Historic Sheffield venue The Leadmill wins first court battle to avoid eviction

The Leadmill has won its first legal battle to avoid eviction. The historic Sheffield venue, which has been running for more than 43 years, announced its win on social media yesterday, Wednesday 22nd May.

Recorder Mohyuddin, barrister King, heard the case on Monday 20 and Tuesday 21 May at Leeds Business and Property Court. This followed a change in the legal team representing the venue and the presentation of a number of arguments to demonstrate that the owner was acting illegally. The matter has now gone to the High Court, with three of the four points against the eviction considered to have “a real prospect of success”. A date has not yet been set for the next stage of the proceedings.

The venue has been locked in the dispute with Electric Group for about two years. The venue’s owner, who also runs Electric Brixton in London, SWX in Bristol and Newcastle’s NX, issued a notice to vacate the building in 2022, leading to widespread protests in the music industry and among the public. The eviction announcement came despite fans being reassured when The Leadmill was purchased in 2017 that there were no plans to close it when the current lease ended.

High-profile campaigning began soon after, including prominent figures such as former Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn and iconic South Yorkshire guitarist, singer and songwriter Richard Hawley, who staged a series of concerts at the address to raise awareness. All the while, Electric Group insisted the plan is to “continue to operate the space as a music venue, focusing on a diverse mix of concerts, club nights and comedy events”.

“We want to invest in the future of the space – albeit one that will mark the beginning of a new chapter for a building that has many generations of history with a variety of different operators since it was first a flour mill,” Electric Group said. co-founder Dominic Madden.

However, his latest court statement confirmed that the venue will cease to be called The Leadmill if the plans go ahead, and all current staff will lose their jobs. This conflicts with successive statements dating back to 2022, which claimed that the staff and venue would remain largely unchanged.

In addition, the upstairs studio workshops will also be emptied, putting more income at risk. Tenants include an artist who has held residency in the building for 38 years. Again, Madden has previously tried to reassure people that these businesses will not be affected, telling Virgin Radio in June 2023: “We’re not interested in shutting down the things that are important to people… can (sic) almost guarantee that they will continue. ”

“Our staff attended the hearing and were shocked to hear the news that (co-owner) Jacob Lewis and Dominic Madden were intent on destroying their livelihood,” management at The Leadmill posted on social media this week. “In light of the human rights arguments now being considered, this case does not just involve The Leadmill. There are one and a half million business tenants in the UK who are at risk of having the goodwill of their business, their employees, expropriated. “Livelihoods ceased.”