It looks like there are to be even more flats at the bottom end of Ecclesall Road, just when we thought they couldn’t possibly cram anymore in. This time it’s on part of the Waitrose car-park in the recycling area where you used to take all those empty wine bottles. The recycling area has now been moved and an eight storey block, containing 67 apartments is to be built there. Just for a change they will be aimed at the young professional market rather than the usual student market which must by now be getting pretty saturated. (Mind you, I’ve been saying that for years!).
The sad thing about this particular development is that the Porter Brook runs through the site but it is currently culverted. Parts of it have been opened up on its journey into the city as have other Sheffield rivers. The most recent success story is the Sheaf which has been exposed in the old Abbey Glen Laundry site and is now a major feature. It’s such a shame that the Council didn’t insist on de-culverting on the Waitrose scheme as this would have been another piece in the jigsaw of the dream of opening up all of Sheffield’s hidden rivers. I suppose cost was the old excuse, but surely riverside apartments are much more desirable anyway?
This site by Harrow Street and the Porter was home to a number of C19th breweries that develop after the Beer Act – including the Old Albion Brewery, hard by Sheaf Brewery (later Wards) – surely some rescue archaeology may be in order here to check what’s underneath the ground ?
‘developed’