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.

Park Hill Flats Page 2

This set of photographs is the result of a walk around the flats on the morning of Saturday 08th September 2007

Here on Duke Street, we can see that the community centre also contains a dentist's surgery and several retail units, and is used as a church.

 

Just down from the community centre and looking along the ground floor level of "The Pavement" we see names of several retail units and the main entrance to the pub.

 

Here Behind the Community Centre is a shot facing north

 

Remains of the Integrated Pubs

3 - The Link - in the East Block, East side on Duke Street

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

 

And here on the West side we have what was probably the main entrance to the pub

Just behind the pub was a public toilet

Detail of a rotten roof above the stairway

Original street names appear to be painted on a flecked pattern, which must have been the decor when the local telephone numbers became 7 digits around 1990, since then a cream paint has been painted over but they painted around the street names instead of repainting..

Here is the Gilbert Row Lifts at the bottom of the East Block

 

 

 

Here we can see a kiddies playground, Plaintalker has recollections of these ;

there were four  playgrounds dotted around the complex, but of course, it was not easy to let kiddies play in them as a) it was extremely difficult to supervise the kiddies, effectively, from 10 or 14 storeys up, and b) you'd find "wee" in the tunnels designed for the children to crawl through, or worse, drug paraphernalia! making it unpleasant and unsanitary for children to use the equipment. the tunnell things were bricked off and abandoned by the eighties.

 

Here are the link bridges which join the East and West Blocks together, later I take some shots on the top bridge

In the West Block is Grace Owen Nursery School

Remains of the Integrated Pubs

4 - Parkway Tavern - The south side

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

 

Here is the North side

Next door to the Parkway Tavern is the main entrance and playground of the Nursery School

 

Up on to the actual streets here we can experience the famous wide landings which were designed to be large enough for a milk float. We can also see the effects of spalling where the concrete is seen to be crumbling mainly due to the corrosion of the rebar ( reinforcement bar ) inside. Here most of the front doors are blocked up with steel shutters.

 

 

 

 

 

Plaintalker remembers this ;

The top row is Norwich row, the row which my grandparents lived on. when I was a child, that particular gatings were not there, you could get right up to the top of the stairs, where there was a gate across the access to the roof.  in fact, on the photo immediatley beneath this comment, you can see the gated access to the roof at the top of the stairwell housing, in the centre of the pic

Looking east from this landing we can see across to Hyde park. Twenty years ago we would have been able to see the large Hyde Park Tower which stood over the city.

 

The view across the top bridge to the East Block. This passes over Rhodes Street which provides vehicular access to the carparks in the centre of the complex.

At the other end of the bridge, here is the detail of the sign on the top deck.

 

Looking back across the same bridge we can see broken bedroom windows on the top floor

 

 

As I was about to leave I noticed this view of the detail of the stairway and bridges between the North and West Blocks