Reopening date announced for legendary Sheffield nightclub closed down more than 10 years ago

After much local speculation, the venue, located at the city's iconic Wicker Arch, is to open in January 2017 bringing the popular Niche nightclub back into existence under the ownership of Steve Baxendale, who ran the original club on Sidney Street.

Sheffield based Wilson Field acted as liquidators administrators of the Arch 9 venue, which closed less than a year into its existence after undergoing an extensive refurbishment, but failing to pull in any significant numbers of attendees, creating an opportunity for Steve to buy the venue.

Andy Wood, associate director and insolvency practitioner at Wilson Field, said: “The sale of Arch 9 will see a part of Sheffield's music heritage revived.

“We were called in as liquidators for the venue after it failed to become established on the local nightclub circuit. Running a nightclub is difficult without an established brand and the return of Niche will be of interest to the large client base for this type of offering.”

The original Niche club, which spawned the Niche Bassline musical genre, was forced to close in 2005 by the police, but the new venue will have a stringent door policy for its re-opening, to target the older Niche club-goers who enjoyed its signature vocal Bassline music.

The venue's owner, Steve Baxendale, said: “We are re-launching one of Sheffield's most famous nightclubs and we will be bringing back our well known DJs to create the great sounds that made Niche so popular.”

Steve has a long history of running successful nightclubs including Sheffield's former Rebels rock club which hosted such luminaries as Meatloaf and Def Leppard, Capital Nightclub on Matilda Street, Vibe on Charter row and Twilight and the Rhythm Rooms in Leeds to name a few.

He now lives in Bangkok and runs a club in Thailand's bustling Pattaya beach resort and also owns Sheffield's Tank nightclub on Arundel Street, but wanted to rekindle a true Sheffield legacy back in his hometown.

Steve added: “The demand for Niche is there, we have a massive fan base and I wanted to give something back for those years of support from our core customers, but there will be some key differences to the old Niche.

“We are aiming this squarely at the music and the hardcore followers of Bassline. The club will open on alternate Saturdays for a discerning crowd and our door policy is strictly for the older Niche afficionados.

“We are deliberately not going down the route of discounted shots and cheap drinks and there will be no MC's to distract from the quality of top DJs – it is for people who miss the essence of the original club and they won't be disappointed.”

Arch 9 has been a club venue for many years and was the starting point for another great Sheffield namer, Gatecrasher, which moved onto Matilda Street.

Steve has the full backing of the police and council over his plans and aims to re-open Niche on the last Saturday in January 2017.