Historic Sheffield venue The Leadmill loses eviction battle with landlord, told to leave premises after 40 years

A judge has ordered historic Sheffield venue The Leadmill to vacate its home of more than four decades after a lengthy eviction battle with landlord Electric Group. 

Leeds’ Business and Property Courts Justice Sir Alastair Norris ruled in favour of the 6 Leadmill Road building owner Electric Group — the company behind venues in Bristol, Newcastle and London like Electric Brixton — at a hearing on Wednesday, 19th February, BBC News reports.

The team behind The Leadmill, Sheffield’s longest-running music venue and nightclub since opening in 1980, said in a statement on Instagram: “Our team is actively consulting with our legal advisors to assess our next steps. We remain committed to exhausting every possible legal avenue to secure our future, retain our staff and protect our venue.”

The venue was first served the eviction notice in 2022 and won their first court battle in May 2024. While the BBC reports that the venue has roughly three months and 21 days to vacate the premises, the team said: “There is no immediate timeline for what happens next”.

Electric Group’s plans for the location “will be a slightly more polished, probably modernised, version of the same thing,” CEO and co-founder Dominic Madden said at a December 2024 hearing. The justice said the company’s “present intention” is to rebrand The Leadmill as SK 35. (Other Electric Group venues have names like SWX, formerly Syndicate, and NX, formerly O2 Academy Newcastle.) Madden estimates plans for a £2 million refurbishment would be complete for a September reopening, but The Leadmill team is skeptical. 

“It will still be hosting concerts and nightclub events[, but] it’s different insofar as it’s plugged into a national network of music venues”, Madden said of the beloved institution’s potential rebrand.

The Leadmill’s three-year eviction legal battle garnered widespread community and industry support, with a #WeCantLoseTheLeadmill petition amassing more than 12,000 signatures. “The overwhelming public support we have received throughout this process has been invaluable”, the venue’s team said. “The Leadmill is more than just a venue; it is a cultural institution with a 45-year history of nurturing artists, supporting grassroots music, and providing a vital space for creativity in Sheffield and beyond.”

Another key Sheffield venue Hope Works shut its doors this past weekend with a closing party to send off its 13-year run.

Read The Leadmill’s statement in full.