Vita Student Sheffield (known as Telephone House prior to 2014) is a high-rise building on Wellington Street, near Charter Row 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 a ...

city centre. It is 56 metres tall and has sixteen floors. When completed in 1972, it was Sheffield's third-tallest building; as of May 2020, it is now the ninth-tallest.

History

Completed in 1972, it was until 2012 utilised by BT in order to manage Sheffield's phone networks. It was built on the site of council housing towards the end of the 1960s/1970s regeneration of Sheffield. Part of the lower stories of the building now form a large

multi-storey car park A multistorey car park ( British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a bui ...

. In January 2012, a business consortium comprising companies Ace Liberty and Stone purchased the building, and BT fully vacated in October later that year. Around 400 BT workers and agency staff were made redundant due to the move, although some employees were offered the chance to take up work at

Plusnet Plusnet plc is a British triple play internet service provider (ISP); providing broadband, landline and mobile services. The company was founded in 1997 in Sheffield, England, and became a public limited company (plc) in July 2004 when it was f ...

's Sheffield offices, as the company is a division of BT.

Student accommodation

In March 2014, the vacant Telephone House was purchased by developer Vita Student, with the intention of converting the building into 366 'high-standard' apartments for students attending Sheffield's two universities ( Hallam and

). The building was renamed to ''Vita Student Sheffield'' at this time. The value of the project is estimated at around £35 million and the redevelopment of the building involved a complete refurbishment of the interior and a facelift for the exterior, with all the windows being replaced, while retaining the original look of the building. A sixteenth floor was added containing luxury penthouses and suites. The ground and basement floors, originally used as a car park, are now used for communal facilities such as a gym, cinema, games room, laundry room and reception area. Refurbishment work began in July 2014 and was completed in August 2015 in time for the 2015–2016 academic year.

References

British Telecom buildings and structures Office buildings in Sheffield Buildings and structures completed in 1972 Skyscrapers in Sheffield Skyscraper office buildings in England {{SouthYorkshire-struct-stub