The Rose Garden Café Partnership

Who are we?

The Rose Garden Café Partnership is made up of representatives from the Friends of Graves Park, Save the Rose Garden Café Campaign, Sheffield City Council and Chris Hallam is our independent chair.

Photo of the Rose Garden Café Partnership stood outside the café and the partner logos.

Why is there a Rose Garden Café Partnership?

Following a 15-month campaign by local people to save the Rose Garden Café after it was closed in 2022 on safety grounds, the council proposed to work in partnership with the community to restore and refurbish the café. The role of the Rose Garden Café Partnership is to create an action plan, with timescales and funding sources to develop the strategy for the restoration of the café.

Our vision statement

The Rose Garden Café Partnership’s vision for the Rose Garden café is....

To understand the current structural state of the building so that it can be fully restored as quickly as is feasible with improvements and refurbishments, for it to be operating as a café to serve the community as a sustainable building for future generations.

We want to do this by…

Creating a strategy which considers cost effectiveness, quality, accessibility, environmental impact and the future, so that we can obtain funding to achieve our vision.

What has happened so far?

Chris Hallam appointed as our independent chair

Chris has an impressive track record in strategic leadership and management with community-based regeneration schemes and is currently the part-time Chief Executive of the High Green Development Trust, Chair of Derbyshire Community Transport and a voluntary non-executive director of the Elveston Castle Trust in Derbyshire, an independent charity working on the regeneration of a major Derbyshire visitor attraction. His role will be to continue building the trust between partners and to ensure that everyone is working together effectively and urgently towards the agreed strategic goals.

Public consultation undertaken

To ensure that we capture the widest and most diverse views and opinions from park users and visitors, we designed a public consultation. The views collected will inform the design proposals, the future use of the building and help add weight to our funding bids. The consultation included a survey, ideas boards in the café designed by Newfield School's Cartoon Club and events in the park which enabled people to complete the survey.

Structural Engineer's Report - Alan Wood & Partners

In order to apply for funding, we need to finalise the design and cost plan for the restoration and refurbishment, which means we need to understand the structural design to stabilise the front wall. We co-created a brief for the structural engineer and approached engineers who have a Conservation Accredited Register of Engineers (CARE) engineer or relevant heritage experience to provide a quote for the works. Alan Wood & Partners were appointed and issued their Structural Report on July 5th.

Structural issues

The structural engineer's detailed design work alongside the new ground investigations undertaken in May 2024 concluded that the poor foundations are the sole reason for the lean in the wall. Her recommendations based on the new information are that the front wall is unsafe and should remain propped until refurbishment works take place and that any scaffolding supporting the roof can be removed.

Reopening of the internal seating

The Partnership has removed the internal scaffolding and the cafe reopened it's internal seating on August 7th 2024 with new flooring.

Progressing funding

We have a funding strategy and have already begun identifying potential sources of funding for the work with £25,000 already committed by local Councillors from the Beauchief and Graves Park area. In addition, over £11,000 has been raised through donations to the appeal led by the Friends of Graves Park.

Design team appointed to undertake RIBA Stage 1 and 2 design

A design team were appointed to undertake the next stage of design producing co-ordinated designs for the cafe based on the public consultation. The design team included structural engineer, architect, service engineers and cost manager. The design fees have been paid for using the Community Infrastructure Levy contribution from Graves Park Ward and Beauchief & Greenhill Ward LAC (Local Area Committee) and a contribution from Sheffield City Council. Click here to see the latest architectural drawings capturing the RIBA Stage 2 proposals.

Fundraising

We now have an A-Z of Fundraising Ideas that you can download, a form for you to register your Fundraising with us, and a Template Risk assessment form. You can find all of these at this link https://haveyoursay.sheffield.gov.uk/rose-garden-cafe/news_feed/fundraising.

As we get more fundraising events, you'll be able to keep up to date with these via the events on the right hand side of this page.