A ‘Radical Project’: Youth Culture, Leisure, and Politics in 1980s Sheffield

Abstract

Abstract The Leadmill, a cooperative arts centre and nightclub in Sheffield, opened in 1980. The venue sought to provide an accessible leisure space for the economically and socially marginalized, and received funding for this from Sheffield City Council. Focusing on the cultural policies of the new urban left Labour Council in Sheffield during the 1980s, this article explores the relationship between Sheffield City Council and the Leadmill. It builds on recent scholarship on the 1980s that has sought to look beyond Thatcherism as an explanation for the decade, and sheds light on the everyday experiences of living through this period. This article argues for the reinvigoration of local history, and demonstrates that an exploration of a site of community leisure unveils cooperation and engagement between groups with disparate and contradicting aims. It tells a different story of the 1980s, one that recognizes how Thatcherism allowed and in some cases enabled the creation of spaces within which its critics could thrive. It shows how a range of political dialogues were present in shaping the policies of local government, and how the longer tradition of state and market interaction was shaped by the specific social, economic, and political contexts of the decade. Above all, it challenges presentations of the 1980s that favour the hegemonic power of Thatcherism and the decade as one of the triumph of individualism.