We broadly welcome the Council’s proposed extensions to Conservations Areas, but believe that they do not go far enough. The maps below show the options that are being consulted upon and our recommended additions to these.
We have very serious concerns about the size of the City Centre Conservation Area. Some planning decisions in the past have assumed that a single building becomes less important if it is in a large area. We want a written commitment in the Management Plan that the large size of the City Centre CA will *never* be used to water down protection for individual buildings.
Read about how to make your voice heard.
This is just a summary of our proposals. More detail in our full proposals for City Centre and Kelham Island and our case for a Wicker Conservation Area.
Castlegate
The area in blue is proposed to be added to the City Centre Conservation Area.
HHB recommends that the areas in purple should also be added:
1. Area to the east, south of Commercial Street. This is thought to have been part of the castle outer courtyard and may contain buried remains. The existing building is of good quality, clad in natural stone, and complements other modern buildings nearby.
2. Area to west containing the former Black Swan/Boardwalk, which is important to Sheffield’s popular music heritage.
3. Area to the northwest. This contains Corporation Buildings on Snig Hill and some attractive buildings on Bridge Street. The Magistrates Court and South Yorkshire Police Headquarters continue the tradition of this area as the home of law and order, begun by the Old Town Hall in Waingate. They are characteristic of their age and may become heritage assets, but even if not they need to be protected from inappropriate replacement or re-cladding.
4. Area to the north containing part of Lady’s Bridge weir (listed Grade II) and Marshall Bros. Cementation Furnace (locally listed);
5. Area proposed to be included in the Wicker area, see below.
The area in grey contains no buildings of great merit, but the Conservation Area could be damaged if they are replaced with something worse. We believe this area should also be protected.
Wicker
The Council’s consultants decided not to propose a Conservation Area for the Wicker.
We disagree. The area contains many buildings of heritage value, some from the early 19th century or before, and has a strong industrial and commercial character of a kind typical in Sheffield. It is very much at risk from unsympathetic development, as we have already seen with the loss of the Old Coroner’s Court and approval of unimaginative towers on Nursery Street.
We recommend that the main purple area becomes a Conservation Area. Highlights include the SADACCA building on the Wicker; the banks and Station Hotel near the Wicker Arch; Stanley House, Thomas Wragg’s firebrick works and the flamboyant former United Yeast building, all on Stanley Street; Oxo House on Joiner Street; the remains of Cocker Brothers Cementation Furnace on Nursery Street; and of course the shops, former pubs and workshops that give a flavour of what 19th century Sheffield was like. Some lanes retain their stone kerbs, and stone setts are very likely still to be found under the tarmac.
The area in grey includes modern buildings of fair quality and the Conservation Area could be damaged if they are replaced with something worse. We believe this area should also be protected.
The bright purple area to the east has been proposed as part of a Victoria Quays Conservation Area, which we support. The bright purple area to the south is proposed to be included in the Castlegate area, which we also support, although part of it would more logically be part of the Wicker area.
West Street
The area in blue is proposed to be added to the City Centre Conservation Area.
HHB recommends that the four small areas in purple should also be added:
1. Area to the north containing the Jessop Hospital and sewer gas destructor lamp (both listed Grade II).
2. South side of Glossop Road between Victoria and Gell Streets, in accordance with the principle of ensuring that entire streetscapes are protected. The buildings here are neutral in quality, but any redevelopment needs to be in keeping with the overall street frontage
3. Area on the north side of Glossop Road where it meets West Street containing the Sinclair Building. This is an unusual modern building of better quality than most recent developments and deserves protection.
4. Devonshire Green, a highly valued public open space created on the site of Blitz-damaged streets.
5. Area to the east. This contains Royal Plaza on West Street, also of better quality than most recent blocks of apartments, and two striking brutalist buildings on Division Street. Other buildings are of no great merit, but the Conservation Area could be damaged if they are replaced with something worse.
Norfolk Street
The Council’s consultants propose adding the Millennium Galleries to the Conservation Area, but removing the modern buildings of St. Paul’s Place.
HHB recommends that all the buildings in the St. Paul’s Place development be added to the Conservation Area. The cheesegrater carpark has quickly become very popular. Other buildings have not caught the public imagination so much, but all may be vulnerable to damaging changes such as re-cladding or upward extension.
The Moor
The Moor suffered almost complete obliteration by the Blitz. After the war It was recreated on the same line but much wider, and Portland stone was specified for all new buildings. It is both a highly recognisable memorial to the losses of the Blitz and a largely successful attempt at architectural consistency.
Post-war restrictions meant that it was developed gradually between the late 1940s and early 1960s, and the architecture is fairly modest, but it still has variety and interest, including the former Marks & Spencer (now Sainsbury’s), Burton’s, Woolworth’s and British Home Stores.
The new Moor Market building and the Light are of reconstituted stone, matched as far as possible with Portland stone. The latter incorporates the 1954 datestone of the Roberts Brothers store which it replaced.
All buildings of the 1950s and 1960s, including the bank south of Fitzwilliam Gate and the former Debenham’s store at Moorhead (which retains its original Portland stone under the later metal cladding) make a contribution to the character of the Moor.
Kelham Island & Neepsend
The area in blue is proposed to be added to the Kelham Island Industrial Conservation Area.
HHB recommends that the area in purple should also be added. This contains a number of positive industrial buildings, and also the railway with its associated bridges.
The area in grey contains no buildings of great merit, but the Conservation Area could be damaged if they are replaced with something worse. We believe this area should also be protected.