Kingdom nightclub: Sheffield City Council in talks over new use for former Gaumont Theatre

Sheffield City Council is in ‘conversations with potential occupiers’ to run the former Kingdom nightclub as a new venue.

The authority says contractors are due to finish working on the Barker’s Pool building ‘shortly’. But there are no details on when it might open or what it might be.

In February 2022 officials said they were talking to three companies about reopening it as a leisure space. In February 2023 a leisure operator was said to be in ‘advanced’ talks about taking it on. The original plan was for it to open in summer 2023.

The site was home to the Regent Theatre from 1927. It became the Gaumont Theatre in 1946. Following demolition in 1985, a new building became an Odeon cinema, then nightclubs Kingdom and finally Embrace. The last event was in December 2019.

It is the largest remaining empty space within the council’s £470m Heart of the City II regeneration scheme. Other gaps include an operator for the Bethel Chapel events venue on Cambridge Street and about a dozen units in the retail element on Cambridge and Charles streets.

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A council spokesperson said: “Once complete, the Gaumont will form part of Sheffield City Council’s £470m Heart of the City II development.

“The building will sit alongside the brand new Radisson Blu Hotel, Leah’s Yard and Bethel Chapel. It will also be a stone's throw from Europe’s biggest purpose-built food hall at Cambridge Street Collective.

“The former home of the Gaumont Theatre features living walls providing environmental and sustainability benefits to the city.

“The building forms part of the wider regeneration of the city centre along with Heart of the City II, the transformation of Fargate and the wider redevelopment of Castlegate.”