Campaigners pen letter to Sheffield over loss of The Full Monty's Shiregreen Club

The Shiregreen Club featured in the 1997 film about unemployed steel workers preparing to perform a male striptease.

Starring Robert Carlyle and Mark Addy, it is one of the biggest British films of all time.

The club, where the men perform their act in the film's 'big reveal' closing scenes, is set to be bulldozed to make way for housing.

Campaigners have attempted to make it an Asset of Community Value (ACV) after gathering almost 1,500 signatures to a petition and want to re-purpose it as an arts and events space - but expect to this week be told that this has been unsuccessful.

Peter Eyre, of Eyre Investments, said that internal demolition has already started.

He said: "If they called me tomorrow morning with a serious, meaningful proposal that worked, that they could substantiate, I would sit and talk to them all day long."

This came after the theatre and interactive arts company Bare Project penned an open letter to the city - which features 10 names from Yorkshire's creative industries - following the loss of several other working men's clubs.

It reads: "There are very few pubs or social establishments left, especially not those with community use in mind.

"If groups no longer have anywhere to meet, they will either cease meeting or look elsewhere, depriving a community of important social assets which are vital for cohesion and wellbeing of residents. This will only get worse post-covid.

"We are calling on the council, local residents and the wider Sheffield community to come together in objecting to these closures, more often, more loudly, and in bigger numbers.

"To stand up and say no, not this time. This needs urgent attention.

"Of course, affordable and social housing is much-needed and vital too, but there are no guarantees the accommodation built on these sites will be either of those things.

"There is a world in which it is possible to build more houses without erasing our brilliant, vibrant city’s heritage.

Mr Eyre said that some details included in the open letter were not accurate.

The club closed in 2018 and is now owned by Eyre Investments.

Eyre Investments recently applied to Sheffield City Council to demolish the site, which met with objections from some community members and Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough Labour MP, Gill Furniss.

Inspired by theatre company Slung Low's rejuvenation of the Holbeck club in Leeds, producers, fundraisers, theatre-makers, designers, and production managers for several months worked alongside Shiregreen-based community organisers, including councillors and the former landlady of the club, to make the case for its survival.

They included Linda Bloomfield, producer and theatre-maker; Malaika Cunningham, director; Bethany Wells, designer; Tom Robbins, production manager; James Ashfield, producer; Ali Pidsley, theatre director; Sarah Sharp, produce; Ruby Clarke, director and writer; Sam Dunstan, director and producer; and Joe Boylan, theatre-maker.

But because the building is not listed, there are only limited reasons for a demolition to be refused and plans to knock the club down were approved at the end of April.

Efforts to make the site an ACV, making it subject to additional protection from development, have so far been unsuccessful.

The deadline for new evidence to keep the campaign going was last week, and the decision is due to be made by a panel at a time to be confirmed this week.

Mr Eyre said he has been in communication about various alternative ideas for the site over the last three months and has offered meetings and viewings, but has not been taken up on them.

He said: "There were lots of people making noises but nobody's come to me with a serious intention."

Mr Eyre added: "They've had a price, they've had an offer, they've had a willing party, and nobody's even been to walk in the property."

Campaigners said they asked the developer for more time to come up with plans as they were speaking to a local housing association about a shared use development which would have brought in more money to help buy the site, but say this was ignored.

Sheffield City Council has been approached for comment.