Sheffield Old Town Hall

the former town hall
Municipal building in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England

Sheffield Old Town Hall is a building in Waingate in central Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, opposite Castle Market. It is a Grade II listed building.

In William Harrison's Survey of the Manor of Sheffield, dated 29 September 1637, there is a mention of an early "Sheffield Towne Hall". The early "Sheffield Towne Hall" was replaced by a second building, which had been designed by William Renny in 1699 and opened in 1700. The second town hall was next to the parish church, on a site with little space for extension. The third town hall, now referred to as the "Old Town Hall", was designed by Charles Watson in the Neoclassical style and built between 1807 and 1808. It was designed to house not only the Town Trustees but also the Petty and Quarter Sessions. Initially the main entrance faced Castle Street, where the building was three bays wide and topped by a pediment; on the Waingate side the building was of five bays. which was housed in a small turret above the pediment. It was extended in 1833. The first Town Council was elected in 1843 and took over the lease of the Town Trustees' hall in 1866. That year the building was extensively renovated and extended to designs by William Flockton (1804–64) of Sheffield and his partner George Abbott. The new clock was provided by G. & F. Cope of Nottingham. and, since then, the building has remained disused. A campaign group, The Friends of the Old Town Hall was formed in November 2014 with the aim of getting the building's owner G1 London Property to state its intention for its future use. In September 2015 the building was put for sale with an asking price of £2,000,000. The sale brochure was withdrawn from the internet after about ten days. In December 2019 plans were approved to develop the building into Pod hotel rooms and apartments. Sheffield City Council said the 42,000 sq ft building can be developed while "preserving it as much as possible". The new plans are for serviced apartments, shops, cafes and hotel rooms.