Newsletter

Newsletter 22                                                             January 2024

Friends of the Old Town Hall

Dear Supporter

It’s been, regrettably, another long year of nothing happening, as far as saving the Old Town Hall is concerned. But that might be about to change. 2024 may just be the year when some decisive steps are taken about its future, as we explain below. But first, a bit of update: on the state of the building, and on wider changes to come in Castlegate.

Did we say nothing happened? In fact, things have got worse. Spring and summer 2022 saw a lot of activity around the building, but exactly the kind we don’t need. First there was the hole in the roof of court 1, the most ornate of the courtrooms. A bit of tarpaulin stuck over a previous hole – not much of a repair really – blew off so rain could clearly get in. We noticed it in March and notified the Council’s conservation officer. He has been extremely helpful in chasing the owners to get it fixed. It took him months. The Friends wrote, politely, to the current owner, Gary Ata, in July to express our concern and ask when he was going to sort things out  – remember, that was the wettest July Sheffield has had since records began. Once again we were met with silence. A repair was eventually effected but to be frank it doesn’t look very substantial; we hope we’re wrong. What extra damage has been done to the courtroom by maybe 6 months of rain getting in, who knows. We fear the worst.

Then there were numerous break-ins – we don’t know what damage, if any, resulted to the interior. Apart, that is, from the small fire in part of the 1955 wing (which is just as listed as the rest of the building). The SY Fire Service put the fire out and the windows nearest the fire site have been tinned up. The crowning event was the evening in July when someone got onto the Old Town Hall’s roof and amused themselves by throwing dead pigeons down into Castle Street. Not how most of us would care to spend our time? Anyway, the police were by then very fed up with the numerous call-outs resulting from the various incursions, and it fell to us in the Friends to give them contact details for the current owner – they asked, as they didn’t know who he was. Whether the police have talked to him who knows. Certainly there is precious little sign of any effort to make the building more secure. And at least one attempted entry  in broad daylight was observed (from a passing bus) by one of the FOTH committee: cue a 999 call.

As to the Old Town Hall’s fate – we are given to understand that the owner, Gary Ata, has  opened discussions with the Council about a planning application. It’s only two years since he bought the place….still, any sign of progress is to be welcomed. But what does he want to do with it? Well, as the company he set up to buy the building is called The Courthouse Apartments (Sheffield) Ltd, the intention seems clear.  That’s bound to raise questions about the balance between conservation and damage to the historic fabric. Mr Ata is a property developer with, as far as we can establish, no previous experience in restoring listed buildings, and this one is a specialist one and it won’t be an easy job to turn it into flats. Watch out for press coverage of the application when it’s advertised; and we’ll be letting you know about it too.

Then there’s Castlegate, where after more regeneration plans than you can count over the years, something is actually going to happen. The Council won a grant from the Government’s Levelling-Up Fund, largely to sort out the site of Sheffield Castle and turn it into a public park, flanked on 2 sides by new buildings (sadly, planned to be far too high: 6 storeys across the road from the Old Town Hall, and maybe even more if commercial developers apply their usual pressure). It’s great that the castle site will be improved, though the budget is already under huge pressure from inflation. And the Council want to develop a regeneration strategy for the wider Castlegate area, and have set up an area board to progress that. All well and good, but previous Castlegate strategies have been conspicuously silent about the Old Town Hall. Presumably the Council is now assuming they can leave it to Mr Ata. We’ll see.

To repeat what we’ve always said – Castlegate won’t get sorted out if the Old Town Hall isn’t sorted out; and the Old Town Hall won’t get sorted out if Castlegate isn’t sorted. It’s good that there’s now movement on the wider front, but vigilance on the fate of the Old Town Hall remains crucial.

Finally – the weekend of 20-21 January sees the Heritage Fair, held as usual in the Millennium Galleries. We’ll be there. Do drop by and see us.