Tag: Pinfold Street

Let us not underestimate the importance of this building in the history of Sheffield. Completely gutted in the past few years, with office-space built around a central atrium and a glass roof extension, the outside of Grade II-listed Steel City House remains pretty much as it was in 1927.

This was once the Sheffield Telephone Exchange Building, occupying a triangular piece of land bordering Bow Street, Pinfold Street and Holly Street. I should explain that Bow Street later became West Street, the road we now associate with the building.

The origins of the building go back to 1879 when John Tasker, Mayor of Sheffield, opened the Sheffield Telephone Exchange, along with a dozen subscribers, later taken over by the National Telephone Company, operating out of Change Alley, and consolidating both companies on Commercial Street.

The General Post Office (GPO) took over the National Telephone Company in 1912, effectively nationalising the network, the beginning of one of Britain’s greatest technological developments.

As early as 1920, there had been a proposal for a telephone exchange system in Sheffield, including several new exchanges and the extension of underground cables to the city from London and other centres.

These were the days when making a telephone call meant speaking to an operator, who connected you with the recipient at the other end. However, times were changing, and talk was of a new automated exchange system allowing callers to dial a number direct.

In the end, the idea was postponed due to the long wait for new apparatus to be sourced, and it wasn’t until the latter part of 1921 that a decision was reached between the GPO and Sheffield Corporation.

As part of the agreement, a new central telephone exchange was to be built, designed by Henry Edward Treharne Rees (1871-1937), of His Majesty’s Office of Works and Public Buildings.

Work began on the site in November, oddly enough, the land prepared by the Co-operative Wholesale Society, and it wasn’t until March 1922 that the construction was really appreciated with the raising of the girded steel frame.

What followed was a long-protracted development, repeatedly held up by red-tape, and not helped by having to lay thousands of miles of cable across the city. This alone, originally estimated to cost £85,000, was held up because a ‘patching’ policy was used instead, whereby new sections of cable were laid down and patched to existing wires.

The Sheffield Central Telephone Exchange opened in March 1927, but not before about 10,000 subscribers had been visited to have the new system explained to them.

Sheffield wasn’t the first city to get an automated service, that honour went to Hull, but it was the largest and biggest conversion undertaken. It was joined by further exchanges at Attercliffe, Beauchief, Broomhill, Ecclesfield, Oughtibridge, Owlerton, Sharrow and Woodhouse.

The main entrance was at the junction of Pinfold Street and Bow Street (West Street). The basement was used for telephone stores and heating chambers. The first floor was used as offices and showrooms for the telephone service, with similar offices on the second floor, and third floor offices let out to tenants.

Nearly the whole of the top floor was occupied by a series of “selectors,” together with “change” machines and “ringer” machines for supplying power. Another machine automatically registered every local call made.

Shops were available to rent in Bow Street and Pinfold Street, and a Post Office was moved here from Church Street.

In 1930, Martin’s Bank (later Barclays) rented a large space at the rounded corner of the building, taking over the main entrance and becoming the anchor tenant until modern times.

The exchange lasted until the 1960s, when it was replaced with a bigger facility at Eldon House, on Wellington Street, the building given over to offices. It was refurbished in 1995 but soon became outdated and “not fit for purpose.”

Steel City House, as it had become, was refurbished in 1995, and underwent its biggest renovation in 2015, part of a £10million plan by Scott’s Developments, gutting the interior and turning it into a new-age office facility.

A sketch of Sheffield Telephone Exchange taken shortly after completion in March 1927. The building survives as Steel City House, at the bottom of West Street, the subject of a recent £10million office conversion.

The triangular building was designed by Henry Edward Treharne Rees (1871-1937), of His Majesty’s Office of Works and Public Buildings, with construction starting in 1921 on a site that had been empty for years, and had “formed the forum for keen agitators among the unemployed.”

Now classed as Art Deco, but at the time described as being a “modern adaptation of Renaissance-style, harmonising with existing buildings in the area.”

It was built with 40,000 cubic feet of Portland stone, the rough blocks conveyed from Dorset with final sawing and dressing done in Sheffield. The floors were made of reinforced concrete with about 40 tons of reinforcing rods used in the construction.

With rounded corners, massive Doric columns supported a semi-circular portico to the main entrance at the corner of West Street and Pinfold Street.

The five-storied building was built by Henry Boot and Sons, based on Moore Street, which claimed to be Britain’s biggest builder, with a yearly output of £1.7million.

The iron and steelwork were by Manchester-based Lambourne and Company, constructional engineers, the cause of much disappointment to local steel companies which tendered for the contract.

The sole contractor for the installation of electric lighting was Marsh Brothers, which had showrooms on Fargate and works at Edmund Road.

The extensive plumbing and glazing work were in the hands of M. Newman and Son, of Union Street, and the installation of “regency” metal windows and ornamental cast ironwork completed by Williams & Williams of Chester.

The House of Sage – Frederick Sage and Company, of London and Leeds – executed the bronze metal and teak shop-fronts, entrances to the offices and the main entrance.

The electric lifts were installed by William Wadsworth and Sons, Bolton and London, which had installed lifts in several other Government departments.

Marble and terrazzo paving, crafted by Italian experts, were supplied by Hodkin & Jones of Queen’s Road, and interior painting and decoration was undertaken by Smiths (Decorators), with a showroom in Fitzalan Square.

However, the most important contract was reserved for Siemens Brothers, Woolwich, which designed and supplied the whole of the automated telephone exchange equipment, comprising nine exchanges across Sheffield.

Soon after construction, Martin’s Bank became an anchor tenant, moving from Leopold Street, taking over the main entrance between West Street and Pinfold Street.

It spent a small fortune decking the new bank with Cuban mahogany, the floors with polished maple and borders of oak and jarrah, a dark coloured Australian wood.

The telephone exchange operated until the 1960s when a bigger facility was built at Eldon House on Wellington Street. Martin’s Bank later became Barclays until its eventual closure.