Heart of the City II Materplan Archives

Prestigious new hotel checks into Sheffield’s City Centre

29th November 202222nd June 2021 by Gary Stringer

Just a short walk from our Sheffield office, a new 154-bedroom hotel has been granted permission in Sheffield’s City Centre. The development is being delivered jointly by Sheffield City Council and its strategic development partner Queensbury, with construction firm McLaughlin & Harvey working on the construction. The hotel will form a new addition to the international hotel group Radisson Blu.

The development is to be situated on Pinstone Street, opposite the Sheffield Peace Garden’s and behind the Victorian facades of City Mews and Palatine Chambers. To the rear is Barker’s Pool House which is scheduled for a phased demolition and will be replaced with a new complimentary building, which will house most of the new hotel’s bedrooms.

The design statement produced by HLM architects shows that the material palette for the Hotel’s front facing elevation will look to compliment the retained Victorian facade, with the colour-preserved, copper mansard roof mirroring the red brick.

The plans also show that at the front end of the hotel, ground-floor restaurant and retail units will be included. As well as a courtyard space between the two buildings. A rooftop bar and terrace are also part of the plans, which will provide views over the Peace Gardens. The new hotel forms a key part of Sheffield City Council’s Heart of the City Programme, which is intended to help promote the Sheffield an attractive destination for business and leisure.

The decline of the Highstreet has been exacerbated by the global pandemic, which heightens the need for the Council to deliver good-quality development that will encourage people into the city centre and aid the city’s post-pandemic economic recovery.

However, the development has faced some criticism from members of the public who had expressed concern about the removal of public art murals, including a frieze created by William Mitchell, which was felt to be an important part of Sheffield’s culture and history. The Council has since committed to reinstalling the piece in a public place, as part of the Heart of the City II scheme. The entire hotel development is expected to be complete by Summer 2023.

With an office at The Workstation we have a close connection with Sheffield with numerous clients and projects in the region. Please get in touch for advice on any planning issues or potential projects.

Main Image: Sheffield City Council

Sheffield 2021 and beyond – Post Covid developments

29th November 202219th January 2021 by Gary Stringer

To say that the Covid pandemic caused uncertainty and unprecedented disruption is an understatement. However, the signs are good that 2021 will see ambitious projects come forward to transform the Sheffield skyline, which may see developers reusing and repurposing existing buildings as well as creating new landmarks for the city of Steel.

The planned extension of the Meadowhall shopping centre is set to continue, albeit in a revised form in response to the pandemic and the ever-increasing dominance of online retail. Part of a series of measures submitted by British Land to grow and reposition the centre, the amended proposal is smaller than the £300m extension approved in 2018 but will still see the creation of a £150m Leisure Hall on part of the red and yellow car parks, featuring new shops and a ’new, aspirational food and drink offer’ that has been estimated could support up to 1,560 jobs new jobs.

Sheffield City Council have approved plans to build a 39-storey skyscraper on High Street, in the Castlegate area. The former Primark store will be demolished to make way for the 206-apartment block named Kings Tower.

Builders have also broken ground on the £20million Vista project, near the bus station in the city centre. Vista will be a 16-storey building with 241 beds, which will expand the city’s existing student accommodation.

Speaking of students, construction of a £65m Sheffield University building which had to be torn down due to defective foundations is set to recommence. BAM said ‘deconstruction’ and re-piling of the social sciences building, were finished – subject to checks – and work would commence ‘shortly’.

Heart of the City II, Sheffield City Council’s flagship project to deliver a long-awaited commercial, leisure, retail and residential focal point to the city centre is also making progress. Construction continues on Block ‘B’ Burgess House and Athol House and Block ‘C’ Isaacs House on Pinstone Street.
Proposals to introduce upmarket hotelier Radisson Blu have also been approved by the Local Planning Authority, which is proposed to be located off Palatine Chambers on Pinstone Street.

A trio of social enterprises have submitted a £350,000 bid to revamp the historic Leah’s Yard, within the £480m Heart of the City II scheme. The council says it wants to maintain the site’s ‘unique Sheffield character’ and provide a new ‘maker’ space.

Elsewhere Sheffield University’s four-storey new home for its Faculty of Social Sciences is under construction on the edge of Broomhill, and the striking red frame of the former Embrace nightclub is set to be replaced by a ‘playful reinterpretation’ of its former incarnation, the Regent Theatre.

The new owner of Sheffield’s Old Town Hall, Developer Efe Omu has permission to convert the 212 year old listed building into apartments, a hotel and a market. Built in 1808, the landmark building has had five extensions and was also used as a court for many years, before closing in 1996.

The former HSBC site on Tenter Street, comprising five big buildings, are now collectively called Pennine Five. Acquired by RBH for £18m, they have announced £30m plans to turn it into a new ‘commercial campus’.

In the summer of 2020 Godwin Developments announced plans for a block of flats near Sheffield station – kickstarting the city’s biggest ever regeneration project. Intended as the first piece in a hugely ambitious £1.5bn project to redevelop the Sheaf Valley area and announced by Sheffield Council in March, it would see the closure of Park Square roundabout. Sheaf Street – the dual carriageway that runs in front of the station – would swap places with the tram route that runs behind. A new pedestrian bridge would link Park Hill with Howard Street and the multi-storey car park on Turner Street would be demolished and relocated. Up to 12 office blocks are planned, employing up to 3,000 people. In addition up to 1,000 flats and houses could also be built, with the area around Queens Road designated a new residential centre called ‘Sheaf Gardens’.

Main Image : Heart of the City II

New website showcases ‘the heart’ of Sheffield City Centre

29th November 20224th November 2020 by Gary Stringer

Sheffield – like many other cities in England – is working hard to try and protect the viability of city centres by proposing new development and regeneration. ‘The Heart of the City’ project, first announced in 2004, was introduced to masterplan the city centre and bring about redevelopment to areas that were experiencing declining footfall. The plans have been long awaited, having stalled due to recession in 2008, but some of Sheffield City Council’s ideas have finally come to fruition.

Redevelopment is now visibly taking place in Sheffield as The Moor boasts an open space with a range of shops on offer with more in the works from Sheffield City Council and its development partner, Queensberry. Queensberry have recently sought planning consent to change the exterior facade of the historic Gaumont building and neighbouring buildings to improve the Barkers Pool area as part of the ‘Heart of the City II’ Masterplan.

As progress continues, the Heart of the City II Masterplan has released a new website to showcase the redevelopment plans that will come forward in Sheffield, giving direction to residents and businesses.

The website details their design principles which focus on mixed use spaces in which businesses can operate and people can live in. Within this, outdoor spaces and public spaces will be enhanced to showcase the green city. This will enable people to access work, services, restaurants and outdoor opportunities with minimal need to travel outside of the city centre.

Included in the website are further details of forthcoming phases including “The Chapel” live music venue, Wellington Works and The Combhouse as part of Phase 3 (formerly Block H of the plan) and Pound’s Park, Carlisle House and Stirrings Place which will constitute Phase 4 (was Block G of the plan).

With an office at The Workstation we have a close connection with Sheffield with numerous clients in the region. Please get in touch for advice on any planning issues or potential projects.

New lease of life for Sheffield’s historic Gaumont Building

29th November 202220th October 2020 by Gary Stringer

As Sheffield City Council press ahead with plans to improve the city centre, an application has been sought to improve the Gaumont building, situated in Barkers Pool. The site was promoted by the Council earlier this year and local developers Hallam Land Management have proposed a new look for the central landmark.

The Gaumont building formerly operated as a theatre dating back to 1927 when it was known as Regent Theatre, which was latterly rebranded the Gaumont Theatre. The theatre was demolished in 1985 and rebuilt for retail, offices and an Odeon Cinema across 4 storeys. In 1994, the cinema was replaced by a nightclub and has been home to ‘Embrace’ and ‘Area’. Currently, the site has retail and café functions on the ground floor level, home to well known chain ‘Patisserie Valerie’ and homewares store ‘Stone The Crows’ amongst others.

The site is centrally located in Barkers Pool overlooking the public square which is shared by John Lewis & Partners and the City Hall and is in close proximity to the Town Hall and the Peace Gardens, situated to the east of this site. The Gaumont building forms one of the principle walking routes into the central shopping area from the University of Sheffield and is well connected to Fargate shopping high street and the recently regenerated Moor shopping area.

The site was included in the Council’s plans to regenerate the centre into ‘Sevenstone Retail Quarter’ in 2005, including Pinstone Street and Barkers Pool, and an application was sought to replace the building. Unfortunately, plans halted due to the Financial Crash in 2008 and plans were resubmitted in 2011 and 2015 but were withdrawn.

After the successful regeneration of the Moor area, the recent application for the Gaumont building appears promising for redevelopment. The new proposal intends to retain the internal structure of the building but alter the exterior to modernise the façade with a larger public entrance into leisure space to improve the accessibility of the building at street level and make the building more useable.

The plans include ground floor retail uses and leisure spaces. The upper floors will be designed as flexible spaces that can accommodate a wide range of uses to ensure the Gaumont building is adaptable for the future. The design has made use of recesses which has been inspired by the previous appearance of the building as the Regent Cinema alongside living green walls to promote an environmentally sustainable design.

The plans have come forward alongside another application to redevelop the frontages on Pinstone Street and Burgess Street which include mixed uses of a hotel, retail space and restaurants as part of the Heart of the City II Masterplan. If redevelopment commences for the associated plans, the new Gaumont frontage would complement the improved streetscape.

Overall, the application signals redevelopment progress in Sheffield City Centre in a location which has been in the pipeline for some time. As regeneration has already taken place on the Moor, the city centre has become a more pleasant and active place to be. The Gaumont design re-imagines the building to improve the user experience at street level, making Barkers Pool a more interactive and contemporary space. The proposition for adaptable internal space acknowledges the uncertainty generated by reduced city centre footfall as the popularity of online shopping and banking has reduced the demand for high street units, suggesting that the Gaumont building might welcome more varied uses in the future. This suggests that the proposal could be more sustainable in the long-term in providing vitality in the city centre and preventing vacant units, especially as reforms to permitted development legislation is expanding the uses available through conversion.

We have a close connection with Sheffield with numerous clients in the region. Please get in touch for advice on any planning issues or potential projects.

Main Image: An artist’s impression of the new design for the Gaumont Building – Sheffield City Council.

Prestigious new hotel checks into Sheffield’s City Centre

Sheffield 2021 and beyond – Post Covid developments

New website showcases ‘the heart’ of Sheffield City Centre

New lease of life for Sheffield’s historic Gaumont Building

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