A CONSTRUCTION company based in Hellifield is to spend much more than a penny as part of completing its latest project - to convert historic toilets into a riverside cafe.

Sutcliffe Construction has been appointed to convert Victorian public conveniences in Sheffield -derelict for several decades - into an upmarket café in what is the firm’s first project in the South Yorkshire city.

The Two Rivers cafe has been named because of its unique location between two Grade 2-listed bridges in the Castlegate area, which sits above the meeting point of the Don and Sheaf rivers just off the city centre.

The project involves the restoration and refitting of the existing Victorian building, and converting it into two storeys, with both levels featuring a cantilevered balcony over the river.

Sutcliffe Construction’s managing director James Sutcliffe said: “The Two Rivers Cafe is a fantastic project that requires highly specialised skills from restoring masonry to integrating complex steelworks such as the cantilevered balconies into an historic building - and all on a tight city centre site with restricted access requiring extensive highways and pavement permits.

“ Our experience of historic building projects, including the development of upmarket restaurant-bar Alexander’s in Skipton, has given us the expertise required to give Sheffield’s historic quarter a new landmark that will be a talking point for years to come and another great reason to visit.”

Work has already started on the site with exterior Ashlar stones removed and numbered so they can be put back in exactly the right place and steel works will begin this month. All the steelwork is being manufactured in Sutcliffe’s own fabrication plant and a special crane will be used to enable construction. The building will be finished in April.

The Two Rivers Cafe is seen in Sheffield as another step in the ongoing regeneration of the Castlegate area as a destination for tourism and leisure.

The area at the confluence of the two rivers is believed to have been the original site of Sheffield Castle, constructed at some time in the century following the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, and demolished during the 18th century.