Rose Garden Cafe: Sheffield Graves Park venue will finally be able to reopen to customers

Members of the council-community partnership said they were ‘overjoyed’ to hear that scaffolding supporting the roof, which cost Sheffield City Council £111,000 to install, is not needed as it is in reasonable condition.

However, work to support the front wall to prevent it leaning further will still be necessary, it concludes, so that scaffolding will remain in place.

Ground investigations were undertaken in May and June by structural engineer Jenny Bulmer of Alan Wood & Partners in Sheffield to conclusively discover the cause of the lean to the cafe’s front wall of the cafe.

Concerns about the state of the building led to its sudden closure by Sheffield City Council in July 2022. A dozen staff eventually lost their jobs and a long campaign saved the building from potential demolition.

Ms Bulmer, who is a heritage buildings conservation expert, delivered her findings in a report, which states that “the front wall foundations were on filled ground and that the front wall is suffering rotational failure (movement) due to poor subsoils and insufficiently deep foundations and that no other walls are affected.”

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She adds that the “front wall propping remains necessary but any scaffolding that is propping the roof only can be removed.”

She recommends taking down the front wall, putting in a new footing and rebuilding it with foundations sinking deeper into natural bearing rock.

The independent chair of the cafe partnership, Chris Hallam, said: “This is now a priority for the partnership in order to reopen the cafe’s internal seating whilst the architect and design team are appointed, and funders approached for the full restoration and refurbishment work.”

He called the news a “significant milestone”, showing what can be achieved when the council works with communities, and thanked all involved for their hard work.

The terms of reference for the partnership, which comprises representatives from Sheffield City Council, Save the Rose Garden Cafe Campaign and Friends of Graves Park, are due to be confirmed at a meeting of the council’s charity trustee sub-committee next Tuesday, July 16.