Exclusive:Over 500 repairs in three years at Sheffield's crumbling Central Library as it awaits £30m revamp
The Graves Gallery, on the top floor, closes on Saturday, October 31 due to a faulty heating system
Sheffield’s crumbling Central Library has had more than 500 repairs in the last three years, shock new figures show.
Tradespeople were called out 565 times to fix taps, toilets, fire alarms, lifts, radiators, lights, doors, plaster, CCTV and the roof from April 2023 to August this year. The cost was £153,770.
In the same period council chiefs paid £53,018 for scaffolding and hoardings due to the risk of falling masonry.
Some £10,264 was also spent installing three protective entrance gates and two years’ hire up to July 30, 2025.
The figures were in a Freedom of Information response to The Star.
It shows that a grand total of £217,052 was spent on repairs and safety in the three years and four months to the end of August.
It comes as the Graves Gallery, on the top floor, closes on Saturday, October 31 due to a faulty heating system. Most of the collection will be put into storage. Some items will go on display in the Heart of the City development, near Pinstone Street, next year, the council says.
The exact location has not yet been revealed.
The Grade II* listed Central Library - which also houses the City Archives and Library Theatre - is set to be repaired and refurbished at a cost of more than £30m, city council leader Fran Belbin said in September.
None of the funding is believed to have been secured.
Specific plans have not been revealed and the authority is looking at funding options.
Coun Belbin said then: “It will be a combination of sources. We may look to borrow for some of it, but we'll also look at some of the big funders who will contribute to this and we'll also look towards philanthropy.”
In 2016, plans were unveiled to turn the Central Library into a five-star hotel.
The city council announced a 60-year deal with Sichuan Guodong Construction worth £1bn for major developments, including redeveloping the building.
But in 2019 the company called off the plans with the authority stating they had not met the investor’s ‘viability requirements’.
The state of the library has been causing concerns since the 1990s.
In 2020, the head of the city’s museum service said time was ‘running out’ to keep it in a functioning state.
Hoardings and protective canopies were installed in January 2023.