Demolished Sheffield – a Personal View

Distinguished Sheffield-based historian Mike Higginbottom’s latest book, Demolished Sheffield – a Personal View details the fate of eleven Sheffield buildings that we have lost, six that have an uncertain future and ends on a happier note with nine that have been saved.

My favourite photos in the book are:

The Astronauts in The Hole in The Road

No doubt the fish in the giant fish tank found these as entertaining as I do.

In the background centre of this photo is the former Midland Bank which was Grade II listed in 1995. This later became a J. D. Weatherspoons pub where I worked for a time in 2004 and 2005. I have fond memories of the back-of-house areas including the double-height rooms on the second floor and the almost complete stables in the basement. If only I had had a decent camera phone at the time.

Credit: Mike Higginbottom

Doncaster Street Cementation Furnace

Claimed to be the last surviving complete example, this furnace is Grade II Listed and a Scheduled Ancient Monument, built in 1848, last used in 1951/52.

I find this site particularly exciting as I am currently working as part of the local SPAB (Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings) South Yorkshire Group to clear, document and consolidate the other pair of cementation furnaces at Bower Springs, behind the Shakespeare Pub.

Credit: Mike Higginbottom

Hillsborough Barracks

Constructed in the 1850s, in constant military use until the 1930s and Grade II listed in 1973, Hillsborough Barracks was then converted into the present mixed-use scheme in the 1980s.

This site is again of interest as I worked in the chapel in the below-left photo from 2015 – 2017. During my time working at SIG Plc (Sheffield Insulation Group), I sold this building to a Lancashire-based property developer for around £1 million who had planned to turn the buildings into flats. Once SIG vacated in 2017, I somewhat lost track of the building and then left SIG in 2018.

The developer who purchased the building in 2017 then sold it on not long after completing on the purchase from SIG and it was then put for sale again. The original sales details can be found here.

The property is now looking a bit sorry for itself and has succumbed to vegetation and graffiti.

In April 2022, a planning application was made by SLA Design and Planning on behalf of West Bar Property Rentals to convert the building into two six-bedroom houses and six one and two-bedroom apartments. The application was later withdrawn and further applications for 14 and 15 apartments were submitted in August 2022 and at the time of writing, the Planning Portal advises that they are awaiting a decision.

Details of the application can be found here.

Credit: Mike Higginbottom

Floor plans of the southeast side.

More details of the book can be found on Mike’s excellent website – Mike Higginbottom Interesting Times.

With some preview pages available here.

And the book can be purchased here.