Dear readers — If you’ve been to Sheffield city centre recently, you’ll have seen the massive Code Living tower slowly rising higher into the sky. The huge 26-storey building in between Wellington Street, Trafalgar Street and Rockingham Street will be one of Sheffield’s tallest when complete. But whether that will ever happen is the subject of a planning appeal due to start next week. Will a developer really walk away from a £125 million project and leave the building half finished? That’s today’s big story.
As well as that, we have exciting news about a trial of new side-street zebra crossings in Sheffield, Welsh janglepop at The Lughole, and a lovely new apartment in Kelham Island.
The Land Remembers
Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) has been bringing world-class art to the Yorkshire countryside for nearly 50 years, and its latest exhibition - Hold to This Earth - is no exception. It brings together the work of 38 contemporary Indigenous North American artists from Tia Collection and spans sculpture, film, photography, painting ceramics and fibre art - including two brand new pieces, The Land Remembers and Bear's Tipi, specially commissioned for the exhibition.
Hold to This Earth is rooted in stories of land and our connection to it, something you can deeply feel in YSP's 500 acres of rolling countryside. Click below to book your visit.
Images: Hold to This Earth, installation view at YSP, 2026. All artworks courtesy of Tia Collection. Photo © India Hobson.
In case you missed it
Sorry we were unable to bring you a weekend read on Saturday. The story we had lined up needed a bit more reporting so we're going to bring you that one next weekend instead.
On Wednesday, our regular contributor Holly Williams got another plumb assignment and tried to find the best curry house in Sheffield. Asking her to get round them all felt like too much to ask, but Holly did visit six of the best Indian restaurants Sheffield has to offer. Which one did she think came out on top? You’ll have to read it to find out. Also, check out the comments under the piece for some great recommendations for places we had missed.
And on Friday, Dan visited Sovereign House in Sheffield city centre, a former student block that some believe may be the worst private flat block in the city. The building was originally built as an office block in the ‘80s, but was turned into student accommodation a decade ago. However, after Covid hit the student housing market, it was opened up to anyone, and is now owned and operated by a dizzying array of landlords and management companies.
Hi, Mollie here. My generation barely remembers the days when most people would go out to the shops each morning and buy a newspaper. The internet has messed with our heads and made us think news should be free. This is despite journalism being exceedingly expensive to produce.
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The big picture: Last chance to see 🦁
You now have just over a week left to visit the Pride of Yorkshire lions that have appeared all over South Yorkshire this summer. The sculpture trial, which has seen local artists and schoolchildren paint 300 lions, lionesses and cubs, is in aid of the Children’s Hospital Charity. After they are removed next Wednesday, they will be auctioned off at the Crucible Theatre on Sunday, 18 October. There will also be a farewell event at Meadowhall from Friday, 2 October to Sunday, 4 October where all the lions will be brought together one last time. Pictured above is Tom Newell's lion photographed by Wes Kristopher Photography.
The big story: Is a £125 million skyscraper going to be left half finished?
Top line: A planning appeal which could decide the future of what would be one of Sheffield’s tallest buildings is due to take place next week. Developer Code Student Accommodation is appealing to the secretary of state to overrule a decision by Sheffield council which would force them to stick to their original planning proposals. If they lose, Code says they are prepared to walk away, leaving a massive unfinished skyscraper on Sheffield’s horizon.
Tall storeys: Code Living on the corner of Wellington Street, Trafalgar Street and Rockingham Street was first given planning permission in February 2020, just a month before the Covid pandemic began. At the time, at a height of 38 storeys, it was due to be Sheffield’s tallest building, six storeys higher than St Paul’s Tower, the city’s current tallest. Since then, the developer has changed the proposed height of the building numerous times, but now seem to have settled on a building which would be 26 storeys at its highest point.
Studio space: The hokey-cokey of the height of the building is not what has attracted Sheffield’s council’s ire, however. When the plans were originally approved, the proposal was for a mix of studio apartments and co-living. Now, however, the developer wants to cut the co-living flats and make the building into more than 1,000 studio apartments.
- Rather than having 14% of the units as co-living flats, where ensuite flats are built around a shared lounge and kitchen, Code wants to fill it entirely with 1,000 studio flats, which each have their own cooking facilities as well as a bathroom.
- However, the council say this would create “the largest single collection of homogenous substandard size units anywhere in the city, over 1,000 identical units stacked within a tall building on one of the key city centre development sites.”
Too many cookers? Jamie Lewis, the managing director of Code Student Accommodation, told The Star earlier this year that the change is needed as their bank have told them they will only continue to finance the £125 million project if the building contains 100% studio flats. He said the row ultimately boiled down to whether the rooms had a cooker or not, and that if the council didn’t approve the change he said they would “just have to mothball the concrete frame”.
Stick to the plan: With everything going on at the moment with the Local Plan, Sheffield council needs a planning inquiry like it needs a hole in the head. The Local Plan, which sets out how planning policy will operate for the next 15 years, was meant to be in place years ago, but is still being consulted on, and could be delayed again if Green Belt sites are reassessed again. Until Sheffield council finally implements a Local Plan, it will be in a weak position to resist unwanted development.
Bottom line: On the face of it, turning a number of co-living apartments into studios doesn't seem that big a change. However, altering a planning decision after it has been approved could set a dangerous precedent, and lead to more developers trying their luck in the future. If the developer loses its appeal, will they really walk away leaving a half finished mass of concrete where a skyscraper should be? It seems unlikely. However, who will be the first to blink in this high-stakes game of brinkmanship over one of Sheffield’s most prominent buildings is anyone’s guess.
The planning appeal begins at St Mary’s Church on Bramall Lane on Tuesday, 29 September. It is expected to last two days. Members of the public may attend, and, at the inspector’s discretion, express their views.
The weekly Whitworth ✍️
Cartoonist James Whitworth with his take on our story about Sovereign House in Sheffield city centre, which some believe might be the worst private flat block in the city.
Your Tribune briefing 🗞️
🗳️ Sheffield Labour have a new councillor after the party won the Walkley by-election called after Green Andy Davies’ unexpected resignation. Labour’s Hannah Cawley won the seat back for Labour on Thursday night, beating the Green’s Seb Van Bilsen Irias by over 1,000 votes. Cawley got more than 50% of the vote on a turnout of just over 28%. The comfortable win is a far cry from the last time this seat was contested at the local elections in May, when the Greens won the seat from Labour by just 72 votes. Spare a thought for former Walkley councillor and Sheffield council leader Tom Hunt, who can put his very narrow defeat entirely down to the unpopularity of former Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Politics is a tough business.
🚸 A trial to see whether a new type of zebra crossing can improve the behaviour of drivers is to be trialled in Sheffield. “Side road zebras” are crossings on residential side streets that don’t have flashing yellow Belisha beacons and zig-zag markings, and are therefore much cheaper to install. A council report says that a change to the Highway Code in 2022 to give pedestrians priority when crossing side roads has not been fully understood by drivers and that trials in other areas show that drivers give way to pedestrians more often when zebra markings on side roads are in place. The trial is due to start in summer 2027. For a comprehensive explanation of side street zebras and their benefits, see this piece in Now Then.
🏫 The former private school Mount St Mary’s College has been bought by an African religious group whose leader attended Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Yorkshire Post report. Deeper Life Church, which is based in Nigeria, bought the 80-acre site in Barlborough, for £3 million. The school, which was founded in 1842, went into administration in 2025, leading to an ultimately unsuccessful campaign by a group of parents to save it. Last year, Derbyshire Police reopened an investigation into historic sexual abuse that had allegedly occurred at the school dating in the 70s and 80s.
Home of the week 🏡
Housebuilder Citu's latest development in Kelham Island is Kelham Triangle. Each of the six one bed apartments is built according to a “unique triangular architectural design” (hence the name), have private covered balconies, and (possibly best of all) are situated directly across the road from the Fat Cat pub. And for Star Trek fans, it has the added bonus of looking like you live in a Borg Cube (“You will be assimilated into Kelham Island!”). The flats are on the market for between £235,000-£290,000.
Things to do 📆
Tour 🌳 On Tuesday, visit the Botanical Gardens for a tour will take you along some of the lesser known routes in the gardens including the 'desire' and ‘ghost’ paths, to historic areas. The one-hour long public guided tour will meet at the entrance to the Dorothy Fox Education Centre, at the top of the slope from the Thompson Road gates, off Ecclesall Road. There’s no need to book and you can just turn up, although a £3 donation would be appreciated.
Talk 🧹 On Wednesday, join Sheffield-based broom and brush maker Rosa Harradine for a talk and live demonstration exploring the craft of broom and brush making. In this free illustrated talk, Rosa, who creates functional objects by hand using natural materials and traditional techniques, will discuss the history of broom and brush making, the materials used in her work, and how historic craft skills can be adapted for a contemporary audience.
Music 🎸 Also on Wednesday, visit The Lughole in Neepsend for Welsh janglepop band The Tubs. Described as “Husker Du meets Richard Thompson” by Nicky Wire of the Manic Street Preachers, The Tubs combine Johnny Marr-like guitar riffs, Teenage Fanclub-style harmonies and Celtic folk influences. Support comes from fellow jangle poppers Bramwell and Sheffield psychedelics Sister Wives. Tickets are priced £5-£25 and doors open at 7pm.
LGBTQ+ 🏳️🌈 And finally on Wednesday, visit the Showroom to hear Rebecca Jane Morgan talk about her new book Deviants and Trailblazers: A History of Trans Activism in Britain. From the first legal gender changes in 1944 and the Corbett v. Corbett ruling in 1970, to the Gender Recognition Act of 2004 and the ongoing battle for reform today, the book is a gripping chronicle of resistance and radical change. Tickets are £0-£10 and doors open at 7.30pm.
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