New homes on site of old Chantrey Picture House in Sheffield would ‘harm the area’

Sheffield City Council’s planning officers blocked a development that would have seen 13 new flats on the site of the iconic Chantrey Picture House on Chesterfield Road.

The plans included a new block of one- and two-bedroom flats on three floors for “young professional people or older couples” who may have had to downsize.

A document stated: “This will help family homes to be released onto the open market, and means that the residents are less likely to put pressure on local schools, whilst more likely to patronise local businesses.”

However, the officers decided to refuse permission and said it would harm the area.

One of the main problems with the plan was design as they said the development would “result in a prominent and unattractive addition that would not be of sufficiently good design and would have an adverse effect on the townscape”.

Also, the development would have “an adverse impact on the landscape and ecological value of the trees along Graves Park Beck” to the west of the proposed site.

The document also added that due to the poor quality of the ground floor units – adjacent to the footway of a busy arterial route within a district shopping centre, and overlooking car parking bays – would result in “unacceptable living conditions”.

Chantrey House, according to a website called Cinema Treasures, was built by a local man and opened in 1920 with the 1919 movie The Crimson Gardenia and a Charlie Chaplin short.

Reportedly the cinema had a capacity of 1,400 “in stalls and balcony” and the proscenium was 26 feet (almost eight metres) wide.

A cinemascope arrived in February 1955 when a panoramic screen was fitted before the Chantrey Picture House closed as a cinema on February 28, 1959.

The building has been used to accommodate offices and a restaurant.