The history of the Cole Brothers' site as huge building remains empty

The site originally housed Quaglen’s Circus

The site of Sheffield's Grade II-listed former Cole Brothers store in Barker's Pool has nearly 600 years of history.

Cole Brothers department store, Barkers Pool, Sheffield, in August 1987 | Picture Sheffield/SCC

placeholder image — Cole Brothers department store, Barkers Pool, Sheffield, in August 1987 | Picture Sheffield/SCC

Known as Balm Green until 1434, the area gathered natural springs that formed Barker's Pool, which served as Sheffield's highest point before 19th-century expansion.

Before the Cole Brothers’ department store, the site originally housed Quaglen’s Circus, which transitioned from an open-air amphitheatre to an indoor venue.

Albert Hall, on the corner of Barker's Pool and Burgess Street, Sheffield city centre, in 1932. It opened in December 1873 as a concert hall, began showing short films on a regular basis, and from June 1918 operated as a normal cinema. It was destroyed by fire on July 14, 1937. | Picture Sheffield

In the early 1870s, the circus was replaced by the Albert Hall. Designed by Flockton & Abbott and built for over £20,000, it opened on December 15, 1873, as a concert venue.

On July 14, 1937, following a screening of Humphrey Bogart’s Black Legion, a disastrous fire gutted the hall. Its organ was lost, despite proposals in the 1930s to move it to the new City Hall across the street. Plans drafted by architect W.E. Trent to build a new Gaumont Cinema on the ruined site never materialised.

After World War II, Sheffield Corporation acquired the land for law courts that were never constructed. The site lay untapped for almost 26 years until the Cole Brothers’ department store, a John Lewis subsidiary designed by Yorke Rosenberg Mardall, opened in September 1963.

Cole Brothers Limited, Department Store, Barker's Pool, Sheffield, was under construction in April 1963

To free up retail space, store offices moved to Barkers Pool House in 1974, and a Cambridge Street building was acquired in 1977 to house its toy and sports departments. The Barker's Pool store was later refurbished in the early 1980s, amid Sheffield's economic downturn.

In 2002 the store was renamed John Lewis, dropping the Cole Brothers’ name used since 1847. In March 2021, despite signing a 20-year lease with Sheffield City Council in August 2020, John Lewis announced the store's permanent closure due to pandemic lockdowns and online competition, prompting a petition signed by over 20,000 people.

Designated a Grade II-listed building in 2022 “for its innovative planning that makes effective use of its sloping island site”, the location was taken over in 2023 by Urban Splash and AHMM architects to be redeveloped into a mixed-use destination called "Cole Store".