{"id":7569,"date":"2014-08-05T15:48:09","date_gmt":"2014-08-05T15:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.proj3ctm4yh3m.com\/urbex\/?p=7569"},"modified":"2017-07-06T13:21:12","modified_gmt":"2017-07-06T13:21:12","slug":"urbex-sheffield-crown-court-south-yorkshire-may-2014-revisit-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.proj3ctm4yh3m.com\/urbex\/2014\/08\/05\/urbex-sheffield-crown-court-south-yorkshire-may-2014-revisit-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Urbex: Sheffield Crown Court, South Yorkshire – May 2014 (revisit 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

History of Sheffield Crown Court<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Sheffield Old Town Hall\u00a0stands in centre of Sheffield,\u00a0England.\u00a0The building was commissioned to replace Sheffield\u2019s first\u00a0town hall, which had opened in 1700 to a design by William Renny. This first structure stood by the\u00a0parish church, on a site with little prospect for extension.\u00a0The Old Town Hall was built in 1807\u20138 by\u00a0Charles Watson, and was designed to house not only the\u00a0Town Trustees\u00a0but also the\u00a0Petty and\u00a0Quarter 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\u00a0clock tower\u00a0over a new main entrance that reoriented the building to Waingate. At the same time, the building\u2019s\u00a0courtrooms\u00a0were linked by underground passages to the neighbouring\u00a0Sheffield Police Offices.\u00a0The first Town Council was elected in 1843 and took over the lease of the Town Trustees\u2019 hall in 1866. The following year, the building was extensively renovated, with a clock tower designed by\u00a0Flockton & Abbott\u00a0being added.\u00a0By the 1890s, the building had again become too small, and the current\u00a0Sheffield Town Hall\u00a0was built further south. The Old Town Hall was again extended in 1896-7, by the renamed\u00a0Flockton, Gibbs & Flockton, and became\u00a0Sheffield Crown Court\u00a0and\u00a0Sheffield High Court. In the 1990s, these courts moved to new premises, and since at least 1997 to present, the building remains disused.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2007, it was named by the\u00a0Victorian Society\u00a0as one of their top ten buildings most at-risk.\u00a0The present owners have had the old Town Hall since 2004 but it has stood empty since then.\u00a0It is Grade II listed and was supposed to go to auction in October 2008, but when BBC Radio Sheffield contacted the auctioneers they hadn’t been paid their fees so it wouldn’t be able to go under the hammer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our Visit<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Visited with AndyK of \u00a0Behind Closed Doors photography and Donna. It was good to revisit this place once more. I can’t say a great deal has changed in the place since my visit last year… The hall that connects the 2nd large courtroom and the judges chambers was covered in about 1″-2″ of water which shows that the roof had started to fail again. The floors seemed to be getting pretty unsafe towards the staircase at the back of the chambers, in particular, the floor in the toilet at the top of the stairs had completely collapsed. A short but fun visit, thanks to Donna for doing a bit of modeling again, on with the photos…<\/span><\/p>\n