HSBC Offices (formerly BISRA), Hoyle Street, Shalesmoor, Sheffield

Image: © Terry Robinson Taken: 24 Oct 2013

John from the Sheffield Forum has provided the following information … "This building was originally for the British Iron & Steel Research Association (BISRA) which was formed in 1944 and operated until 1971, when it was then assimilated into British Steel. The Association's Head Office was at Buckingham Gate in London … with Laboratories at Battersea and Middlesbrough, as well as the pictured site. It was funded by a levy on all of the UK's main Steelmaking Manfacturers, who also controlled its research programme. The first building on the Sheffield site was a relatively small single storey building erected about 1949 at the side of the car park. The large building you see now - prominently situated on part of Sheffield's Outer Ring Road - was completed in 1953 and officially opened by the Duke of Edinburgh. The Sheffield Laboratory housed Steelmaking, Mechanical Working & Metallurgy Divisions as well as a Steel User Service and Library. It also had a fully functional pilot plant including a 3ton Arc Furnace, BOS Converter and Continuous Casting Plant. In 1976 the site was closed with staff and equipment moved either to Middlesbrough (Steelmaking) or Swinden Laboratories in Rotherham (Mechanical Working & Metallurgy)." The Midland Bank then took over the building and converted it into offices. I understand that departments dealing with Internal Security, Internal Computers and ATM Fraud were based at the site. HSBC fully took over the Midland Bank in 1992 and changed its name - and signage - to HSBC in 1999.

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