Modern interpretation of the corner shop opens in Sheffield's Sharrowvale

Corner Store is set to open this summer in the former Ora shop at the junction of Sharrowvale Road and Ashford Road, and is being created by the team who run popular coffee shop Steam Yard in the city centre. Ora has now moved to Hickmott Road.

Matt Cottrill, owner, said: “It’s definitely going to be a different proposition from Steam Yard apart from being run by the same people – it’s a very different offering.

"Sharrowvale Road is very much in our hearts as my grandparents and mum were born on Ingham Road, so around 100 years of our family has known that shop. It was never intended to open a second Steam Yard – in the past seven years we must have had about fifty different locations offered to us to expand.

"We wanted to keep Steam Yard as it is in that location and not dilute it.”

During Covid-19 the corner unit became available and thanks to lockdown, could be fully transformed from its former retail use.

After being asked twice if they were interested, the team decided to take it on as a completely new venture that would ‘meet the needs of Sharrowvale Road’, and soon came up with the perfect name.

Half of the unit will be focused on selling great coffee, while there will also be a retail element selling ‘everything you need for breakfast’ such as granola, preserves and fresh bread.

Food wise the team were conscious that Sharrowvale Road has many popular bakeries and food outlets, many of which they work with, so decided from the start to sell products that would compliment rather than compete with other traders.

Matt added: “People can come in for their coffee and get a small offering that you can take away for £2, but for example we’re not going to serve doughnuts, because Eve does that.

"To us it would be daft to offer something that is already for sale on the same road. We want to bring things that might not be as evident on Sharrowvale Road, so we are going to focus on pies and we have a salted honey pie which will become the Corner Store salted honey pie.

"We’ve got some other things which we are developing too – we want to bring staples with a big twist, and absolutely everything will be to takeaway.

"We want to serve what people want on their doorstep.”

The shop will also have a self dispenser system where people can fill their own bottles with dairy milk from the Peak District Dairy, or alternative milks.

Matt added: “As with Steam Yard there is going to be a focus on our impact being as less as possible.”

Corner Store will hopefully open around the end of July.