Shoe shop transformed into gallery and tiny cinema

A long-vacant shoe shop has been transformed into a record store, gallery and micro cinema to celebrate the city's heritage.

The Victorian retail unit on Sheffield's Chapel Walk has been revamped by a local curator and archivist who also plans to use the space as a small performance venue and who wanted a new lease of life for these "beautiful units sitting forlorn and empty".

Alex Wilson said his new venture, called Memory Dance, will be a "champion of Sheffield, Yorkshire and Northern culture".

"It's a free space. If it's old and it moves then I'm all over it and will look after it, care for it and give access to it," he said.

Wilson joked that his basement cinema, with a 180cm screen and 15 seats, will be "Sheffield's smallest cinema" and has planned an upcoming screening of clips from Sheffield Cablevision, a local, community-focused TV channel that broadcast from Matilda Street in the 1970s.

"It's very much a DIY space, but it's very intimate. So what will be shown in there will not be Hollywood fair - it will be material that kind of relates to the exhibition," he said.

The first Memory Dance exhibition celebrates old record shops in the city, from Bradleys to Virgin.

It includes original 78 RPM sleeves, old and new record shop bags, related everyday items from lost Sheffield vinyl retailers and prints by designer Simon Robinson.

Wilson is also asking the Sheffield community to bring any items related to old record shops so they can be exhibited.

Following that will be the first ever exhibition telling the story of Sheffield Cablevision.

Wilson said the space, which had been empty for about 10 years, took about two weeks to get show-ready and his wife helped with the DIY.

"It's a fascinating little glimpse into record shops and music history in the city," he said.

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