Tag Archives: Castlegate

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.

Castlegate excavation begins

A major excavation of the site of Sheffield’s castle has begun and will be the first significant archaeological dig in the area for over two decades. The castle is thought to have been built between the 11th and 12th Century and was demolished at the end of the Civil War in the 17th Century. A team from Wessex Archaeology will excavate eleven trenches across the site to try to piece together its origins and history.

New funding may reveal Sheffield’s hidden rivers

Plans to uncover some of Sheffield’s riverside history are moving forward at Castlegate thanks to new funding from the Environment Agency. The Environment Agency has awarded a £50,000 grant to Sheffield City Council to develop designs for Sheaf Field, which could ultimately see the River Sheaf de-culverted as it passes the former Castle Market site. Simon Thake reports for Sheffield Live!