August update:
Apologies that events have overtaken us and our website coverage of the now long running saga surrounding Sheffield Council’s demolition of the Market Tavern has been lacking.
We are greatly indebted to Now Then magazine for the determined and thorough investigative journalism which in February revealed video evidence showing the council had not told the truth about how the building supposedly began to fall down by itself.
In response the council commissioned an independent enquiry, but then decided not to publish the report from this enquiry. Instead, after months of delay, we were given an an “executive summary” which managed to not explain how the building came to be demolished, owned up to communication errors, stated that the building needed to be demolished anyway (this report was by an HR firm..) , and hinted that HHB were somehow to blame for meeting a deadline with only a few minutes to spare. An email was indeed sent to a senior officer with a few minutes to spare before the midday deadline that he had set for HHB to confirm news of external help. This is true. What the Council ‘summary’ does not mention is that confirmation of help was also given in person, via a councillor, to the senior officer in question, and that this happened approximately 40 minutes before the midday deadline he had given us to find help. Yet, still the order to demolish was given.
The help that had been confirmed was support from SAVE Britain’s Heritage, a national campaigning heritage charity. SAVE had offered a fully funded second opinion about the need for demolition, to be given by a Conservation Accredited Structural Engineer.
The council’s ‘summary’ of the report is here. Our statement in response can be found in bold below.
The Star has just (at the time of writing) covered our statement. This is now a complicated saga full of lots of murky twists and turns. There will no doubt be a strong contingent within the council hoping that this just goes away, but it will not go away until we have transparency and positive action to avoid a repeat of this pathetic situation. The report in the Star gives another summary of events.
Here is our statement:
Sheffield City Council recently released an “Executive Summary” of a report into the circumstances that led to the demolition of the Market Tavern. That report was an opportunity for the Council to take ownership of the situation, yet what we are offered is more smokescreen than summary. We have been dismayed by the Council’s lack of transparency.
It is extraordinary that the summary still avoids giving a complete account of events. When exactly did the first fall from the building happen? Was it before the order to resume demolition? If not, why was that order given? If it was before, how did it happen, and what has been done about it?
Five months of dither and an independent investigation, but clear answers to these questions are still conspicuous by their absence.
What we do know is that the offer from SAVE Britain’s Heritage of a free structural survey by a conservation accredited engineer was confirmed by a City Councillor to the senior officer responsible and others in a meeting well in advance of the painfully short deadline, and shortly afterwards the order to demolish was given. As the story has gaps even after all this time, pardon us for remaining sceptical.
Whilst it beggars belief that this building could have been demolished in error, this fiasco points to a much bigger question: if the Council can so complacently absolve itself of responsibility here, how many other fine buildings in its estate are knowingly being left to rot? Sheffield City Council must urgently come clean on the condition of heritage buildings in its estate. It claims to want to work with community groups, and it needs to do this, as well as taking advice from suitably qualified professionals. If the Council does not have the appropriate expertise within its ranks then external consultants need to be brought in. It is complete nonsense to claim that ‘the eventual demolishment (sic) of the Market Tavern, was inevitable’.
The investigation was carried out by Barrow and Parker, a Human Resources consultancy. HR firms are in no position to comment on whether heritage buildings can or cannot be saved. Would they really draw such a conclusion in their report, or was this a point of creative interpretation in the Council’s summary? As a conservation accredited structural engineer was never appointed to evaluate the condition of the Market Tavern, the Council can make no comment on the inevitability of demolition.
Far from being ‘inevitable’, the demolition of the Market Tavern concludes 17 years of sustained neglect and mismanagement of this building by Sheffield City Council, from the time of purchase to the demolition order being given. Numerous opportunities to protect the building were squandered and the failings run far deeper than recent claimed ‘communication problems’.
The press statement recommends changes for the Council to make. Incomplete as these are, they are welcome, but where is the action plan? Where is the timeline for implementation? Where is the accountability for their delivery? At the outset we identified several obvious next steps, but were told that acting on these would prejudge the investigation. Where are these now?
We want urgently to help the Council to move forward, but after this performance the Council’s own willingness is less than clear. The Market Tavern was an excellent building that could have been a centrepiece in the redevelopment of Castlegate. That building is now lost, but one thing is clear: if Sheffield Council will not address a culture of ignorance and disrespect for heritage within its ranks, further horrors await.
January update:
When HHB learned just before Christmas of the decision to demolish the historic Market Tavern, we immediately appealed to Sheffield City Council to look for another way. We managed to persuade them to halt works whilst outside help was found.
National heritage organisation SAVE Britain’s Heritage offered, within 24hrs, to bring in a conservation accredited engineer to offer a second opinion on the structural condition of the building and whether it could be made safe. Sheffield City Council accepted this offer, and say that demolition remained on hold.
However the Council now says that, in the few hours after that offer was received and accepted, the whole upper storey and roof structure of the building fell down by itself, very neatly, with all the rubble falling back into the building. When the offer was received the frontage and gable ends were in visibly good condition.
A visual inspection of the building on Thursday 11th January by an engineer engaged by SAVE raised questions about why measures to help secure the building and protect it from damage hadn’t been taken when concerns were first raised and the roof removed in late 2023. The lack of action to protect the structure doesn’t match up with the Council’s previous public commitment to refurbishing the Market Tavern.
This was a building of obvious good quality, yet since the Council took ownership in 2006 its story has been one of neglect and decline. It is tragic, especially when the Council has adopted a Heritage Strategy and says it has a new commitment to heritage, that such a shambles could occur in the name of ‘regeneration’.
This council cares nothing about heritage. High-rise and ugly that’s their mantra.
Thank you for your efforts trying to save this building. If you didn’t try to nobody else would have.
Sacrilege Sheffield. Could have been saved if not neglected …sad times ????
Disgusting. What on earth are this council thinking!
What an absolute disgrace this council is. I was born here and to see it disappear by this under handed council is both upsetting and disgraceful. They should be made to re-build it.
Here we are again, where Hitler failed Sheffield Council continue to deliver blows in the annihilation of the old Sheffield city centre. Are there too many new vanity projects they all want to attach their names to rather than doing something even simpler, and not knocking everything down?
Can the council be taken to court? It all seems very underhand. Particularly if there was/is evidence that the building wasn’t as dangerous as claimed.
This stinks.