Lottery cash awarded to help turn listed building into home for music education
Sheffield Music Academy, working with Sheffield Music Hub, Music in the Round and Brass Bands England, has been awarded £250,000 by The National Lottery Heritage Fund for the Harmony Works project.
Made possible by National Lottery players, the project aims to create a new home for music education in Sheffield by restoring and repurposing the heritage building, Canada House.
The funding will help Harmony Works progress plans to apply for a full National Lottery grant at a later date.
It intends to restore and repurpose the grade II* listed Canada House, which was built as the commercial centre for the Sheffield United Gaslight company in 1875.
The building is in the Castlegate area of the city centre and Harmony Works is one of the projects benefiting from support from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund via the city council’s £20m Sheffield Gateway bid.
The £13m project received planning permission and listed building consent in November 2022.
By relocating to this venue, Harmony Works partners say they will be able to offer the benefits of a musical education to more children and young people.
Canada House has had many previous uses including as a Chinese buffet restaurant and TurnUps night club. But the property has been largely empty for many years.
Provided the project meets its fundraising targets, Harmony Works is expected to open in late 2026.
Martin McKervey, vice chair of Sheffield Culture Collective and chair of the Castlegate Partnership, said: “This is a significant step for the city’s cultural strategy.
“This grant recognises the vision and ambition of many partners to develop a nationally recognised centre for music education, that will have its base in the North.”
Emily Pieters, Harmony Works project director, said: “We want to be able to offer all kinds of music-making, which is why Canada House is so brilliant – it’s got a range of spaces with different sizes and characters, from the grand hall, with its beautiful glass dome, to the brick vaulted basement rooms.
“Thanks to The National Lottery Heritage Fund we can press on with the project development work and further fundraising which will turn our plans into reality.”
The development of Harmony Works is also being supported by University of Sheffield.
Professor Gill Valentine, provost and university deputy vice-chancellor, added: “From bringing a heritage building back into public use to providing opportunities for young people in the region to pursue their musical journeys, this is such good news for the city in so many different ways and we are happy to be part of this wonderful story.
“Our colleagues in the Department of Music are excited about the opportunities it will provide for our students and for our research community to collaborate with this unrivalled centre for music education in the North.”
