Market Tavern pub: Findings why Sheffield’s historic pub was destroyed published
As the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) reported in January, the Market Tavern pub had not “spontaneously” fallen down by itself – as the council claimed – but was demolished, despite a promise made to heritage campaigners that works would halt so a second opinion could be sought.
The council claimed that a mistake – an error – happened and an internal investigation would be commissioned “in due course”.
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Hide AdNow, the council has finally published the findings of said investigation – in which several individuals were confidentially interviewed and other documentary evidence reviewed as part of the process.


The investigation found that “there were several fundamental communication breakdowns which cumulatively led to misinformation being provided to both internal and external stakeholders”.
The authors said it all started to be more complicated when representatives of heritage groups were invited to discuss the matter with senior council representatives on January 9, 2024.
This is when the representatives asked for the demolition works to be halted so a second opinion could be sought – this request, as mentioned above, was granted until midday on January 10.
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Hide AdThe report said: “On reflection, several parties interviewed felt that this decision was made in the interests of wanting to appease interested groups as opposed in hindsight to being the best way forward.
“It would have helped to have the heritage groups involved and engaged at a much earlier stage so they could have been better informed of the risks that the disrepair of the building posed to the public.”
An email then had been sent to the contractor at 11.53am – seven minutes before the deadline – to restart the demolition, the investigation found.
However, the authors were confident in that “upon review there did not appear to be any malicious intent underpinning the decision to recommence the work”.
They were satisfied in this as:
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Hide Ad- The structural engineer who made the decision at the time was in an appropriate position to have authorised the recommencement of the work.
- The decision was made in the interest of public safety.
The report also found that the representatives of the heritage group only sent an email to the director of regeneration and development at 11.56am “which unfortunately delayed subsequent communications”.
The investigation found that: “Upon review, the return email from the contractor at 2.16pm detailed that, at this stage, the front façade had already come down due to their machinery touching it.
“The investigation concluded that there was no consistency to those who were copied into the various emails and at no time in or around this crucial period were all the key parties informed at the same time of what was happening.
“Had there been a consistent chain of command and communication in place whereby everybody was updated at the same time, it is highly likely that the subsequent misinformation would not have occurred.”
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Hide AdSheffield City Council was under fire as some said they misled the public and the media.
However, the report said senior leads had not been aware of the scale of the situation until a video footage obtained (and subsequently published) by Now Then Magazine.
They found: “A review of the timeline of events matched alongside the email and documentary evidence as well as the investigatory interviews was undertaken.
“It shows there is nothing to suggest that what was reported to the Castlegate Area Board on January 15 and in the subsequent communications with the press was anything other than what was genuinely believed to be the case.”
So in conclusion, “although there was a clear miscommunication of facts, there was no evidence which suggests that there was a deliberate cover-up of the facts by anyone”.
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Hide AdThe investigation did not find that anyone else acted outside of their scope of authority or that any decisions weren’t made by the right people throughout.
The Market Tavern in Sheffield city centre first opened its gates in 1797 and was rebuilt a couple of times before the existing version in 1914 was finished.
The building (under the council’s ownership) has deteriorated over the last 15 years, and just before Christmas it was revealed that the council would remove it for good as they found the building “unsafe”.
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