Multi-million pound budget allocated for Alfred Denny Building repairs

The University of Sheffield has budgeted up to £3m for potential repairs to the Alfred Denny Building.

The red brick building – which houses the School of Biosciences and the Alfred Denny Museum – has been encased in scaffolding since 2024.

A university spokesperson has told The Sheffield Tab that this followed a “routine inspection” last year which identified “some issues with the external brickwork”.

They added: “Scaffolding has been erected to allow us to safely investigate what work is required to undertake repairs.”

According to a Freedom of Information request, £150,703 had been spent by the university on the project as of February 2025.

The full budget allocated to the project is £3m – for the purposes of investigating then undertaking any “necessary repairs to the external envelope” of the building.

Opened in 1971, the Alfred Denny Building was named after the university’s first professor of biology, who also began the collection for his now eponymous museum.

Among the museum’s exhibits are fossils, animal skeletons, and letters from Charles Darwin.

The building is situated opposite the Sheffield Students’ Union and Concourse, and neighbours Firth Court – the university’s first purpose built premises having opening in 1904, the year prior to the university being established in its current form.