Remembering the heyday of Nichols Building in Sheffield ahead of £6m revamp

The Nichols Building at Shalesmoor was once, she recalls, a bustling grocer's warehouse - populated by hundreds of staff and filled with all manner of provisions.

"Nowadays everything is ready-packed," Janet said. "But I can remember sugar being packed into blue paper bags, and big slabs of butter being cut into pieces. Everything went out to local shops."

In recent years The Nichols Building has been used as a vintage emporium selling furniture, clothes, records, ceramics and glassware, but the place has a long history. Built in 1854, it was used to store produce for Nichols & Co, a firm that blended tea, roasted coffee and supplied retailers with food.

Under new proposals submitted to the council, the warehouse would become a mixed-use scheme comprising commercial space on the ground floor, a courtyard and 48 'high-quality' rented homes, ranging from studio flats to one- and two-bedroom units.

A rooftop extension would be added, while some structures would be demolished and replaced. The complex would have its original name, 'Nichols & Co', reinstated. It is expected to be completed in December 2019 and the three-storey warehouse's Victorian frontage will be retained, it is promised.

Brought forward by Sheffield property developer Ashgate and HLM Architects, the project is the latest to be proposed in resurgent Shalesmoor, not far from Kelham Island which has gained a reputation as an 'urban village' popular with young professionals.

After leaving school in the late 1950s Janet took a six-month shorthand and typing course, starting at Nichols after her training was complete.

"I was the office junior and sat right by one of the ground floor windows," said Janet, of Stannington, who grew up in Walkley. "I worked with Miss Minogue - what a stickler. If I made a mistake in typing a letter, there was no computer to correct my typing, so she would make me type it all again, sometimes two foolscap pages."

Six months later she was moved into the neighbouring Heinz building - which is now demolished, leaving a patch of rough land - to work for a buyer called Ron Watson.

Nichols, she says, had a family atmosphere.

"My mum, Hilda, worked in the packing department on the first floor in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Her best friend was Ivy and they used to watch from the upstairs window as my mum's boyfriend was going by on Friday afternoons after work and would risk waving to him."

This was 'very risky in those days', she said, but her mother's daring paid off. "He became my dad."

Relatives would recommend each other for jobs, making work comparatively easy to come by in those days.

"My mum obviously made a good impression in the packing department as she was promoted to the cash office doing wages. Her brother Stanley worked in the warehouse, wearing a brown overall, and a cousin's husband was a traveller - a rep going round local shops. There were perhaps other family members I didn't know about."

Nichols prided itself on fulfilling even the most demanding orders from shops.

"They would go out of their way to get items for people. I can remember one old lady who was very ill and wanted a particular type of biscuit; as I was a junior I was sent out to all these little shops to see if we could get a pack. I think I found some in a shop at Hillsborough Corner."

Things went full circle for Janet, as three years ago she took a unit in the emporium, selling vintage clothes and bric-a-brac.

"It's still a good-looking building and it would be awful for it to be pulled down," she said.