Sheffield’s grade II* listed Canada House to be turned into huge music facility

The Harmony Works project will see grade II* listed Canada House on Commercial Street transformed into a music facility, bringing the building back to life with teaching and rehearsal rooms, community spaces, a publicly-accessible café and a performance space in the glass-domed hall.

Last year, Sheffield City Council secured £20m from the Government’s Levelling Up fund to transform the Castlegate area as a gateway to the city, which included establishing Harmony Works.

£1.6m of the funding will be used to acquire the empty building, which was built in 1875 for Sheffield United Gas Light Company. It was most recently the home of lingerie firm Panache but has been up for sale for three years.

The council has now given planning permission to the project.

The Harmony Works team have been working to plan the their vision for the future of the building, working with groups including the Castlegate Partnership and the children and young people of Sheffield. The project team has included Evans Vettori Architects, Arup, Turner and Townsend, BWA, Creative Heritage and Hepworth Acoustics.

‘An incredible asset’

Harmony Works will bring together the knowledge and expertise of Sheffield Music Academy and Sheffield Music Hub, plus their partners including Brass Bands England and Music in the Round, to create a home for music education in the heart of the city, accessible to the whole Sheffield City Region.

Harmony Works is continuing to work on the development of the project and securing additional funding. It will cost £12.8m in total.

Cllr Mazher Iqbal, co-chair of the council transport, regeneration and climate policy committee, said: “We’re so pleased to have been able to work with Harmony Works to secure Levelling Up funding which will create a highly-valued resource in the city and the wider region. As a city known for producing many musical talents, access to music facilities is so important to us.

“Harmony Works will be an incredible asset to us all, especially younger generations. It is also fantastic to see the impressive Canada House building will soon be restored and inhabited again.”

Emily Pieters, director of Harmony Works, said: ‘We’re absolutely delighted to have reached this very important step in our journey. Our planning consent is a testament to the hard work of the Harmony Works partners and team and to the thoughtful and environmentally-sensitive approach the design team have taken with this fantastic building.

‘Their musical home’

“We’re looking forward to making these designs a reality, and for children and young people throughout the region to have a place to call their musical home.”

Other parts of the plan for the Castlegate Gateway to Sheffield area to celebrate the city’s birthplace include open space that will see the River Sheaf deculverted, preservation and display of the remains of Sheffield Castle and a newly-built sixth-form centre run by Sheffield College.

There is also a proposed S1 Artspace contemporary art gallery with a six-acre sculpture park that would connect Park Hill to Castlegate but those proposals are potentially under review.

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