Leah's Yard Sheffield: Optimism ahead of the official opening of historic city centre Mester's space

The Star, Sheffield

The Star has spoken to Council Leader Tom Hunt and local entrepreneur James O'Hara ahead of the official opening of Leah's Yard.  The historic building has been reborn for the modern era to include local businesses, both creative and corporate.  Leah's Yard is opening as part of the Heart of the City project in Sheffield city centre.

Transcript

00:00Lejade is fantastic. I mean if you'd been standing on this spot 50 years ago you would have been

00:05surrounded by silversmiths, by people working in traditional Sheffield manufacturing crafts

00:11in these little mesters workshops and today it's been transformed, Lejade, into a new home

00:19for independent retail and workspaces right in the heart of our city and it's the latest piece

00:27in the redevelopment of the city centre and a key part of the heart of the city development.

00:34It's a new home for making and creating very much keeping in the spirit of the creating that took

00:40place here but just updated for 2024 and with many years of success ahead of it I'm absolutely

00:47sure. This is a grade two listed building that has frankly been hiding in plain sight on Cambridge

00:54Street for many years and I think people would be really impressed when they walk through the

00:59gate to see what is here. The transformation that we've been able to do with the team here over the

01:06last few years has been so successful that Historic England have now removed Lejade

01:12from their buildings at risk register. So it's been a long old project so we've been doing this

01:17for me and Tom have been doing this for four years but the project's been going on probably

01:22nine years. I think the scaffold got put up nine years ago and it's been an amazing journey seeing

01:28this building come back to life. Obviously being born and bred in Sheffield places like this hold

01:35a lot of heritage and a lot of feelings for people but what we wanted to make sure was that we

01:42used the space in a way that was going to make it relevant for the next 50 years rather than

01:46kind of looking back too much. And mine and Tom's part of this story is basically over so when we

01:52open it's all about the people who have got units here and be that Pete McKee or Le Biblioteka,

01:58Hop Hideout, Mester's Market, all of them. They've worked incredibly hard over the last few months to

02:04get ready for this point. And I thought that's quite a poignant way of looking at it in terms

02:10of your involvement in this and heavy involvement is effectively over. What's that like then because

02:15now you know 10 o'clock tomorrow you're handing over to the guys officially that are working here,

02:20what's that like for you? It's a relief. That's our job right, our job was to be custodians of this

02:30amazing building and get it ready for everyone else and now it's about those people and it's

02:36about the public, it's about Sheffield, it's about this building that's steeped in Sheffield history

02:41and heritage being accessible now again after years and years of being derelict.

Category

Transcript

Recommended