Rose Garden Cafe: Sheffield campaigners’ cautious welcome for moves to restore Graves Park building

Campaigners have been calling for the council to take on restoration work of the building, dating to 1927, ever since the cafe was hurriedly closed in July 2022 after structural safety concerns emerged.

A special meeting of a Sheffield City Council committee next week (October 18) will look at proposals to fund restoration work and pause progress on other options that would see the building, which has only partly reopened, demolished or replaced.

The council’s charity trustee sub-committee is recommended to approve a proposal for the council, in partnership with stakeholders working as the Rose Garden Café Partnership, to develop a strategy for the building’s restoration. The park is owned by a charitable trust, of which the council is sole trustee.

Options already outlined would involve structural stabilisation and full refurbishment, estimated to cost £1.79 million, or the structural works plus “light touch refurbishment” to the interior, the cost of which is estimated at £911,000.

The committee will be recommended to approve that the partnership works to develop the strategy for restoration and then puts it into action.

That would include:

• “Proportionate public consultation”
• Establishing funding sources
• A public communication strategy.

The report says: “Any group or organisation that can positively contribute to the delivery of the Rose Garden Café Strategy can become a Rose Garden Cafe Partner.”

It suggests that the partnership chair should be third party, independent and not aligned to a political party.

The council wants to see consultation on plans taking place to understand what the community wants from the cafe and which aspects of the restoration are most important.

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Caroline Dewar, chair of the Friends of Graves Park, said: “While the Friends are happy to work with anybody to restore the café and get it fully open again, we are extremely cautious, because of 25 years of experience, also because of the recent shameful voting regarding the tennis courts deal.”

The group and Friends of Hillsborough Park oppose a sports hub and tennis courts operator getting a 25-year lease to work in areas of city parks, which they say is privatisation, a claim the council rejects.

The Graves Park Friends have also long fought the council to bring Norton Nurseries back into park use.

Andy Kershaw, co-chair of the Save the Rose Garden Cafe campaign, said: “Whilst there are still some outstanding questions to be answered about the delay in getting here and the estimated costs drawn up by the council, we welcome this decision which over 11,000 people signed a petition to achieve and which has taken more than a year to arrive at.

“Meanwhile, the café continues to deteriorate and is facing another winter with restricted opening. We hope that this proposed partnership is open, transparent and accountable and moves quickly to save this much-loved local heritage asset.

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“We also do NOT wish to see further delays caused by another costly and unnecessary ‘consultation’ exercise when the outcome will simply be the same.”

Both groups are submitting a series of questions based on their concerns to the meeting.

Julie Collins, manager of the cafe for catering company BrewKitchen when it was closed down, said she is thrilled that the public voice has been heard.

“I’m quite joyous – I know it’s a long round ahead and sounds quite complicated but it’s a huge breakthrough,” she said.