Cannon Brewery Sheffield: Vision for flats, live music venue, cinema, café bars and micro brewery
Developers could spend £200m turning a historic Sheffield brewery into flats, a live music venue, workspaces, recording and artist studios, a mini cinema, café bars and a micro brewery.
Capital&Centric is set to buy the former Stones Cannon Brewery in trendy Neepsend and says ‘everything from new homes, to food and drink, to live music’ are being considered. It comes after The Star revealed the firm had struck a deal with owner Hague Plant which depends on planning permission being granted. An application is expected soon, sources say.
Neepsend Brewery was founded in 1838 and became Cannon Brewery in 1868 when it was purchased by William Stones. It closed in 1999 and has been empty for 23 years. Tim Heatley, co-founder of Capital&Centric, said: “It’s an absolutely incredible site with a really eclectic mix of buildings and a shed load of potential. It’s mad that it’s sat abandoned for over 20 years and we can’t wait to get our hands on it.”
He also revealed they were working with Homes England and Sheffield City Council and hoped to deliver ‘something pioneering’.
He added: “It’s honestly the most important site in Neepsend and Kelham if not the city. It’ll be a game changer, kick starting wider regeneration of the area but it’s early days and we’re still working up ideas. It could easily take a few hundred homes, like our Manchester Kampus neighbourhood, but we’re also looking at things like a live music space, workspaces, recording and artist studios, mini cinema, café bars, a micro brewery and markets. The vision is for Neepsend to be Sheffield’s most exciting and vibrant district, full of people and with tons of stuff going on.”
The Manchester-based developer is restoring the Grade II listed Eyewitness Works and Ceylon Works on Milton Street in the Devonshire Quarter, creating 97 flats and town houses, along with a café-bar. Eyewitness Works is part of a wider vision for a Mester’s Village in the area with 2,500 homes, makers spaces, café bars, delis and a school.
The company says it has five projects worth £500m underway, employing 650, in Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Stockport and Stoke.
The Neepsend deal comes after several firms had showed an interest including Sheffield firm Henry Boot. South Yorkshire Mayor’s office was also involved at one point, preparing to spend £2.26m on ‘acquisition and preparatory’ work from the Brownfield Housing Fund in a bid to create 450 homes.
