Former Sheffield Royal Bank of Scotland site to re-open as Grind Café Broomhill three years after closing

Work has been ongoing to convert the former Royal Bank of Scotland building in Broomhill for some time, and now clues to its new use have been put into the building.

Glass has now been installed in the windows of the building, embossed with the name The Grind Café Broomhill –the first time a name has been put on the building since the bank left.

The former bank building will become the second premises operated by people behind the Grind Café at Green Lane, in Kelham Island. They decribe it as ‘a gastro-cafe in the heart of Kelham Island, serving high quality home-made food and barista style coffee’.

They have previously posted a video of workmen inside the building on their Facebook page, carrying the words: “Grind 2 – coming near you soon… keep your eyes peeled everyone.” Although it does not say where it is, it is clearly Broomhill from the view through the windows.

The Star revealed there were plans to open a restaurant in the building last year.

The Victorian building on Whitham Road had been used as a bank for decades, and had been a branch of Williams and Glyn's Bank prior to RBS.

But the company closed the branch in Broomhill in November 2018, and the windows were boarded up.

The building is understood to date back to around the 1850s, but has been empty since 2019. The coronavirus pandemic slowed any progress on bringing it back into use, its owner has said.

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A new window was added in the area previously occupied by the bank’s automatic cash dispenser machine.

Until a few years ago, all the major banks had branches in Broomhill – but they have all now closed, the most recent closure being the HSBC branch, which closed in 2020 and is still empty.

When they closed the branch in 2018, RBS blamed moves towards online banking, stating one in five of their customers now bank completely online.

More branch closures happened last year.

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