Sheffield is fortunate in having an array of voluntary organisations each committed to safeguarding the city’s heritage – among them (in alphabetical order) Hallamshire Historic Buildings, Joined Up Heritage Sheffield, Sheffield Civic Trust and The Victorian Society South Yorkshire Group.
These bodies are sorely needed because the city’s track record of valuing and conserving its historic buildings is – to put it politely – patchy. Sheffield is rightly proud of its acknowledged status as the Home of Football, its tradition of craft beers and breweries, the Crucible and Lyceum Theatres and the Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus.
Sheffield Museums tells Sheffield history through its artefacts, and the city’s built heritage includes five Grade I structures and sixty-seven at Grade II*. These range from a 1929 police box, at least five K6 telephone boxes and numerous post boxes to the largest listed building in Europe – Park Hill Flats (1957-61).
Volunteer advocacy and action have played a part in safeguarding empty and decaying buildings across the city. Within sight of each other across Fitzalan Square stand Canada House (the former Sheffield United Gas Company headquarters), the Creative Industries Institute (formerly the General Post Office) and the new S1 Artspace headquarters (originally an earlier General Post Office, later the Sheffield Stock Exchange and latterly Yorkshire Bank Chambers) – all of them repurposed for future use.
However, the recent losses are manifold: the Market Tavern, Exchange Street; the Old Coroner’s Court, Nursery Street and the Wiley & Co façade, 23-25 Haymarket were demolished within twelve months in 2024. None of them were listed, and the Market Tavern was owned by the City Council.
The City Council has in the past had much to answer for, but it can’t print money. One of the notorious cases of neglect is the Old Town Hall, which the Council has never actually owned. It has suffered continual neglect since it was sold by its historic owners, the Sheffield Town Trust, in 2000.
Nigel Slack, chair of the Victorian Society South Yorkshire Group, wrote in its January 2026 newsletter that refurbishing the Grade I-listed “new” Town Hall after thirty years of minimal maintenance will cost between £320 and £420 million, which creates concern that the limited municipal support for historic buildings will effectively dry up.
In the same month, Sheffield’s online news outlet, The Tribune, ran an article by Dan Hayes, ‘Are we England’s friendliest city?’, pointing out that the city has at least 249 “Friends” organisations, whereas Nottingham has only five. Alongside an estimate that if the volunteers’ effort was rewarded at the level of the current minimum wage it would cost well over £2 million a year, Dan pointed out the social benefits of the camaraderie which Sheffield people.
The City Council has encouraged local voluntary groups to take care of heritage assets since the early 1990s, but as funds dried up, so did the amount of practical support that the volunteers received, yet they carried on. Different groups, from the Wadsley and Loxley Commoners to the Friends of Wardsend Cemetery and the 100-acre Shire Brook Valley Nature Reserve, enrich their locality in differing ways, because they have attracted enthusiastic individuals who have bonded through a common purpose. One project officer describes the volunteers as “the life and soul of the site”.
Some groups have more frustrations than success: the Friends of the Old Town Hall have doggedly monitored the building’s decay since 2014 and any practical rescue scheme will be built on the foundation of their efforts.
A trustee of one of the organisations not mentioned here wearily commented that it seemed government policy to let charities run the country. Scepticism in these circumstances is understandable, but it’s the spirit of bonhomie that will carry forward popular efforts to safeguard the local heritage.
Nevertheless, there’s a danger that before the current cohort of volunteers feel their age, they need to encourage younger people to join in and offer their energy.
That’s the vital challenge that must be addressed alongside the fundraising and the myriad practical tasks that keep the environment healthy.
Demolished Sheffield illustrates some of the Sheffield buildings that have been demolished since the mid-1970s, alongside others that remain but face an uncertain future.
Sheffield’s historic buildings have been retained or rescued in times past by citizens alert to their value, but much has been lost, and some of it is regretted.
Mike Higginbottom’s text draws attention to some of the reasons why much-loved landmarks bite the dust, and queries whether some of them could have had a future.
In particular, the book gives examples of surviving buildings that fall beneath the radar of listing and conservation-area status but can make an important contribution to the townscape and to community well-being.
Demolished Sheffield has 112 A4 pages in full colour and features twenty-seven sites across the city, and one in the Borough of Rotherham.
For details please click here.
To purchase, please click here, or send a cheque for £20.00 per copy payable to Mike Higginbottom at 63 Vivian Road, Sheffield, S5 6WJ.
Contact: 0114-242-0951 or 07946-650672 or mike@mikehigginbottominterestingtimes.co.uk