The Sheffield Society of Architects, in collaboration with the Sheffield Civic Trust (SCT), Friends of Sheffield Castle (FOSC) and the Sheaf & Porter Rivers Trust (SPRT), invite you to join us for a City Centre Vision Day on 30th April 2025.
What if Sheffield’s Heart of the City project was replicated in Castlegate?
The Heart of the City project (HoC) is about to deliver its last transformational outputs: this event will assess its impacts and lessons, and consider how they might be applied to another area of the city centre which is also proposed for transformational change – Castlegate.
Castlegate’s challenges are, in many ways, the consequence of decisions to consolidate retail and residential investment in HoC, leaving Sheffield’s oldest quarter with an uncertain role. Yet it remains the home of the courts, many of the city centre hotels and a number of large council-owned development plots, with a number of confirmed and significant new projects such as Harmony Works, S1 Art Space and Sheffield Castle Site – part of the programme being coordinated by the Castlegate Partnership which has an area board chaired by Abtisam Mohamed MP.
The day is designed to encourage debate within Sheffield about high quality urban development and place-making, focussing on two significant areas in the City Centre.
The event, to be held within Castlegate on 30th April 2025, will be in two parts, with the morning reviewing the progress and outcomes of HoC, and the afternoon considering how some lessons from that work could inform the future vision, plans and work in Castlegate. It will particularly look at how development can build on what is different or special about Sheffield – taking as a starting point the influential community consultation and report from the Academy of Urbanism (Dec 2013).
The day is for all those who are involved or interested in high quality development in Sheffield, including urban design professionals, developers, council officers and members, traders/organisations in the areas concerned, together with wider civic and heritage bodies and interested members of the public.
There will be a variety of different perspectives presented, there will be materials relevant to the topic, and substantial time will be available for small group discussion. The groups will encourage discussions between people with different perspectives.
A light lunch will be available, and networking encouraged. It will also be possible to attend just the morning or afternoon, although the event is designed as a whole.
There will be notes produced from the day which will be made publicly available to as wide an audience as possible. Following the day as many relevant groups as possible will be invited to schedule a short discussion of the ideas and report at one of their forthcoming meetings.
Speakers –
William Stewart:
Director of Investment, Climate Change and Planning, Sheffield City Council
Alan Seasman:
Interim Head of Regeneration, City Growth Department, Sheffield City Council
Nalin Seneviratne:
A successful real estate and regeneration practitioner combining both ‘ground up’ and corporate urban development, with public sector and private sector partnership. As Director for City Centre Development at Sheffield City Council, responsible for the strategic leadership and creative planning of Sheffield’s £470m Heart of the City
Simon Ogden:
Local historian and retired town planner, former Head of City Regeneration 2002-18 and Programme Director Castlegate Kickstart 2018-21 for Sheffield City Council , current Chair of Sheaf and Porter Rivers Trust and Convener Sheffield Waterways Strategy Group
Martin Gorman:
Current Chair of the Friends of Sheffield Castle, a voluntary group set up to protect and promote the history and remains of Sheffield Castle. Martin has lived and worked in Sheffield/South Yorkshire all his life, working in the financial sector for over 40 years.
Martin McKervey:
Martin is the current Chair of the Castlegate Partnership, a member of the Castlegate Area Board and, Vice-Chair of the Sheffield Cultural Collective. He had a career in the legal profession spanning over 30 years. In 2017 he helped to establish the Sheffield Property Association, and was Chair until December 2024. He was the High Sheriff of the County of South Yorkshire in 2021/22, and is a Trustee of St. Luke’s Hospice and Whirlow Hall Farm Trust.
Limited Places available for Sheffield Civic Trust Members. If you are not a paid up member you can join here.
To book your place click here.