The Howard Building, named after Thomas Howard, 3rd Earl of Effingham (1746 – 1791), is a prominent college campus building built in the 1930s as part of Rotherham College, predominantly providing technical-orientated education.
The building is set over four floors and boasts an Art-Deco style facade. It underwent major extensions in the 1960s.
In 1981, three neighbouring colleges were merged into one, and as a result, the college became known as Rotherham College of Arts and Technology.
By the mid-2000s, the fully-functioning Howard Building contained classrooms, offices, a common room, library and meeting rooms, whilst also housing the council’s environmental health teams. However, in September 2012 the building was deemed surplus to requirements and was vacated. It was sold in 2014 to developers Absolute Living Developments, and plans to convert the Howard Building into self-contained apartments were approved by Rotherham Council.
However, the developers were served with a freezing injunction after money from investors was wrongfully diverted to a number of different companies. They were later banned for a total of 54 years by the Insolvency Service, meaning that they cannot directly or indirectly be involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company without the court’s permission.
As of 2023, the Howard Building remains a derelict Rotherham Town Centre eyesore. Local kids regularly trespass the site and cause further damage, whilst the numerous smashed windows have allowed pigeons to take over the building.
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We decide to walk around in Rotherham to find many as we can find place to explore so we found this and extremely easy access so it’s no wonder the youth are regularly in here. Nothing much to see because of many classroom is empty
Also James took Strange Days Urbex to tour around Rotherham for day, we went to explore this building.
