Sheffield Tower Blocks and High rise Apartments of the 20th Century

Sheffield has an interesting history of high rise living which stretches back quite a long way.  In this selection I intend to present the remaining tower blocks and apartments which remain from the 20th century.  Unfortunately there are only a small number left on the ground today.

1936 Regents Court - 1959 Twin Towers - 1959/61 Upperthorpe - 1961 Park Hill Park Hill pg 2 - 1962 Netherthorpe - 1963 Callow Mount - 1964 Lansdowne - 1965 Stannington - 1966 Hanover - 1966 The Fosters - 1967 chantrey

Park Hill Flats is an outstanding example of 1960s high rise design.  It is an enormous complex of just over 1000 flats spread out over a hillside close to the centre of Sheffield.  Its historic importance is reflected in the fact that it holds a listed building status of 2*.  Although this is often a matter of incredulity to the local population, many of whom see it as an eyesore and would like it to be demolished as soon as possible.  Among planners and fans of modern architecture though, it is a much discussed and cherished example of brutalist design.  Just searching the web for "park hill flats" will demonstrate this as it will reveal dozens of websites dedicated to it. .

Currently mostly mothballed awaiting transformation and modernisations, it is a good time to capture some pictures of the blocks, while still true to their original 1960s look.

This picture of the internal courtyard shows the inside of the northern end of the complex.  The roof height of the whole structure is at the same height (above sea level) but the amount of floors gets less as it goes further up the hill.  This picture is the tallest end of the flats, The North Block, which is a full 13 stories high. Park Hill Primary School was in this courtyard.  When this photo was taken it had only just been demolished and the site cleaned up from the rubble.
The courtyard and the whole North Block has been secured from trespassers.  You notice that many parts of the complex has Perspex windows or metal grilles.  I understand that these are there to prevent people from climbing into the structure from adjacent walkways.  All entrances into this unoccupied wing have been blocked up with steel doors.

.

An overview of the ground where the primary school has just been removed.  The building in the grounds at the far right was the Park Hill Social Centre.

Here is another view of the same wing of the North Block from the East.  The chimney belongs to the Park Hill Flats' heating system.  It is possible to see the edge of the interesting North Block stairway which is in full view on the previous picture.  The tall crane in the centre is at the City Lofts Tower site and the slightly smaller crane on the left is at the Velocity Tower site.  Both of these towers will dominate the Sheffield skyline in a couple of years’ time and will be visible from this location.

The flats contained four integral pubs, a parade of shops and two schools were on the site too. Truly designed as a complete community, the names of four slum cleared terraced streets lost to provide the land to build the flats are remembered in the names of each landing. The landings, famously were wide enough for a milk float to drive along each "street" leaving the order at each resident's door. As the flats get less tall further up the hill, each "street" meets the ground and the milk float was able to exit the complex via an exit ramp. Therefore the top two "streets" Long Henry Row and Norwich Row cover the whole of the complex, Hague Row covers two thirds and Gilbert Row appears only in the bottom of the northerly block. Further to that, the bottom of the northern wing is so high that the bottom story meets the bottom of the inside pavement and forms an additional street called The Pavement which was a street of shops including Chemist, Dentist, and a Pub.

This table gives an approximation of the length and amount of properties on each Street of the complex.

The complex consists of four separate curving blocks ( N-north, S-south, E-east and W-west ) and between them are two or three bridges to continue each "street" in the adjacent block.  You can clearly see in the pictures above that the Northern wing of the north block has four continuous balcony streets, which from the top are named in this order: Long Henry Row; Norwich Row; Hague Row and Gilbert Row the lowest.  Below that at ground level a row of shop units have addresses on "The Pavement".

Each flat has an address number between 1 and 394 and a street name.  They are arranged in two dimensions so that the flats with identical numbers are on top of each other.  Therefore, each of the four blocks has a finite range of numbers

Another visit to the Park Hill estate on 4th of September 2007 Here, to the south end of the complex, to the highest part, where the blocks are not as tall. Looking down Stafford Street across Talbot Street facing the NE direction, we can see two link bridges which connect Norwich Row and Long Henry Row across two adjacent blocks, South Block and East Block

And just left of those bridges more detail of the South Block can be seen.  Some flats shuttered up with metal grilles, some empty and some still occupied by residents.

We can see that along Talbot Road at the top of the site, the block is just 5 floors high.  I once had a friend who lived in one of these flats and I remember it being massive inside with an extremely large main lounge

.

Remains of the Integrated Pubs

1 - Scottish Queen - on the South Street Face ( SW wing ) of the North Block

Park Hill Integrated Pubs Scottish Queen - Earl George - Link Hotel - Parkway

At the top End of the North Block we can see the three bridges connecting to the adjacent West Block to continue the top three streets, Long Henry Row, Hague Row and Norwich Row.  These Bridges are just above the Scottish Queen Pub, visible under the larger tree..

.

This is the North West Wing of the North Block. To the Bottom Right we can make out the large entrance which is featured in another picture further down this page.

A view of the north west and west wing of the West Block.  The roadway descending left to right is South Street.  While the photographer is standing on a cobbled lane which stretches as an almost rural footpath through the trees down to the Sheffield Train Station Supertram stop.  The colours of the bricks are still visible here but it seems that they do not contrast enough to make a good enough effect

Plaintalker Comments on the Undercroft ;
a lot of what I would call an "undercroft" which were, originally, open plan, higher up south street, particularly, were bricked off. and made into storage for the caretakers for, eg.,  the electrically powered "wagons" that were driven around the complex, and along the residential landings, to collect rubbish and discarded furniture etc.
What I think she is describing as the undercroft is visible on the ground floor in the above picture behind the silver parked car.

Layers of sooty pollution sticking to the concrete frame next to evidence of everyday life of a living community which might have moved on a short while ago.  This is just north of the Entrance in the north Block

Remains of the Integrated Pubs

2 - Earl George - on the North Face of the Northern Block

Park Hill Integrated Pubs Scottish Queen - Earl George - Link Hotel - Parkway

The main entrance to this pub would have been on the other side of the wing, on The Pavement where in its heyday it would have appeared at the end of a long row of community shops, which at one time included at least two chippys, very tempting after a gallon of ale..!

Here is the entrance to the complex at the NE corner.  There is pedestrian access to the park square roundabout and it is a short walk into the centre of town.  I don't know how clear it is from my picture but basically we have a modern (ish) briquette pavement leading up to four large entrances which have been blocked by metal shutters.  

I'll Let Plaintalker describe how the Entrances worked ;
the whole of the entrance was wide-open,  (open plan) with just the concrete struts, when I was a child. they all opened onto the shopping centre, not just the central ones. As you went through the entrance, you could chose to go to the stairs, the lift or the shops (or even the steep path, up to your right, past the school to the launderette or the scottish queen pub.

What stands out for me in this view is the apparent attempt to modernise the pillars by making them look like they have been threaded into old fashioned mill stones and the horrible amateurish way that the letters PARK HILL have been painted across the top, which looks like it was done in a different era entirely.  I am just guessing but I would have imagined that the millstones could have been put on when the pavement was re-laid.  I love the fact that the streetlamps are still all on.  It gives the building a vague spirit of residence like there is still a community of people living inside.