Cavendish House, West Street, Sheffield

Image: © Richard Rogerson Taken: 1 Apr 2024

West Street has the greatest concentration of Edwardian commercial architecture in the city, the result of street widening in 1907-10. Decorative faience was extensively used, a good example being Cavendish House and buildings: 210 - 238 West Street. Built as a garage and showrooms for the Sheffield Motor Company with billiard saloons on the upper floors, in 3 phases (1907, 1910 and 1919) by Henry Boot to designs by architects Hemsoll and Chapman (later Chapman and Jenkinson). The three oversized broken segmental pediments on the front elevation, each has a plaque bearing the dates of building and extension. The building name relates to the Sheffield Motor Company, the maker of the Cavendish motor car, 1903-06, at their earlier premises at 57-59 Cavendish Street. By 1957 they had been taken over by Freeman Oakes & Co., which in turn became part of the Kennings group by the 1960s, and which remained in Cavendish Buildings until at least the 1980s. The Cavendish Ballroom on an upper floor was for many years home to the Constance Grant school of dance. It also housed the Central Labour Working Men's Club during World War 2.

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