Surplus university buildings due to be sold

Chloe AslettYorkshire
News imageGoogle A large stone-built house with a black roof and large windows. There are many trees surrounding the house and a small road leading up to it.Google
Mundella House is one of the listed buildings to be sold by Sheffield Hallam University

A number of listed university buildings dating back to the Victorian era are due to be sold.

Sheffield Hallam University said the "most viable future use" of the properties on the Woodville Hall site and the upper section of the main Collegiate Crescent Campus was likely to be housing.

The organisation said the buildings were no longer needed after teaching was moved for thousands of students from the main campus, near Ecclesall Road, to the new city centre development on Howard Street.

A spokesperson for the university said it was "committed" to ensuring staff, students, neighbours and local organisations were fully engaged with the future planning process.

The remaining facilities on the Collegiate Crescent Campus would see a £4m investment and continue to be used by thousands of students and staff for "some years to come", they added.

News imageSheffield Hallam University A modern building over several floors has large windows and flat roof gardens. It is overlooking the Steel Wall at Sheffield railway stationSheffield Hallam University
The new campus on Howard Street cost the university £140m

The buildings due to be sold include Oak Lodge, Mundella House and Montgomery House, which are all listed by Historic England.

Southbourne and Whitehouse, The Mews and Parkholme are also due to be released, along with the separate Woodville Hall site on Broomhall Road.

Robin Hughes, trustee of Hallamshire Historic Buildings, said the organisation was "naturally very concerned" about the sales.

He said even buildings that were not listed or protected, such as those on the Woodville Hall site, should not be "disregarded or threatened".

The whole campus is within the Broomhall Conservation Area, and most of the non-listed buildings up for sale were considered to be "of townscape merit," he said.

"Any new use of this historic cluster of buildings should respect its heritage," Hughes said.

"Historic buildings need life and so must find new uses when old ones fade away, but those new uses are made more attractive and successful by historic character."

'Common sense'

Clive Betts, MP for Sheffield South East, suggested using the disused buildings for housing in October last year, as an alternative to developing green belt land proposed in the Local Plan.

He said developing the site was "sensible" and added: "If Hallam University have got surplus buildings on land that they don't need anymore… let's build some housing there, because it's an ideal area, and let's take some [proposed] housing out of the green belt areas."

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