Rose Garden Cafe: Sheffield fundraising to save park building passes £10,000 mark

The Friends of Graves Park has launched the appeal on the Just Giving website, aiming to raise £25,000 towards the cost of restoring the Rose Garden Cafe in the park.

The group has currently raised £10,088, which is 40 per cent of its target, and 329 supporters have made contributions. Gift Aid has added another £1,222.25.

The appeal page says: “Please continue to donate and spread the word about our restoration project! If we can raise £25,000 ourselves, this will show potential funding providers the local commitment to our cause.

“Please be confident that your donations will be used for the restoration of the Rose Garden Café and the Friends will make sure that all money is very wisely spent.”

A 15-month joint effort headed by the Friends group and the Save the Rose Garden Cafe campaign persuaded Sheffield City Council to save the building, which was closed suddenly in July 2022 because of structural concerns.

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That decision caused big protests as the council considered options of demolishing the timber-framed building, which dates back to 1927, or replacing it.

The cafe partly reopened in December 2022 with extensive supports in place.

After the council agreed to go ahead with restoration plans in October 2023, it set up a partnership with both groups to plan the future of the building, including making funding bids for the work needed.

The partnership has also carried out a public consultation on what users want from the building, which has in the past served as a meeting place for community groups.

A statement from the partnership said: “A huge thank you to everybody that participated in the public consultation. We received 1,557 responses to date, packed with great ideas; these will be invaluable in our funding bids. Results will be shared soon and will inform the restoration and refurbishment.

“The structural engineer is making good progress. They have identified some additional investigations needed which will slightly put back our original timeline for the report. When we have a new timeline we will share this with you.”