzanine level.

The building was constructed in 1913-1914 for the Yorkshire and Derbyshire office of the Alliance Insurance Company, established by Nathan Meyer Rothschild and Moses Montefiore in 1824, to rival Lloyds of London.

The George Street site had originally been the workplace of the Sheffield Fire Insurance Company, with offices on the upper floors and the town fire engine, small enough to be drawn up narrow passages, housed below.

The business transferred to the Alliance Insurance Company in 1864, but by the start of the twentieth century the offices were too small.

The insurance company moved into an adjoining building that once formed part of the Athenaeum Club, and the old building was demolished.

The new building kept the whole of the top balustrade of the former structure, comprising pillars with urns bearing the Sheffield coat-of-arms.

The Alliance Insurance Company remained here until the second part of the twentieth century, merging with the Sun Insurance Company in 1959, and finally amalgamating with the Royal Insurance Company to form Royal Sun Alliance in 1996.

No. 35 George Street was later used by Midland Bank as an administrative facility and most recently occupied by the NSPCC as its Sheffield Service Centre.

Artist impression. 35-37 George Street. Image: 5Seventy3
35-37 George Street. Rear elevation on Mulberry Street Image: 5Seventy3

©2023 David Poole. All Rights Reserved.

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Buildings

Moorfields Flats – “A standing disgrace to Sheffield for all time.”

Moorfield Flats. Designed by W.G. Davies (1933-1934). Image: DJP/2023

For those that don’t know, Moorfields is the short stretch of ring-road between Gibraltar Street and Shalesmoor and is at risk of being forgotten because most people have never heard of it. Once upon a time this was a small piece of common land, but as the city expanded it became one of the poorest districts of Sheffield.

Its name survives in the 1930s block of flats that wouldn’t look out of place in the London suburbs.

Moorfields Flats were built in 1933-1934 as part of Sheffield’s big slum clearance scheme. It was anticipated that those living in the back-to-back terraces around Scotland Street would move here. But there was a problem. People with families didn’t want to go into the flats, preferring instead to move to new council estates that were being constructed at Woodthorpe and Arbourthorne, which came with gardens.

Nor were the flats without its critics.

“The flats were not buildings of which Sheffield Corporation could be proud. No person in his right senses would choose to live in the Moorfields flats and they would be a standing disgrace to Sheffield for all time,” said Alderman C.W. Gascoigne in 1934.

It was a slight on its designer, city architect W.G. Davies, who had created 37 flats, built over three storeys above seven shops that fronted the building.

Each flat had two or three bedrooms, kitchen, scullery, and were cheaper in price than new council houses, although comparable in size.

“Each flat had a washing copper and provision for drying the weekly wash in either the courts at the back of the flats, or by means of a clothes line along the front balconies attached to the flats.”

But people refused to live in them and by October 1934 the council had only managed to sign up twenty tenants while the shops were described as a ‘white elephant’ with only one application of interest.

Artist impression. September 1933. Image: British Newspaper Archive

A letter from Darrell H. Foxton also reached the Sheffield Independent: –

“The rents of the Moorfields Flats are 8s 7d. and 9s 8d., according to size, and although they are a paradise in comparison to the squalid hovels which the present tenants are used to, so many are on relief or unemployment that it is quite impossible for them to furnish the rooms adequately. On many of the floors are neither carpet nor linoleum.”

The flats were eventually occupied, as were the shops beneath, but correct me if I am wrong, Moorfields flats have never really been loved, and are definitely showing their age.

But there is a potential twist to the story and that involves the advancement and gentrification of Kelham Island that is almost upon the back of the property.

Might we see the block sold, demolished, and replaced with twenty-first century apartments? Or might we see the flats sold to a developer to turn into trendy private apartments in the same way as Park Hill?

The answer will come in the next few years.

Moorfields Flats. The flats never lived up to their name. Image: DJP/2023
The obligatory washing line. Old properties behind the flats are being demolished to make way for new developments. Image: DJP/2023

©2023 David Poole. All Rights Reserved.