Cole Brothers Sheffield: 'We won't appeal listed status' for former John Lewis top councillor confirms

Councillor Mazher Iqbal said he was ‘embracing’ it and hoped people now started to change their minds.

The authority has 28 days to appeal after Grade II listed status for the Barker’s Pool building, which was most recently home to John Lewis, was announced.

It previously applied for ‘immunity’ from listing of the council-owned building, which is up for sale.

What are the upsides of listing?

But Coun Iqbal said he thought the news was ‘fantastic’ and he hoped it would come back into use like other Sheffield listed buildings Park Hill and Castle House.

Some readers had opposed protected status, complaining it was an eyesore of ‘no architectural merit’.

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Coun Iqbal also accepted the car park would not now be demolished. The authority had wanted to flatten the crumbling 400-space structure saying it was unsafe, hard to convert and redundant.

And it means only bids from developers seeking to convert the building would go through to the second round of a sales process. The council had invited proposals based on three options: re-use, demolish and rebuild, or demolish and have open space.

Coun Iqbal co-chairs the transport, regeneration and climate policy committee which will decide the winner, expected in November.

He said: “It’s fantastic news, I’ve embraced it. What you like is always subjective, like an artwork. I’m hoping people will start to change their mainds and this will create a huge buzz.

“The car park has always been a concern. But it is part of the listing, the challenge for us is what do we do? There is a cost attached to it.”

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He also said it would it would help the city meet its net zero ambitions.

Listing removes uncertainty for the surrounding area. Heart of the City II developments are taking place on three sides. Up to now there was a chance John Lewis could be demolished at the same time the other developments were opening including a Radisson Blu hotel on Pinstone Street and Leah’s Yard shops and a food hall on Cambridge Street.

Why was demolition favoured?

The council previously said there was a ‘clear preference’ for flattening the structure and replacing it with a smaller building.

A public consultation in January and February found that 516 of 1,299 respondents wanted replacement with public realm. Some 452 wanted reuse and 331 wanted demolition and just public realm.

Park Hill flats was listed in 1998. Developer Urban Splash says all apartments in Phase 2 sold ahead of them being finished earlier this year. Its next project is a block on Duke Street. When complete, 85 per cent of the enormous 995-apartment complex will be back in use.

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Castle House is a listed former Co-op department store on Angel Street. It has been converted into a food hall, tech incubator and is home to tech firms Wandisco and Zoo Digital.

Historic England says Cole Brothers is a rare example of a post-war department store designed by a leading architects’ firm to an accomplished modernist design using strict geometry and proportionality to create a statement building. It is a ‘sophisticated building’ that stands out from the more conservative and modest designs of other department stores of this period.

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