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Inception and Competition
The name of Sheffield has long been synonymous with cutlery and steel. Although the presence of these important trades is less in evidence today, the "Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire" with its long and distinguished history, is still a powerful body in the city. It has conducted its business and entertained its guests at its headquarters, the Cutlers' Hall, since the seventeenth century. The present building in Church Street (Fig.l), built between 1830 and 1834, is the third to occupy the site, and is, in terms of Sheffield's modest architectural history, an early example of a more sophisticated style of architecture, the Greek Revival. Its monumental and handsome ashlar frontage, dominated by a Giant Order of Corinthian columns, was originally set in a streetscape largely composed of domestic-scale brick Georgian buildings (Figs. 2-3). More importantly, it also comes at a significant time in the wider history of building construction, when important changes were taking place in the relationships between the client, architect and contractor. The building history of this, the third Cutlers' Hall, bridges the continuation of the traditions of the eighteenth century and the introduction of more modem practice. The records of the building contracts have survived, enabling the following analysis of this unique building's construction to be undertaken.
The Hall which occupied the site until 1830 had been built in 1725 (Fig. 4). The Company had organised and overseen the construction of that building entirely by itself, with no professional assistance, and something of that self-confident independent approach was to linger, as we shall see, when it came to building the new Hall. The building of 1725 was, though slightly larger than its neighbours, an otherwise unpretentious Georgian town house, but it had been cheaply built and consequently suffered from maintenance problems for most of its life. The townspeople complained, calling it a disgrace to the town, and, embarrassed by this criticism and sensing the need to enlarge and reflect its rising prosperity and importance, the Company resolved on 18 January 1830 "That a new Cutlers' Hall be built without unnecessary delay."1
The Company immediately set up a building committee to oversee the building of the new Hall and recommended that an architectural competition should be held. The conditions...