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Sheffield Live! Investment Offer opens to the public

Community share offer launched to reopen historic Castlegate pub as live arts and media venue

Plans to re-open a historic Sheffield city centre pub have been set out in a Community Investment Offer from Sheffield Community Media. The crowdfunding campaign is inviting the public to become community shareholders and co-owners in the development of a new live arts and media venue in the evolving Castlegate quarter.

The former Tap and Barrel, on Castlegate, was acquired earlier this year by Sheffield Community Media, the charitable community benefit society which hosts and supports Sheffield Live! radio and TV.

The building is situated opposite Lady’s Bridge and at the corner of what was once the inner courtyard of Sheffield’s mediaeval castle. The site has a rich history and has been the location of a public house since the 1790s when it was the Bull and Mouth Inn and a meeting place for early friendly societies and constitutional reform campaigners. The present building dates to 1927 and was constructed for the Duncan Gilmour brewery.

Sheffield Community Media plans to renovate the building to accommodate radio, TV and podcasting studios, to re-open the ground floor as a public cafe and bar, and to offer performance spaces for local artists and promoters.

“To bring this wonderful and historic building back into public use and to realise its full potential as a community asset will require significant planning and major investment”, says the Society in its Community Investment Offer document. To support the next phase of development it is inviting members of the public to become co-owners in this unique part of the city’s heritage and to become involved in its future development.

Steve Buckley of Sheffield Community Media said: “We have had a tremendous response to the news of our acquisition of the former Tap and Barrel. We are now inviting people to help us realise the full potential of this building as a venue for live music, performing arts and media, owned by and run for the benefit of the community.”

Sangita Basudev, co-founder of Sheffield Live! said: “So many people have shared with us their memories of the pub and its neighbourhood and their hopes for what it can become in the future. Now we need people to get on board, as community shareholders, to help raise the investment needed to restore and renew this unique city centre asset.

Sheffield Community Media has benefitted to date from support for the project from University of Sheffield, Co-operatives UK, Social Investment Business, Architectural Heritage Fund and the Key Fund. The Community Investment Offer has been awarded the Community Shares Standard Mark for achieving the national standard of good practice.

The Community Investment Offer is live and open to the public until 10 December 2026 on the Crowdfunder platform and via the Society’s website, with more information available at sheffieldlive.org/shares and on Crowdfunder at crowdfunder.co.uk/p/sheffieldliveshares.

S1 Artspace plans new life for old Post Office

A Grade II listed building in the heart of Sheffield is set to begin a new chapter as the new home of S1 Artspace, following years of vacancy and neglect.

The building, originally constructed in 1871, has had a long history in the city. It first served as Sheffield’s general head post office, before becoming home to the Sheffield Stock Exchange for around 50 years. By 1967, much of the building had been taken over by the Yorkshire Penny Bank, which remained there until the branch closed in 2014.

After being left vacant and sealed from 2017, the building was purchased by Sheffield-based arts charity, S1 Artspace in 2024. Years without maintenance had taken their toll, with blocked internal Victorian downpipes causing significant water damage.

Initial strip-out and repair work has since revealed some of the building’s original features, including 1920s wallpaper, coving, columns and sections of historic flooring.

The redevelopment will see the building restored while creating new spaces for artists and the public. On the ground floor, three galleries are planned, including the Banking Hall Gallery, which will feature extended parquet flooring, and the Exchange Hall Gallery, where later additions will be removed to restore the space to its original double-height proportions.

The Exchange Hall will also feature full-height windows and is planned as a space for sculpture, while a gallery shop will provide an additional public-facing element.

Further gallery space is planned for the first floor, alongside a new extension on the building’s existing flat roof which will provide artist studios. The second floor will contain additional studios and creative workspaces.

The basement will also be brought back into use, with further creative workspaces and a bar planned within the former bank vaults. One of the building’s historic 1911 Chatwood safes will even be incorporated into the bar as seating.

As a Grade II listed building, the redevelopment is being carried out alongside the council’s conservation officer and heritage advisers. The project is also working with Donald Insall Associates to ensure that important historic features are retained wherever possible.

Rather than discarding original materials uncovered during the restoration, the team plans to preserve, reuse or recreate features such as historic tiles and flooring within the new design.

The finished development aims to bring a long-vacant building back into public use while retaining its links to Sheffield’s past.

With galleries, artist studios, creative workspaces and a bar all planned for the site, the former post office, Stock Exchange and Yorkshire Penny Bank is set to take on another identity as a new space for art and creativity in the city.

Harmony Works opens its doors for early preview

Canada House on Corporation Street, which has been closed to the public for around 15 years, is being opened for tours as part of the Castlegate Festival and Heritage Open Days, giving visitors a chance to explore the building before major redevelopment work begins as part of the new scheme for Harmony Works.

The building has had several lives over its 150-year history. It was originally used as offices for the Sheffield United Gas Light Company, before later becoming an Oriental buffet. Its unusual layout also includes several subterranean floors, created by Sheffield’s famously hilly landscape.

Now, Harmony Works is being developed as a dedicated space for music education, rehearsal and performance.

Plans for the building include a large rehearsal hall, which will eventually feature acoustic treatment suitable for orchestras and choirs, alongside a public café, basement venue, recording studio and several smaller rehearsal spaces.

The centre will also become home to a number of music organisations. Sheffield Music Hub will provide after-school provision, while Sheffield Music Academy will run sessions every Saturday.

Other organisations set to be involved include Brass Bands England, which is relocating from Barnsley, and Orchestras for All, which is moving to Sheffield from London.

Music in the Round will also move into the building from its current home at the Crucible, using the space to establish a chamber music centre of excellence. Concertinos, which works with musicians from infancy through university age, and The Choir with No Name, which works with people experiencing homelessness, will also be based at Harmony Works.

The project is intended to create a shared space for music organisations while expanding opportunities for young people to take part in music across Sheffield and South Yorkshire.

Contractors have now been selected, with construction work expected to begin shortly. Harmony Works is aiming to open its doors in early 2028.

The redevelopment is part of wider changes taking place in Castlegate, with the area developing into an emerging cultural quarter. S1 Artspace is also set to move into the former Yorkshire Bank building, while plans for a nearby park are continuing to develop.

For now, members of the public can get a rare look inside Harmony Works through tours taking place during the Castlegate Festival and Heritage Open Days, before the building closes again for its next transformation.

After 15 years behind closed doors, the historic building is preparing to become a new home for music in Sheffield.

Former pub to become new home for Sheffield Live!

42 Waingate - former Tap and Barrel

A disused Sheffield city centre pub is set to be re-opened as a live arts and community media centre following acquisition for Sheffield Live!, the city’s community radio and television operation. The former Tap and Barrel, on Castlegate, will be renovated to accommodate radio, TV and podcasting studios, a public cafe and bar, and performance space for artists and promoters.

Sheffield Community Media, which hosts Sheffield Live! radio and TV, has purchased the former public house with the support of social investment lender, The Key Fund. It plans to raise further investment from a community shares issue to refurbish the bar and performance spaces. The building is situated at the corner of the former site of Sheffield’s mediaeval castle, built on the Sheaf Field from which the city takes its name. The neighbourhood is undergoing major renovation including plans for a new urban park to open next year.

Steve Buckley of Sheffield Community Media said: “Acquisition of the former Tap and Barrel meets our long held ambition to find a space for live performance, community arts and social enterprise that can integrate with our broadcast media facilities. We are inviting people to get involved and we welcome expressions of interest in use of the space and contributing to the project.”

Sangita Basudev, co-founder of Sheffield Live! said: “We are excited to be moving to this iconic location, on the site of Sheffield’s former castle and opposite Lady’s Bridge, the first bridge across the River Don. With Castlegate now part of the city centre conservation area we look forward to developing our role in promoting local heritage and connecting communities.”

Tchiyiwe Chihana, director of African Voices Platform, a partner in the project, said: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to build on our work with Sheffield Live! and to contribute to a new space for community arts that will showcase our city’s diverse talent and enterprise.

Castlegate has a growing cluster of cultural activities from grassroots projects, like RiteTrax and Delicious Clam on Exchange Street, to major new arts facilities on Commercial Street, including the planned S1 Artspace visual arts gallery and Harmony Works centre for music education.

Sheffield Community Media has benefitted from support with concept design from the University of Sheffield School of Architecture and has been assisted by Co-ops UK in developing the investment model. It looks to build on these and other partnerships with plans for a year round programme of cultural events and activities.

As a community benefit society, Sheffield Community Media is preparing to launch a community investment offer inviting people who care about Sheffield’s culture, heritage and social enterprise to take an ownership stake in this ambitious new creative hub contributing to the regeneration of Sheffield’s historic core.

Sheffield Community Media is inviting interested parties to get in touch by writing to: info@sheffieldlive.org

Sheffield Live! at 25 – Birthday Celebration and Fundraiser

Friday 19th September 2025
6pm – 3am
£6 on the door after 9pm

Join us for a night at Hagglers Corner to celebrate 25 years of Sheffield Live!’s community broadcasting to the city and beyond!

Featuring DJs from long-running shows on the station – past and present. DJs on the night include Deepgroove, Dubcentral, Junglist Alliance, Latino Times, Mid Afternoon Memories, Platinum Plates, Sounds Like This, Spinning Jazz, The Night Train, Two Foot Left and The Breakdown.

Come along at 6pm for a special broadcast in the intimate Grub Records focusing on the importance to you of a single record. Bring a record and a story, memory or association to talk about!

The media landscape has changed dramatically since Sheffield Live! started off in 2000 as a weekend broadcast for Sharrow Festival. It quickly moved to regular events-based broadcasting, internet radio when live-streaming was in its infancy, and podcasting, before podcasting was a thing. It gained a full-time FM community radio licence in 2007, one of the first of its kind in the UK, and joined others in forming Sheffield Live! TV in 2014. It’s now also available on DAB with broadcast coverage extending across South Yorkshire. Broadcasting continuously to Sheffield and beyond for 25 years is some achievement. Many a successful DJ and broadcaster has cut their teeth on the station and it has given voice to a multitude of artists, activists and academics.

But really the story of the station is in its original intentions: to be a place where presenters of all ages, backgrounds and abilities can share a variety of distinctive music and speech based programmes to reflect and serve the diverse communities of Sheffield. It has been sustained by the passions and enthusiasm of its volunteers, including the founders and directors of the station and the many who have passed through its doors, whether that is presenting a show, reporting and news gathering, organising, fixing, painting and decorating.

With a challenging environment for the funding of community media and the increased dominance of global media conglomerates and digital technology giants, an independent and community media space is more important than ever to reflect the often untold stories, unheard voices and unconventional music to which Sheffield Live! has given a platform.

Join us for a party at another Sheffield independent mainstay, Hagglers Corner, on 19th September to mark 25 years of Sheffield Live!

Rotherham’s Ray Matthews recalls his “Path to Success”

Pensioner, charity marathon runner and former boxer Ray Matthews of Rotherham shared his memories in the book “Path to Success”. The publication narrates his early life and introduction to boxing as a means to combat bullying and goes on to tell his account of aspirations to complete multiple challenges. Among these, Matthews famously running seventy-five marathons in seventy-five days on his seventy-fifth birthday to raise £75,000 for charity. Report by Baillor Jalloh for Sheffield Live!

From the Sheffield Live archives June 2023

Homelessness highlighted in Cathedral exhibition

An exhibition about homelessness brought new perspectives through multimedia artworks. The Black Eye Project collaborated with the Archer Project to create the event at Sheffield Cathedral. Sheffield Live! reporter, Isabelle Goodhand spoke to Jim Lobley, Creative Director of the Black Eye Project.

From the Sheffield Live! archives 2024

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Supporting community media in South Yorkshire
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Community radio for Sheffield and Rotherham
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Contact: slcr@sheffieldlive.org
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