Tuesday, October 14, 2025

News: Steelwork marks progress of £40m markets and library development in Rotherham town centre

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The brick and blockwork is now rising at the £40m regeneration scheme in Rotherham town centre that includes the redevelopment of the ageing markets complex and a new library.

It follows the installation of the framework which has a steel tonnage of 320 tonnes.

Lead contractors on behalf of Rotherham Council, Henry Boot Construction, began enabling works on the Drummond Street site in 2023. The redevelopment of the markets is divided into two areas, an outdoor covered market, which is being rebuilt, and an adjacent indoor market, which is being revamped.

The renovations will build upon the existing mix of shops and services with the addition of a new food hub and dining area on the first floor. The outdoor market will become a flexible space which can be used for exhibitions and events when required. The second floor will host contemporary office spaces for charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups.

The adjoining library building will occupy the corner between Henry Street and Drummond Street and include a high-quality children’s area with fun spaces for reading and storytelling, and a dedicated IT area and business development facility. The second floor will contain meeting facilities and a Maker Space for learning and exploring using the latest technology.

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Hambleton Steel led on steelwork apsects of the project.

The market building is using structural steelwork to further strengthen existing supporting columns and create an open-plan design to improve the visitor experience.

The outdoor covered market sits on a raised concrete slab which spans a ground floor service yard. The basement will be used to accommodate a car park and service both markets. Everything on top of the slab was removed to make space for the new outdoor covered market, but before the new structure could be installed, the supporting columns had to be strengthened.

For the new outdoor covered market, the Hambleton team were able to use mobile cranes, positioned alongside the structure which measures 50m x 43m and it reaches a height of 7.5m. The outdoor market’s steel frame has columns located in positions that matched the existing basement members. The steel-frame option for the outdoor market offered a lightweight solution which limited the strengthening and foundation work required in the basement.

The new outdoor market frame is a braced free-standing structure, which is independent of all existing structural elements. A movement joint separates it from the indoor market, while second expansion joint divides the outdoor market’s steelwork from the new library’s steel frame.

Once work is completed on the outdoor market and library, work will commence on the refurbishment of the indoor market. Work on the entire Rotherham Markets development is expected to complete in 2027.

Henry Boot website
Hambleton Steel website

Images: Henry Boot Construction

5 comments:

Anonymous,  October 14, 2025 at 11:28 AM  

"Work on the entire Rotherham Markets development is expected to complete in 2027." Saying it in that way, that the entire development is due for 2027 completion, does this lead us to think that there will be a phased opening as other parts are of the build are completed?

Tom,  October 14, 2025 at 12:43 PM  

Yeah. When the outdoor market is finished, the existing indoor traders will have first priority to move into this new space temporarily whilst the indoor market works are taking place.

Anonymous,  October 14, 2025 at 1:35 PM  

Waste of time and money, lost most of decent traders! It will never work current traders pay £60 a week rent that rent will triple soon as it fully reopens so all ones with their £20 pounds worth of sock will soon leave. And before someone compares it to Barnsley it’s 2 different circumstances Barnsley never fully died and has a lot of good traders take it from someone who knows the ins and out and has traded both Barnsley and Rotherham.

Anonymous,  October 14, 2025 at 2:02 PM  

This will be a fantastic development and will drive foot fall once open, the indoor markets new food offering in particular will be very attractive to the nearby student population.

Anonymous,  October 14, 2025 at 3:55 PM  

Once the entire markets rebuild is completed it will be about half the size of the former old markets area, It will be nothing compared to Barnsley market and don't get me started on the Forge (forget)Island which is a complete white elephant

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