Hallam Towers is a fifteen-storey,

apartment building An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...

completed in 2022 in the Fulwood area of

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and metropolitan county, metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of City of Doncaster, Doncaster and City of Sh ...

, England. It was constructed on the site of an identical former hotel of the same name, which existed on the site between 1963 and 2017.

Current building (2020–)

Work to rebuild the Hallam Tower commenced in 2020 with two additional storeys, making it 15 storeys high. The structure will contain 103 one, two and three bed apartments with a gym and swimming pool on the ground floor. Peter Lee, a director at Redbrik, the sales agent for the new development said, The development is being sympathetically restored back to its recognisable form, using the latest materials and technology that the construction industry has to offer''.' The development is by Blenheim Land & Properties, and is being funded by a £31.5m loan from Fortwell Capital. The planned completion date for the building was August 2022 but has been delayed until October 2022.

Original building (1963–2017)

Design, construction and opening

Designed by Nelson Foley of the Trust House Architectural Department, construction started in 1963 at a cost of £1 million. The Hallam Tower Hotel, owned by Trust Houses Group Ltd, opened on 24 March 1965
Hallam Tower Hotel - Under the Starry Stillness Blog, 17 May 2011. and at opening boasted 136 bedrooms over its eleven stories, employed nearly 150 staff members and covered a three and a half acre site. The hotel included facilities such as the Vulcan Room restaurant which featured a colour scheme of "orange, yellow, pale wrapping paper brown and sour green", the Sheffield Plate Grill (a quick service buttery),
Let's Halt Awhile, Hallam Tower and Grosvenor House Hotels - Under the Starry Stillness Blog, 25 May 2011. decorated with "a series of Sheffield trade signs, none of them later than 1910 and most of them mid-19th century" and a colour scheme of pink, red, black and white, and the Downstairs Bar, described in the original press release for the hotel thus; "A dark intimate room with a club-like atmosphere enlivened by turquoise blue upholstery. Dark

lincrusta Lincrusta is a deeply embossed wallcovering, invented by Frederick Walton. Walton was already known for patenting linoleum floor covering in 1860. Yarwood, Doreen (1990) "The Domestic Interior: Technology and the Home" pp. 902-948 ''In'' McNeil, ...

walls. 18th century Hogarth engravings. Silver Trimmings.".

Hotel operations

Fifth floor lift lobby of the Hallam Tower Hotel

Being one of the first luxury hotels built in the region since the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the city and the building's owners were keen to capitalise on the hotel's modern look and it appeared in an advertisement for the Ford Galaxie 500 and in the promotional film; ''Sheffield… City on the Move''. Several times during the 1960s the hotel restaurant appeared in '' Egon Ronay's Guide to British Eateries'' and achieved a four star rating from the AA. For the

1966 World Cup The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 July to 30 July 1966. The England national football team defeated West Germany 4-2 in the ...

, Hillsborough Stadium was the 'home' ground of the Swiss team, their over night accommodation was the Hallam Tower Hotel. One incident occurred when the Swiss fielded a team which left out two of their star players, against Germany due to said players arriving back at the hotel an hour after curfew the night before.Payne, Les (2002) "When World Cup Football Came to Sheffield". ''Sheffield Star'', 31 May 2002 With the takeover of Trust Houses Group Ltd by Forte Holdings in 1970 the building came under the ownership of Trust House Forte.
King of Catering: How Forte changed the face of Britain] In 1973

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

stayed at the hotel, when he performed at the

Sheffield City Hall Sheffield City Hall is a Grade II* listed building in Sheffield, England in Barker's Pool, one of the city's central squares. It was built and is owned by Sheffield City Council but is now managed by the Sheffield City Trust, under a 99-year l ...

on his

Ziggy Stardust Tour The Ziggy Stardust Tour was a concert tour by David Bowie during 1972–73, to promote the studio albums ''Hunky Dory'', ''The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars'' and ''Aladdin Sane''. Bowie was accompanied by his backin ...

. Elton John was also a guest at the hotel during this period. In 1978 the hotels management attempted to move away from what it dubbed "the sweatshirt and jeans brigade" by only accepting bookings from rock bands so long as they were dressed appropriately inside the hotel and didn't swear while in the hotel restaurant. During the miners' strike in the summer of 1984 ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print c ...

'' proprietor

Robert Maxwell Ian Robert Maxwell (born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch; 10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991) was a Czechoslovak-born British media proprietor, member of parliament (MP), suspected spy, and fraudster. Early in his life, Maxwell escaped from ...

had a secret meeting in a room on the top floor with National Union of Mineworkers leader

Arthur Scargill Arthur Scargill (born 11 January 1938) is a British trade unionist who was President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from 1982 to 2002. He is best known for leading the UK miners' strike (1984–85), a major event in the history of ...

which he had asked ''Mirror'' journalist

John Pilger John Richard Pilger (; born 9 October 1939) is an Australian journalist, writer, scholar, and documentary filmmaker. He has been mainly based in Britain since 1962. He was also once visiting professor at Cornell University in New York. Pilge ...

to arrange. Up to that point the paper was supportive of the strike and Maxwell put himself forward as a mediator between the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "ve ...

and the NUM. According to Pilger, in his book, ''Hidden Agendas'' (1998) the meeting went badly and turned the ''Daily Mirror'' against the strike. By 1986 the building was known as the Hallam Tower Post House Hotel
Further Hallam Tower Hotel Pictures - Under the Starry Stillness Blog, 13 June 2011. and a year later was subject to a £750,000 refurbishment which also saw the opening of the gym, whose members boasted members of the Sheffield Wednesday F.C., Sheffield Wednesday football team, its then-manager

Howard Wilkinson Howard Wilkinson (born 13 November 1943) is an English former footballer and manager. Despite having a low-profile playing career, Wilkinson embarked on a successful managerial career. He won the First Division championship in 1992 with Leeds ...

, along with boxer

Herol 'Bomber' Graham Herol Graham (born 13 September 1959) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1978 to 1998. A three-time world title challenger, he is generally acknowledged as one of the best British boxers of the post-war era to have never w ...

. The hotel later became known as the Forte Crest Sheffield
Sheffield City Council Planning Application ref. 92/00873/FUL and the Posthouse Sheffield.
UK Hotel Name Changes - Kinwardstone Conferencing. In 2001, the hotel became the

Holiday Inn Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia. and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee that year. The chain was a division ...

Sheffield West.

Hotel closure and demolition

The hotel eventually closed, along with the attached Spirit Health Club, on 18 April 2004, with some staff transferring to the Holiday Inn Royal Victoria in central Sheffield.
Sun goes down on Hallam Tower... - Sheffield Star, 15 April 2004. The building was sold to development company Hallam Grange Ltd. for £6.3 million later in 2004. Hallam Grange Ltd. was a development vehicle owned by the Hague Family of Hague Plant.
Sheffield’s Hallam Tower sale ‘imminent’ - agent - Sheffield Star, 31 July 2015. Since its closure the building stood empty for many years, although planning permission was granted in 2009 for a redevelopment of the tower into residential units,
Controversial flats scheme approved for Hallam Tower hotel - Lancashire Evening Post, 2 November 2009. as part of a wider redevelopment which would create 132 residential units on the site.Sheffield Telegraph (2009). Hallam Tower Future in Air. Sheffield Telegraph, 3 September 2009. Hallam Grange and their architects', Sheffield-based Axis Architecture, had been working on the scheme for three years, with the granted scheme being of smaller bulk and different layout to that originally proposed.Sheffield Telegraph (2009). Bid to Halt the Hallam Tower Homes Scheme. Sheffield Telegraph, 8 October 2009. The granted scheme would see an extra floor added to the rear of the tower, with some being removed from the front portion and the whole building reclad.Sheffield Telegraph (2009). Homes Plan for Landmark Hotel Finally Wins Approval. Sheffield Telegraph, 5 November 2009. The ancillary buildings and low rise elements of the site were demolished during 2013 by Hague Plant, along with clearance of the first three floors of the tower building.
Demolition Portfolio - Hague Plant. Thus just the tower building of the original hotel remained in situ. In September 2013, Hallam Grange placed the building on the market for sale with the Sheffield residential development office of

Knight Frank Knight Frank LLP is an estate agency, residential and commercial property consultancy founded in London by John Knight, Howard Frank and William Rutley in 1896. Knight Frank together with its American affiliate Cresa is one of the world's large ...

.
City landmark derelict hotel goes up for sale - Yorkshire Post, 19 September 2013. A sale of the building was agreed in May 2014, reputed to be with an unspecified national housebuilder, however by July of the same year this deal had fallen through and the property was returned to the market.
Landmark Block Back on Market - The Star, 23 July 2014. In July 2015, local newspaper; Sheffield Star, The Sheffield Star quoted agent Tearle Phelan of Knight Frank as saying "We are speaking to a very interested party, it’s in legals and we are looking to exchange imminently". The Sheffield Telegraph subsequently reported (October 2015) that a company had purchased the site and that the proposal would include the building being demolished and new luxury apartments and homes built on the land with no mention of social housing. In 2017, it was planned that most of the tower would be demolished and then rebuilt with taller storeys to support proposals for apartments and townhouses.

South Yorkshire Police South Yorkshire Police (SYP) is the territorial police force responsible for policing South Yorkshire in England. The force is led by Chief Constable Lauren Poultney. Oversight is conducted by Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Billings. T ...

later urged the public to refrain from

urban exploration Urban exploration (often shortened as UE, urbex and sometimes known as roof and tunnel hacking) is the exploration of manmade structures, usually abandoned ruins or hidden components of the manmade environment. Photography and historical inter ...

after a 19-year-old student fell to his death in the abandoned site. The tower was demolished between September and October 2017, leaving only the bottom two levels intact.

References

{{SheffieldStructures Hotel buildings completed in 1965 Buildings and structures demolished in 2017 Hotels in Sheffield Defunct hotels in England Demolished hotels in the United Kingdom Former skyscrapers Demolished buildings and structures in Sheffield