Sheffield school named as endangered is renovated

Hammerton Street School was built in 1904 by local architect WJ Hale

The former Hammerton Street School in Darnall in Sheffield has been included on a list from the Victorian Society of the top ten endangered buildings in England and Wales.

The list was drawn up from nominations from members of the public.

It follows a nationwide appeal to find the country's best and most threatened Victorian and Edwardian buildings.

But the owners of the school have said it is not at risk and is being refurbished.

Hammerton Street School was built on Ouseburn Road in 1904 for the Sheffield School Board by local architect, WJ Hale.

Also known as Kettlebridge school, the building was Grade II listed in 1995.

Built in honey-coloured stone, in the Arts and Crafts style, the school also has some baroque features.

Director of the Victorian Society, Dr Ian Dungavell, believes it is a fine example of the architecture of the period:

"Once they are gone historic buildings like these cannot be replaced.

"Hammerton Street School is an absolute treasure.

"It's got really nice details, like very prominent chimneys or ventilation shafts and little roundels - a round ornament with leaves around it and words in it, saying what they hoped to achieve by the education.

Roundels above the school entrances stated some of the qualities pupils were expected to display

"At that stage, there were separate entrances for the girls and the boys.

"Above the girls' entrance were written virtues like purity, sincerity and modesty.

"And the boys' entrance had things like courage and chivalry.

"It tells us quite a lot about our history and what education was aiming for then."

"It's vital that a new use is found for the school, as the longer it lies empty the harder it will be to save."

The building ceased to be a school in 1994 and was used as a community centre for a while but was badly damaged in a fire in 1997.

The current owners are the Madni Trust, an educational charity, which operates schools in Tinsley and in Nottingham.

Zaheer Rhaman, operations manager, rejected the Victorian Society's claims that the building is endangered and said work has been carried out to repair the school:

"When we purchased the building from the city council, it was in a dilapidated state.

"All the windows were put through and there was actually a fire prior to us purchasing the property.

"Since then we've put a brand new roof on the building, costing hundreds of thousands of pounds.

"Because the building is listed, we couldn't put aluminium window frames in, we had to have a special type of wood and a joiner who could build the Victorian style windows.

The building was badly damaged by fire in 1997

"So that took us a while to find a suitable joiner who knew what he was doing.

"And we're a charity so we've had to raise the funds to do this.

"All of this takes time but we've been working closely with the city council for the last few years to bring the building back into use.

"The roof is completed and internal works have started, plastering, rendering, heating.

Zaheer Rahman estimates the repairs will be finished by Easter 2011 and then a decision will be made on how the building will be used:

"We have plans to put it back into community use. We're going to hold a public meeting when the building is finished to see what local people want."