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Memories sought of landmark city building

Jennifer Vernon-EdwardsYorkshire
BBC Large impressive Victorian light stone, three storey building in the centre of the image. The building has for visible red banners attached to two of its doors and partway up the wall by its second and fifth window frames. In the foreground are a series nine square, solid blue metal protective barriers, transitioning into a series of see through blue barriers, a demarcation for trams. BBC
Canada House in Sheffied's Commercial Street is a Grade II listed building

Do you have memories of Canada House in Sheffield?

The Grade II listed building is being transformed into Harmony Works, a centre for music teaching and performance, but it has had many former lives.

Originally the Victorian headquarters of Sheffield United Gas Light Company, Canada House later served as a World War Two control centre and kept Sheffield industry supplied with gas during The Blitz.

Ellie Eagle-Skinner, engagement officer for Harmony Works, said people's memories would help bring Canada House back to life.

"Heritage is not just bricks and mortar, it's who was here," she said.

Maybe you went dancing at Turn Ups nightclub, or you went to a wedding breakfast at No.1 Top Chinese Buffet Restaurant in the 2000s.

Harmony Works has been contacted by people connected to the building and they now want to hear more of your stories.

www.picturesheffield.com. To the left of the image; Canada House in the 1980s, with dark, dirty brick work and 7 red canopies over each doorway and window on the front of the building. Outside there is an empty bus stop, and a bus shelter with passengers waiting, and a cream coloured bus with a brown roof moving away from the bus shelter. In the back ground, and to the right of the image is a large green space with trees and then three rows of flats with an imposing Park Hill in the background.www.picturesheffield.com.
Canada House in its 1980s incarnation as Turn Ups bar and nightclub

"Colin is my favourite interview so far," said Eagle-Skinner.

"He is 96 and he started working in Canada House when he was 14 in 1944. He worked there for the end of the war, he was there for two years and we've made a video of him recounting his memories."

She was also contacted by a woman called Megan who recalled being there when it was a nightclub.

She "emailed me with this beautiful description of a September night in 1981".

"She's told us the music that was playing and the scent of the Charlie body spray that she'd put on and it's really evocative."

Built in 1875, Canada House was one of the earliest civic buildings in the city, alongside Sheffield Cathedral, Cutlers Hall and the Old Town Hall, and built, according to research by Harmony Works, to showcase Sheffield's aspirations as a city of industry.

Since 1972 the building has variously been a nightclub, restaurant and offices of a lingerie business and an early gluten-free food company, Delicious Alchemy.

The front page of a light blue leaflet, with what looks like a dark blue highly detailed hand drawn image of Canada House, and the words; Studies in East Midlands Gas History: The Sheffield Gas Undertaking 1818-1949.
An antique leaflet about Sheffield United Gas Light Company, part of collection of memories at Harmony Works

In 2023, after more than a decade of sitting empty, Harmony Works Trust secured multimillion-pound funding to buy and restore the historic site.

Although their explorations so far have uncovered hidden items, and a secret staircase, Harmony Works say they are not planning to restore the building to its original Victorian grandeur.

Renovations, due to begin in earnest in autumn 2026, will be keen to capture all aspects of the building's past, including its social history.

Eagle-Skinner said: "We need these stories to help bring a sense of public ownership, honour a commitment to celebrating heritage and bring the space to life."

Stories will be accessible via Harmony Works' social media, its website, and when the building is opened for events like Heritage Open Days and the Castlegate Festival.

Harmony Works is due to open at the end of 2027, and the project is supported by The National Lottery, the Architectural Heritage Fund, Sheffield City Council and multiple local trusts and foundations.

Once fully refurbished, it will become home to the Sheffield Music Academy, Sheffield Music Hub, Brass Bands England, Music in the Round, Choir with No Name, Orchestras for All, and Concerteenies, while also supporting the University of Sheffield's music department and The Sheffield College.

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