Report - Sheffield Crown/High Court, Sheffield - September 2013

UrbanCaving · Sep 8, 2013

So, this whole trip started out with the intention of visiting a fair few places in Sheffield. Firstly we started out the evening before by NightVision cooking a fucking smashing roast dinner, followed by some attempt at a horror film along side a good portion of beer. This meant that the intended arrival time in Sheffield of 6am turned into about 9pm...

So we arrive on the outskirts of Sheffield hoping to still make sure that the area is pretty quiet, after a few choice wrong turns because we were too tired to set up the sat nav or be bothered to actually follow any handy instructions by the many road signs. But as we finally found the road that we wanted smiles would have appears on our face "Whats that noise" says NightVision as some horrendous noise was heard from around the engine. But still we push on for all of about 100 meters... Until we notice the temperature gauge was at max. We promptly pulled over in a suitably inconvenient location and opened the bonnet to a fair bit of steam. Water pump bearings had collapsed and well and truly fucked the car. So we let the car stop steaming, close the bonnet and walk away casually.

After traipsing up some random roads we appeared to find what can only be called a tram, this was supposed to have taken us into the city. Well that was until we were promptly kicked out and told to go and catch some "Tram replacement bus". Eventually we do arrive in the city at around 10.30.

Any how a bit of history stolen from the usual places and then some photos...

Sheffield Old Town Hall stands on Waingate in central Sheffield, England, opposite Castle Market.

The building was commissioned to replace Sheffield's first town hall, which had opened in 1700 to a design by William Renny. This first structure stood by the parish church, on a site with little prospect for extension.

The Old Town Hall was built in 1807â€“8 by Charles Watson, and was designed to house not only the Town Trustees but also the Petty and Quarter Sessions. The initial building was a five-bay structure fronting Castle Street, but it was extended in 1833 and again in 1866 by William Flockton (1804-1864) of Sheffield and his partner for the project, Abbott; the most prominent feature was the new central clock tower over a new main entrance that reoriented the building to Waingate. At the same time, the building's courtrooms were linked by underground passages to the neighbouring Sheffield Police Offices.
Waingate in 1857: the Old Town Hall with its first clock tower on the left

The first Town Council was elected in 1843 and took over the lease of the Town Trustees' hall in 1866. The following year, the building was extensively renovated, with a clock tower designed by Flockton & Abbott being added.

By the 1890s, the building had again become too small, and the current Sheffield Town Hall was built further south. The Old Town Hall was again extended in 1896-7, by the renamed Flockton, Gibbs & Flockton, and became Sheffield Crown Court and Sheffield High Court. In the 1990s, these courts moved to new premises, and since at least 1997 to present, the building remains disused.

In 2007, it was named by the Victorian Society as one of their top ten buildings most at-risk