The National Union of Mineworkers headquarters is a building in

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 ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

which formerly housed the head office of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).

History

The building was commissioned by

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 ...

in the early 1980s in an effort to move the NUM from

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

to the friendlier territory of the " Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire". Construction began in 1986 and the building opened in 1988. Following the decline of the

mining industry Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

the NUM again relocated its headquarters to

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough ha ...

. The NUM occupied the building for less than four years. It then stood derelict for more than two decades and was threatened with demolition in 2006. In December 2011, plans to turn the building into a

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live enterta ...

were approved by

Sheffield City Council Sheffield City Council is the city council for the metropolitan borough of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It consists of 84 councillors, elected to represent 28 wards, each with three councillors. It is currently under No Overall Con ...

. It was reported that as a casino, the building would include two restaurants and a rooftop bar. In January 2013 work began to open two restaurants on the ground floor, but developers Quest Property said the casino was on hold but "still an option". In January 2014 developers said the structure had been stripped out in preparation for use as restaurants, offices and for leisure purposes. A £5 million refit, following which the building would become home to three restaurants on the ground floor and offices on the first and second floors, began in March 2016. The lease on the building was taken up by Quest Property, and the redevelopment funded in part by

and the city's

local enterprise partnership In England, local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) are voluntary partnerships between Local government in England, local authorities and businesses, set up in 2011 by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to help determine local econom ...

. A large marble

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

, made in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

, Italy and depicting two miners, was left in place, due in part to its size and weight. In March 2016, both Pitcher and Piano and Turtle Bay were announced as occupiers of the restaurant units. In April 2016 the

professional services network Professional services networks are business networks of independent firms who come together to cost-effectively provide professional services to clients through an organized framework. They are principally found in law and accounting. They ma ...

Grant Thornton International Grant Thornton is the world's seventh-largest by revenue and sixth-largest by number of employees professional services network of independent accounting and consulting member firms which provide assurance, tax and advisory services to privat ...

announced it would become the primary occupier of the building's office space from 2017.

Architecture

The building was designed by Malcolm Lister and features a prominent central section inspired by the appearance of a mine's pit head. Architecturally, it is designed to blend in with

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 ...

, which it sits opposite. In his 2010 book ''

A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain ''A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain'' is a book by the British writer Owen Hatherley, published by Verso Books in November 2010. The book is a critique of the architecture and urbanism of postmodern Britain, taking the form of a tour of Br ...

'',

Owen Hatherley Owen Hatherley (born 24 July 1981 in Southampton, England) is a British writer and journalist based in London who writes primarily on architecture, politics and culture. Early life Hatherley was born in Southampton in 1981, growing up in a 1930s ...

cites as ironic the fact that the NUM headquarters is more sympathetic to the

history of Sheffield The history of Sheffield, a city in South Yorkshire, England, can be traced back to the founding of a settlement in a clearing beside the River Sheaf in the second half of the 1st millennium AD. The area now known as Sheffield had seen human o ...

than anything constructed by

New Labour New Labour was a period in the history of the British Labour Party from the mid to late 1990s until 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The name dates from a conference slogan first used by the party in 1994, later seen ...

, despite the latter's professed concern for "

heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset is a preexisting thing of value today ** Cultural heritage is created by humans ** Natural heritage is not * Heritage language Biology * Heredity, biological inheritance of physical c ...

References

Buildings and structures completed in 1988 National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain) Sheffield City Centre {{Yorkshire-struct-stub