Sir Frederick Mappin Building

Mappin Street frontage of the Mappin Building

The Sir Frederick Mappin Building, or more familiarly, the Mappin Building, is a grade II-listed building on Mappin Street, Sheffield, England, named after Sir Frederick Mappin (1821–1910), the so-called Father of Sheffield University.

The building is owned by the University of Sheffield, is in an area known as the St George's Complex (after the St George's Church building, also owned by the University), and houses much of the Faculty of Engineering. Departments based there are Mechanical Engineering, Civil and Structural Engineering, Electronic and Electrical Engineering and the division Aerospace Engineering. The building also houses St George's IT centre, an open access computer centre available to all university students during office hours. To the rear of the building is the Sir Robert Hadfield Building, home to two other departments: Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering. A separate building, the Amy Johnson Building is home to the Dept of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering.

Technical School

The oldest part of the building is the former Technical School, the earliest purpose-built building for what is now the University of Sheffield. Designed by Flockton & Gibbs and completed in 1886, it now lies in the centre of the building. The extensive Mappin Street frontage was also designed by Flockton & Gibbs, in a far more demonstrative style. Work began on it in 1902, but progressed in three phases and was finally completed in 1913. This part of the building includes the main entrance, the John Carr Library^[1] and Mappin Hall. It is connected to the Technical School by a bridge. Part of the northern range along Broad Lane and a building behind the Technical School followed, then the connecting Engineering Building along Broad Lane, completed in 1955. This gradual accretion has produced a complex plan and floor numbering scheme: the main entrance is on floor D, with floors A,B, C and C* existing at lower levels in various areas of the building, and floors E, F and G lying above.

Notes and References

Notes

1. Named after John Carr MBE, died 1992, owner of the John Carr Group of companies (timber trade)

Bibliography

• Sheffield, Ruth Harman and John Minnis, Pevsner Architectural Guides

Coordinates: 53°22′55″N 1°28′45″W / 53.3820°N 1.4791°W