Sad news for Sheffield’s cultural landscape as the fun palace ‘Fewer Than One’ that was formerly known as ‘Dirty Little Secret’ / ‘The Night Kitchen’ is being closed by property developers to make way for yet more generic flats…
If you follow your music & cultural events here in Sheffield you'll know there’s a breadth of safe, beautiful, creative spaces dotted all over the city, where people from all backgrounds get together and enjoy the energy of connecting with others and having a good time.
The best of these places tend to be on the edges of the city centre in old warehouses that have found new life from their industrial past and have now become a haven for Sheffield’s creative scenes; music & art studios, performance halls, dance floors and community radio stations.
These scenes thrive because of the cheaper rents available in these more derelict buildings, repurposing and transforming them into vibrant hubs essential to the city’s creative landscape. The hard work that goes into reviving these spaces is hard to even illustrate with words but countless hours of labour have been dedicated to making them safe and enjoyable for the public.
But it seems like the big wigs at city hall are more interested in helping property developers to gentrify every available space around the city centre into generic blocks of flats that now cover the skyline. Every year more and more of our historical places are getting torn down to make space for these buildings that offer nothing in return to the cultural life of the city.
10 years ago you could easily say Sheffield was in need of a face lift. And even now I feel like parts of the city still need work…. But I struggle to find reasons to visit the city centre these days as there’s nothing there for me on a normal day. Investment into the city needs to be more than buildings to live in for students, shiny new banks with rooftops bars and clothing stores from Sweden.
We need to protect the spaces that created the culture that we have been so proud to have exported in the past and still shout about today! So far we’ve lost so many great spaces around the city and there’s now less for us to get together, connect and have a good time.
These stills are from a video I was working on with Mondo Radio to help support their community radio station which is now in peril and needs a new home after just converting the place. Along with 'Gut Level' which is one of the few safe spaces for the Queer/ LGBTQ+ community to dance and feel safe!
These are just 2 examples of spaces that will be lost with this redevelopment along with many others. This, along with the Leadmill and other venues around the city, shows that culture is not a priority in the eyes of the council.
What are we going to do about it Sheffield?
|||
Jordan Carroll is a freelance filmmaker & videographer working on drama, documentary and promotional content in Sheffield and around the UK.
Working as a director, cinematographer and editor he has a wide knowledge of the video production process.
He also works as a director of photography and gaffer in narrative film.