The Green Room to Reopen as WaterBear Greenroom Live Music Venue in 2025

Much loved Devonshire Street venue The Green Room to be preserved and reimagined as a new live music hub, opening June 2025 

One of Sheffield’s most iconic independent venues is entering a new era. The Green Room on Devonshire Street, a cornerstone of the city’s music and social life for over two decades, will relaunch in June 2025 now run by WaterBear – The Music College as the The WaterBear Greenroom. 

The move will see the venue’s future secured following the retirement of its long standing operator, who has overseen the space since the early 1990s. The new chapter honours the Green Room’s past while opening up new possibilities for live music in Sheffield, at a time when many grassroots venues across the UK face uncertain futures. 

The WaterBear Greenroom will operate as a fully public live music venue in the evenings, while also serving as a vital daytime space for WaterBear’s Sheffield students to rehearse, collaborate and develop their craft. The venue’s dual role connects Sheffield’s historic music culture to its future talent pipeline. 

Patrick Flynn – current Green Room owner said: 

“It doesn’t feel like its been nearly 23 years since we opened the Green Room. Time flies when your having fun. Ill take away lots of amazing memories with me and look forward to seeing what Waterbear do with the venue. We have

always championed grassroots music over the years and it’s very important that it continues. It couldn’t be in safer hands.” 

The Green Room has long held a special place in the city’s independent scene. The building has played many roles in Sheffield’s cultural life. Initially as Rickshaw, the city’s first Chinese restaurant then Mr. Kite’s, a lively independent café bar and as Casablanca, a bohemian hangout with a famous coffee machine and for the past 22 years, the Green Room itself. This makes it one of the longest running independent venues of its kind in the city. 

The announcement comes at a moment of renewed optimism in Sheffield city centre. With large-scale regeneration already underway including new homes, mixed-use neighbourhoods and major improvements to public spaces and transport. The WaterBear Greenroom offers a timely example of how cultural infrastructure can be part of the city’s long term growth. The venue’s presence will contribute to Sheffield’s ambition to create a city centre where people live, learn, work and gather, with music and creativity woven into everyday life. 

Eve Massaad, Chief Marketing Officer at WaterBear, said: 

“Sheffield has always been a city that backs its own – and The Green Room is part of that story. We’re proud to be preserving what people already love about this space, while reimagining it as The WaterBear Greenroom: a place that champions grassroots artists, welcomes the public through its doors, and gives emerging talent a real stage to grow on. At a time when venues like this are under real pressure across the UK, securing its future feels genuinely meaningful – for the city, for the scene, and for the next generation of musicians.” 

And, on hearing the news, a WaterBear student said: 

“I love it there, there are two nice stages, one little acoustic and a main stage. It is going to be amazing, the Brighton WaterBear Venue and the Music Bar are crazy good. We are going to be putting on plenty of gigs.”

The WaterBear Greenroom marks another important step in the college’s Sheffield journey. Since opening its second UK campus in the city in 2023, WaterBear has worked to embed its students into Sheffield’s wider music ecosystem, building partnerships, offering one to one mentoring and providing opportunities that extend beyond the classroom. The college’s Brighton home already includes two public venues, both designed to function as live stages, social spaces and artist development hubs. The Greenroom will now join that model in Sheffield. 

While students will make use of the venue during the day, the WaterBear Greenroom will continue its tradition as a live public music venue in the evenings — supporting touring acts, emerging talent, community projects and more. Its role as a space for performance, connection and creativity remains at the heart of the transition. 

With much of the UK music industry concerned about the closure of grassroots venues, this is a story of resilience, continuity and purposeful reinvention. As more people begin to live and spend time in the city centre, venues like the Greenroom will be essential in keeping Sheffield’s identity alive, not just as a place of industry and infrastructure, but as a city that values culture, community and the spaces that bring people together. 

Further details about launch events and the venue’s 2026 programme will be announced in the coming months.