History stolen
It started off in 1808 as a Town Hall and courts for the Petty Sessions (now known as Magistrates' Courts) and Quarter Sessions. The city was growing enormously at this time. In 1866 it had to be extended by the Sheffield architects Flockton and Abbott. That firm of architects built the police offices just across from here, at the back of Castle Green, at the same time. Incidentally these might be brought back into use as Police offices. By the 1890s the building had become too small again, and a whole new Town Hall was built on Pinstone Street.
That one opened in 1897 around the time that Sheffield was given city status. From then on the building on Waingate became an even larger courthouse and the police court. The law quarter of Sheffield is still based around this area, with the current Law Courts and many solicitors offices in this area too. It remained a courthouse and police court until the late 1990s when Sheffield High Court and Sheffield Crown Court moved to new premises behind the High Street so a lot of people over a century and a half have been in and out of this building for good reasons and bad.
Since that point, the old Town Hall on Waingate has been derelict, so much so that in 2007 the national charity The Victorian Society placed it on their list of most at-risk buildings in the whole of the UK. The present owners have had the old Town Hall since 2004 but it has stood empty since then. It is Grade II listed and was supposed to go to auction in October 2008, but the auctioneers hadn't been paid their fees so it couldn’t go under the hammer.
Thanks for looking
It started off in 1808 as a Town Hall and courts for the Petty Sessions (now known as Magistrates' Courts) and Quarter Sessions. The city was growing enormously at this time. In 1866 it had to be extended by the Sheffield architects Flockton and Abbott. That firm of architects built the police offices just across from here, at the back of Castle Green, at the same time. Incidentally these might be brought back into use as Police offices. By the 1890s the building had become too small again, and a whole new Town Hall was built on Pinstone Street.
That one opened in 1897 around the time that Sheffield was given city status. From then on the building on Waingate became an even larger courthouse and the police court. The law quarter of Sheffield is still based around this area, with the current Law Courts and many solicitors offices in this area too. It remained a courthouse and police court until the late 1990s when Sheffield High Court and Sheffield Crown Court moved to new premises behind the High Street so a lot of people over a century and a half have been in and out of this building for good reasons and bad.
Since that point, the old Town Hall on Waingate has been derelict, so much so that in 2007 the national charity The Victorian Society placed it on their list of most at-risk buildings in the whole of the UK. The present owners have had the old Town Hall since 2004 but it has stood empty since then. It is Grade II listed and was supposed to go to auction in October 2008, but the auctioneers hadn't been paid their fees so it couldn’t go under the hammer.
Thanks for looking
Last edited:
