Pavilion Perfection

Anyone who’s ever tackled painting exterior woodwork won’t envy the massive task underway at Sheffield Botanical Gardens. A huge project to repaint the Grade II* listed pavilions is nearing completion. In addition, rotten timber is being replaced and some of the huge sliding doors renewed.

First opened in 1836, the central dome of the glasshouses initially housed tropical plants such as date palm, papyrus sugar cane, coffee, cinnamon and bananas, whilst in the 1960s to 1980s, aviaries and aquariums were a draw for visitors. However, the majestic buildings hit a low point in the late 1990s when, having been vandalised and fallen into disrepair, they were boarded up. Thanks to a massive fundraising drive and matched funding from the National Heritage Lottery Fund, the pavilions were painstakingly renovated before being officially opened to the public in 2003 by HRH Prince Charles. Stocked with carefully curated plants from tropical and sub-tropical zones, they have been enjoyed in their full glory ever since.

The iconic buildings, dubbed ‘the Paxton Pavilions’, were in fact designed Benjamin Broomhead Taylor who won a competition judged by Joseph Paxton, then head gardener at Chatsworth and later architect of renowned Crystal Palace in London. It’s a miracle that these beautiful structures endured severe damage from German bombers in 1941, repaired in 1958 by Mellowes and Co who fitted 10,000 panes of glass on the central pavilion and 3000 each on the smaller glasshouses.

Now the iconic Sheffield landmark is again experiencing a facelift, the £60,000 funding needed to beautify and maintain the buildings secured by Sheffield City Council, the Sheffield Town Trust, the Freshgate Trust Foundation, the J.G. Graves Charitable Trust and the Sheffield Botanical Gardens Trust. Sheffield City Council is overseeing the project and looks forward to presenting the perfected pavilions to the public soon.