Moore Street Substation

Next to Park Hill, this building has achieved legendary status in the brutalist appreciation fraternity. There are not many Grade II listed substations in the UK and this is the only post-war example [1]. Its size and its location demanded special treatment from the offset. It was part of a 275kV cable ring needed for increasing supply in the city centre. The scarcity of land led to the selection of this fairly prominent site adjacent to the new ring road and it was decided to stack the equipment and house it, rather than spread it across an open enclosure at ground level. The Central Electricity Generating Board’s (CEGB) regional civil engineer collaborated with Sheffield’s pre-eminent post-war practice, Jefferson, Sheard and Partners on its design. The scheme was intended to be extended in a second phase to become L shape in plan, but the addition was never constructed and the rectangular, chamfered brutal box stands as a silent sentinel at the edge of the city. Unsurprisingly, the functional demands of the equipment drove the design phases and the need for particularly robust engineering to carry the heavy loads of switchgear. This informed the choice for a reinforced concrete structural frame which also met fire protection and noise reduction targets. The elevational treatment exhibited the 11 bays of the RC portal frames and projecting beams. A limited palette of concrete, engineering brick and C channel glazing is used with consistency and variation to give enough architectural expression to this engineered edifice. Narrow concrete panels are used vertically and horizontally and, in places, as a form of relief protection to glazing behind. There is a pleasingly unassailable character to the building and it feels contextually comfortable beside the ring-road and the hard landscape of the pedestrian subways.

[1] https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1415383