Good video. There was a fourth complex of this type in Sheffield, Broomhall flats, demolished in the 80s. We had a couple of smaller scale ones in Rotherham as well, St Anne's and Oakhill, both now gone. As are the brutalist library, arts centre and council buildings in the town centre which have been replaced by a pretty nondescript tesco.
I remember seeing these from the station as a kid before they became derelict and thinking what a cold, harsh and brutal welcome (or should that be unwelcome) vibe they provided to anyone arriving in Sheffield by rail. By 1998 they looked extremely rough and grim so I'm quite stunned to learn that Historic England saw fit to give them grade 2 listed status! Without that they would long since have bitten the dust. The social problems and bad repuation it (and others like it) earned first time around were more a reflection of the fact they were (often still are) used as a dumping ground for the socially and economically disadvantaged, with predictable results. The cost of living there now, and the type of residents it will attract as a result will make for a very different social environment, as will the fact the open decks have been closed off. Good luck to anyone brave (or daft) enough to want to live there, I certainly wouldn't. But just maybe it will work out the second time around. I guess regardless of what happens with the tenants, it's listed status means it will continue to cast a cold, large brutalist shadow over the Hallam/Ponds Forge/Station area for many more decades to come. What joy. 😒
I'm from the South and I lived in Sheffield for a while. When I first went to park hill I fell in love with the estate, I love Sheffield its got amazing landscape its a big city with so much countryside around it.
Wonderful video, Jordan. I enjoyed watching it, seeing how it looks now as opposed to how it looked in 1961 when we first visited my grandfather (born 1889) who had just moved there (on Norwich Row). We, as kids, always enjoyed going there as there were many places where children could play safely and where shops on the site offered a good selection of basic goods. I remember film crews coming along to vist the flats in the early 1960s and once I even saw myself on TV with my two younger sisters at my side. The flats inside were extremely modern, and always very warm (there was an on-site recycle plant that burned residents' rubbish to provide free heat). Other modern touches (for the day) included a rubbish chute which collected communal waste in the one place, and a sink waste disposal chopper (children's fingers beware!). Really pleased to see that the flats have been renovated for the twenty-first century, and looking at the interiors of some of the 'show flats', it just goes to show what can be done with them to make them into appealling accommodation once again.
I was born in Sheffield, though we moved away when I was 3, which would be 1972. I remember all the flats, seeing them from the train station; basically it's the landscape of my very early childhood. I never knew which were built first and always found it a bit confusing until watching this. Very interesting, well researched and presented. Thanks.
Thatcher's right to buy schemes were a vindictive defraudation of council funds, i.e. public money - the houses and flats were sold below market value and the money could not be used for other housing projects. This left many councils paying off finance for housing which no longer belonged to them (lose/lose). The lack of policy continuity is a major factor in the social difficulties faced by housing schemes like Park Hill - many councils' social services departments could have cooperated with the housing departments to make the street in the sky concept work for all, e.g. by providing social-worker based caretaker facilities on site. Similar schemes were working well in Paris before they were scrapped by Pres. Sarkozy, indirectly fomenting social unrest. Instead, central government put councils into a position where all they could do was to manage decline. Demonstrating this is an exercise in generating an alternate progress of history using known facts and stats, and comparing that with what actually happened.
So strange how key fobs, magnetic doors and cctv made it a whole lot accesible for a new lot of occupiers who reached in their pocket and made it so great, and expensive.
Le Corbusier was an arrogant snob who felt he knew better than anyone else. He built terrible buildings that often failed to be adequate buildings. They leaked, cracked, were too hot, too cold, and many people who lived in them hated the buildings and having to live in them. That Sheffield complex looks so bleak and depressing that they appear to be some kind of dreadful prison complex. I hate even seeing these shabby wrecks.
The 'Streets In The Sky' have been narrowed so flats have a sort of storage entrance. But you can still walk around the - Streets In The Sky. Unsure how this equates to lost?
Good video, brutelist architecture has always fascinated me. That said I don't think I could actually live in it. Urban splash did a decent job imo. It was wise to grade list the building, just because something isn't aesthetically beautiful, doesn't mean it's not of cultural and historic importance.
Shockingly bad video. Didn't you do any research? You say Park Hill was given away free. It wasn't. What is "a area"? If you ever listened at school, you'd know a vowel is preceded by "an" rather than "a", as in "an area".. A complete waste of time.
