Renovation work is nearing completion on one of our newest acquisitions and oldest properties. 4, Paradise Square is being lovingly restored into 5, 1-bedroom apartments.
The handsome Grade II* listed building looks out from near the top of the well-known sumptuous square.
Following on from previous experience in city centre conversions such as St James Row, Gladstone Building, Croft Buildings and Shaw Works we were thrilled to take on another project helping to return this property on the historic paradise square back to its original purpose of residential.
Planning was complex and we have really thought about what’s trying to be sympathetic to the period colours, retaining original features and embracing the quirky nature of the building.
Retained features include doors, although some are sealed, fireplaces, sash style windows, an apparent fireproof room with a heavy Chubb door and vaulted ceiling, a central staircase with ornate spindles and cast-iron spearhead railings to the front.
We’re supporting the local economy having over 15 tradespeople on-site, aiming to finish within two months.
Modern features are available in this older property such as access to some of the fastest broadband in the UK through Pine Media who have recently upgraded the square to full-fibre cable.
Paradise Square features in Sheffield City Council’s 10-year master plan proposing an open space for events, harking back to the squares heyday as a public assembly area.
We will be marketing the 5 apartments in the coming months and expect them to be very popular amongst professionals. If you would like to register an interest in them please contact us here.
The history of 4 Paradise Square
Paradise Square started as a line of buildings on the edge of a cornfield in 1736, constructed by Thomas and Nicholas Broadbent on a 500-year lease from the Duke of Norfolk.
Completed in around 1790, in the years after the first buildings were put up, it became a haunt for gamblers and drunks. In July 1779 John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, spoke to the largest weekday congregation he had seen in the square. In 1839, mounted dragoons from Hillsborough Barracks drove 2,000 rioting Chartists from the courtyard.
Architects Hadfield, Cawkwell, Davidson and Partners carried out an extensive restoration of the square between 1963 and 1966, following bomb damage in World War Two.
But number 4 has a history of its own.
Solicitor Thomas Gould is recorded as being in practice at Gould and Brookfield from 1839.
His son, also Thomas, was at the centre of a sensation in 1900 when he discovered letters in the cellar between his uncle, William Henry Brookfield, and literary legend Alfred Tennyson, together with portions of the manuscripts of his poem ‘The Lotus-eaters’ and lyrical ballad ‘The Lady of Shalott’.
The letters were undated, but the postmark showed they were written in 1832 and 1833 – shortly after Tennyson left Cambridge and about the time of the publication of his first book of poems.
Sadly, inquest records that Thomas Gould drowned in 1908, aged 65 while fishing in the River Derwent in Hathersage.
Read More at the Sheffield Star.
About Thornsett Properties
Thornsett Properties are property owners and not agents, meaning all our properties are managed by ourselves and not reliant on third parties. We have been renovating and supplying period properties for professional, student and commercial tenants in Sheffield since 1985.
