New future for historic listed building in fashionable Sheffield neighbourhood
Changes to be made to historic industrial building
First it was a knife factory, then more recently a fashionable restaurant.
But now the former VorV restaurant in Kelham Island, a listed building once part of Sheffield’s Victorian industrial powerhouse, looks set for a new function.
Sheffield Council has given the go-ahead to plans to carry out alterations to the historic site, which have been drawn up as part of plans to convert the site into a children’s nursery, on Cornish Street.
Sheffield Council has approved the planned alterations to the building, part of what was once the Wharncliffe Works, which dates back to around 1861, when it was built for Steel and Garland, manufacturers of stoves, grates and fenders.
At one stage. Bowie knives were once made in the premises and a heritage report, submitted as part of the application, said it was rumoured that there was once a knife called the ‘Wharncliffe Whitler’ named after the site.
More recently, the building was the vegetarian and vegan VorV restaurant, which closed at the end of 2023, with the owners blaming the cost of living crisis and a lack of Government support..
Before that it had been the site of a fire in 2003, and flooding in in 2007.
The council has now approved internal works to building including Installation of mezzanine floor, internal partitions, new stairs and enlarged roof opening.
A heritage statement submitted along with the application by William Calvert said: “The change of use to a Children’s Nursery has a very minor external impact of the building.
“The internal re-use of a functionable space continues the historical theme in the context of the buildings use, in that is providing a service and a function to the main Wharncliffe Works building and local area.”
Sheffield Council said in a report that the scheme would still need separate planning permission to become a nursery, after the alterations to the building were approved..