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About

"Everyone has a part to play"

Burton Street started its life in 1879 as
Langsett Road School.

It remained open as a school for almost a century, ringing its bell for the last time in 1976. After being put to various small scale uses, it finally fell into disrepair in 1992. By 1995 the site was scheduled for demolition.

This is where things got interesting…

The local community didn’t want to see the old school demolished. Community leader Jim Taylor struck a deal with the council in which the semi-derelict buildings were occupied and the rent was worked off by repairing damage in the roof. Following this, a new organisation called the Burton Street Foundation was formed.

They quickly began making great use of the site by running various clubs, events and community services. This proved there was a need for it to remain, and eventually the Burton Street Foundation took ownership of the site.

Two decades later the beautiful Victorian buildings are a vibrant community hub. Hundreds use the site on a daily basis, and a huge range of activities take place.

It’s a pretty big organisation now, but Burton Street is still run on a not-for-profit basis, and it never lost its soul. That’s what makes it the special and unique place it is.

Nowadays Burton Street means lots of things to lots of different people....

Around 2500 people use the site every week, for work and for play. We host countless events each year. We employ around 140 people. Our disability services have around 250 clients. 14 local businesses are based here, and around 35 charities and community groups use our facilities each week.

We run and maintain 5 buildings across 3 sites, and we have the area’s largest indoor community space. We’re mostly based in Hillsborough, Sheffield, but we have a little getaway in Wales too. We’re a Community Benefit Society (number 28699R) which means we do all this on a not-for-profit basis, and we’ve been here since 1998.

Old architectural drawings from 1879
Pupils and staff pose for Langsett Road School’s last photo before its closure in 1976
Full Monty, now and then, shots including the famous 'dole queue' scenes were filmed at Burton Street.
A younger looking Mark Addy and Tom Wilkinson
This is the Burton building, with the others being called Capel, Bamforth and Langsett

Burton Street Foundation is a Community Benefit Society and an exempt charity for the purpose of charity legislation.  This means that, although it has charitable status, it is exempt from the requirement to register as a charity with the Charities Commission so it does not have a charity number.  Community Benefit Societies are registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Our HMRC Exempt Charity Status number is XR23292.

Gifts to Burton Street Foundation can be enhanced by a variety of tax breaks for charitable action.

·        Gift Aid – Please note that we will share relevant and necessary data with HM Revenue & Customs to enable us to reclaim the Gift Aid on your donation.

·        Company Donations –  Donations from companies are not eligible for Gift Aid.  However, the company can treat the gift as an allowable expense, making a saving on corporation tax.

Burton Building

The Burton Building is home to our events and functions facilities.

On the ground floor we have the Undercroft Cafe, and above that we have the lovely Burton Hall, our Conference Room, and the Bar. It’s also home to our kitchens where chefs Steve and Deborah work their magic, preparing delicious food daily, not just for our cafes but for all our special events.

The Burton Building is used for so many activities over the course of an average week that it’s hard to write it all here! We have tea dances, friendship lunches, professional skills training, meetings and conferences, birthday parties, morris dancing, folk singing, wedding receptions, bistro nights and so much more!

Capel Building

The Capel Building is split into two bits.

The lower floor is where you’ll find our main reception, which is staffed 9.00am – 5.00pm. It’s also home to our admin and management team.

The upper floor is dedicated to our disability services. Capel Hall is a large multi-use activity space, and arranged around that is an art room, a music room, a sensory room and a kitchen and activity space.

Outside of the Disability Service’s core operational hours, the Capel Building is used regularly by many community groups for a range of activities, from dancing to music and drama and much more.

The Capel Building is fully wheelchair accessible with level access throughout. There is also a Changing Places facility.

Langsett Building

The Langsett Building is dedicated to health and fitness, and to our business tenants.

Most of the upper floor is home to our longest standing tenant, the Sheffield Boxing Centre, run by Glyn Rhodes MBE. We also have a number of tenants who rent our pod offices and bike shed office units. In the centre of the building is a large community sports hall, which is available to rent for activities such as badminton, table tennis, five-a-side football, and martial arts clubs.

The Langsett Building is also home to a small but fully equipped, friendly and accessible gym, which is available for public use.

Bamforth Building

The Bamforth Building is the newest edition to the Burton Street Site.

It is a converted kitchen factory located at 110 Burton Street, situated right over the road from our main site.

The main facility is Bamforth Park, the largest indoor community space in the area. It is perfect for parties, conferences, keep fit classes, toddler groups, film screenings, theatre productions, awards ceremonies, pretty much anything! Bamforth Park also has a cafe, a soft play area, and a Changing Places facility.

Around this main space there are a number of rooms used by community organisations, tenants and our own disability services.