Is the Showroom a sinking ship?

On 23 June 2024, staff arrived at the iconic Showroom cinema to find it was raining indoors. Water was pouring from the ceiling in the staff office thanks to a catastrophic leak. A photo shows multiple bulging ceiling tiles and at least nine industrial-size bins clustered beneath the worst of the downpour. Water had reportedly flooded into some of the basement cinema screens. When then-CEO Ian Wild arrived at the building, staff had one question for him: “How can we possibly stay open?”

According to one employee, Wild walked into the office, looked around and insisted they were fine to continue as normal. Moments after the words left his mouth, a ceiling tile swung down and hit him on the head.

This is far from the only example of the Showroom continuing to operate where other businesses might have closed their doors. There was last June during Doc/Fest, when an employee alleges they flagged a mouse infestation in the kitchen, but were told the kitchen couldn’t afford to shut. (A Showroom spokesperson said the infestation was “promptly resolved” — adding that they “take food hygiene and safety seriously” — but did not respond to the employee’s claim that the closure was delayed.) There was also the burst pipe a few weeks ago, which saw food served on disposable paper plates and staff ordered to gather waste water in buckets until it was fixed.

The reason for Showroom’s grin-and-bear-it determination to stay open, whatever the (indoor) weather, is that even a temporary closure would further strain its already precarious finances. An internal document shared with The Tribune reveals that continuous losses since the pandemic, “compounded by the costs needed to keep the building safe”, mean Showroom has “used up its cash reserves”, which has “raised questions about the viability of the organisation and made business change and improvement urgent and essential”. 

An internal email from March states the wider organisation behind the iconic cinema expects to make a loss of £160,000 for the 2025/26 financial year. This January alone it haemorrhaged £43,000. Despite this, a Showroom spokesperson insisted the “board, stakeholders and auditors” are regularly updated on their finances “and there are no immediate concerns”. They added: “Our stabilisation plans include a new 3-year audience development project, on the basis of which the BFI have recently awarded us £585,000.”

Many of the 15 former and current staff and trustees that the Tribune spoke to for this article, however, are far less optimistic. “I feel it’s been slightly mismanaged,” a former senior staff member admits, before adding: “Not in a Machiavellian way but it needs a reset.” Another puts it in far stronger terms: “Leadership was calamitous.” While those familiar with the institution say it has always operated on a shoestring, insiders claim it has never felt quite so precarious as it does now. Showroom’s building needs up to £12m worth of repairs, the funding for which is entirely reliant on competitive grants that have not yet been allocated, although the council has funded a feasibility study for the work, which cost almost £160,000. 

Losing the Showroom, once the jewel of Sheffield’s “cultural quarter”, would be a severe blow to the city. This is likely why the majority of those who spoke to the Tribune about Showroom’s predicament were unwilling to go on record. No one wants to be seen as a Showroom doomer, but gloom is widespread.

In a sense, Showroom is a particularly extreme example of what happens when a big cultural institution faces obstacles it cannot surmount on its own, knowing – but maybe gambling on the fact – that it will ultimately be saved. But its luck might have run out. Internal documents shared with The Tribune state that “trading at a continued loss” was “only possible because of a large bank overdraft” — an overdraft their bank no longer offers to any of its customers. The Showroom spokesperson explained: “We are instead making an agreed transition to a smaller overdraft facility, alongside a long-term loan, which will enable more effective planning and stability.” With interest payments now having to be factored into a growing charge sheet, the future has never been more perilous.