# Park Square Flats, Sheffield



## crashmatt

The largest listed building in Europe.

Park Hill is a council housing estate in Sheffield, England. Designed by Jack Lynn and Ivor Smith and built between 1957 and 1961, the deck access scheme, inspired by Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation and the Smithsons' unbuilt schemes, most notably for Golden Lane in London, was viewed as revolutionary at the time. Construction is of an exposed concrete frame with yellow, orange and red brick curtain walling. However, as a result of weathering and soot-staining from passing trains, few people realise this and assume the building to be constructed entirely from concrete.

The concept of the flats was described as "streets in the sky". Broad decks, wide enough for milk floats, had large numbers of front doors opening onto them. Each deck of structure, except the top one, has direct access to ground level at some point on the sloping site. The site also allows the roofline to remain level despite the building varying between four and thirteen stories in height. The scheme also incorporates a shopping precinct and a primary school.

Park Hill was previously the site of back-to-back housing, known as "Little Chicago" in the 1930s, due to the violent crimes sometimes committed there. This was partially razed before World War II.

Further housing schemes were completed to similar designs, including Hyde Park and Kelvin in Sheffield. Although initially popular and successful, over time, the fabric of the building has decayed somewhat and some other disadvantages of the estate, such as poor noise insulation and easy getaway routes for muggers, have become apparent. For many years, the council have had difficulty finding tenants for the flats. However, the complex remains structurally sound, unlike many of the system built blocks of the era and was Grade II* listed in 1998 making it the largest listed building in Europe. Sheffield City Council hoped this would attract investment to renovate the building, but this was not initially forthcoming. A part-privatisation scheme by the developer Urban Splash to turn the flats into upmarket apartments, business units and social housing is now under way. Two blocks (including the North Block - the tallest part of the buildings) have been cleared.

Even now, inhabitants of Sheffield are split on the matter of Park Hill; many believe it to be a part of Sheffield's heritage, while others consider it nothing more than an eyesore and blot on the landscape. Public nominations led it to the top 12 of Channel 4's Demolition programme. Other television appearances for the flats include Police 2020 and in an Arctic Monkeys video.

Park Hill is also the name of the area in which the flats are sited. The name relates to the deer park attached to Sheffield Manor, the remnant of which is now known as Norfolk Park.

The_Revolution suggested this one, and rather a good idea it was too. The site is pretty big and partially occupied. We only went into one of the flats that hadn't been cleared, on the grounds that the layout was the same for all of them, and getting in isn't easy. We took a good wander about the wings that have been cleared and I popped up onto the roof for a quick look - although it's very exposed up there so I didn't get too many shots.

Anyway, on to the pictures...

Welcome to Park Hill








The cleared section




One of a few pubs on site




Inside the pub




A radiator in the flat we visited




Inside the section being worked on. They've taken out all the internal walls, leaving only the shell.








A sledgehammer, left all alone.




The roof, at last!








Staris - many, many stairs.


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## 4737carlin

Whats the deal here, is it a work site during the day all over so only doable at weekends and after work hours?


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## BigLoada

I quite like the design of this building, it reminds me of Owen Luder's stuff kind of. That stairwell is pretty awesome.


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## Kaputnik

Might have known you'd have to get to the roof, Crashmatt
bet it took a while going up all those stairs


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## NobodyGirl

great pics Crashmatt. Been looking at this place for a while now and ive been wanting to see it. Got a thing for tall structures and roofs at the moment. I think a night explore is in order again for moi.


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## The_Revolution

A few of my pictures.






Streets in the sky on a nice sunny afternoon.





Gentlemen - tiled walls outside the public toilets that can be found in each block.





I Luv You.

Really interesting location; I'm glad they're keeping it (but then I don't have to live there).


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## Mr Sam

that stairs shot is awsome!


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## crashmatt

4737carlin said:


> Whats the deal here, is it a work site during the day all over so only doable at weekends and after work hours?



Without giving to much by way of detail publicly, park of the site is lived in, part of the site is closed units awaiting the start of work and rest is being worked on during normal working hours.


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## crashmatt

Kaputnik said:


> Might have known you'd have to get to the roof, Crashmatt
> bet it took a while going up all those stairs



Of course. The roof is always the best place to be


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## havoc

Crashmatt, its called Park Hill not Park Square Flats and could you please resize your pics they take forever to load

Cool place though and nice work!


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## thestig

Great report guys! I always love looking at photo's of this place...
Is that pub one of the ones from britains worst pubs? I remember there being one on a big estate in the north!


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## The_Revolution

thestig said:


> Is that pub one of the ones from britains worst pubs? I remember there being one on a big estate in the north!



Plenty of pubs to chose from as there's a similar pub in each block; with the tiled toilets next to them.

For some reason Scottish Queen makes me want to say "Och No" in a very camp Scottish accent


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## zero seven four

- Park Hill Flats is the largest listed building in Europe. It consists of four blocks 13, 10, 9 and 7 storeys, linked at various levels. The entire complex contains 995 residential units, as well as shops and civic amenities.

- The complex was often referred to as 'streets in the sky', mainly because there were decks stretching across each block. From ground level up, the 'streets' were called The Pavement, Gilbert Row, Hague Row, Long Henry Row and Norwich Row.

- Park Hill Flats formed Part One of the Park Hill scheme. Part Two, also known as the Hyde Park Flats, was built on an adjacent site.

- The thinking behind Park Hill was heavily influenced by Le Corbusier's Unité d`Habitation in Marseille. Unlike its French counterpart, Park Hill has remained a social housing complex.


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## crashmatt

*Night time*

The_Revolution and I returned to the flats, taking with us Kaputnik and Ashless, with the aim of getting some night time shots from the roof.

Park Hill Flats by night










Park Square Roundabout





Sheffield Train Station





Group shot before leaving





And whilst it's not UE, a couple of shots I took whilst we wandered about Sheffield

Spider Walkway





Fountain at Sheffield Train Station


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## Kaputnik

Like how the last pic turned out, Crashmatt, worth getting a wet camera strap for!
Not many of my rooftop night pics turned out that well, but here are a few....












and one from the 'Spider tunnel'.....




A first for me, doing a night visit, but really enjoyed it, i'm sure more will follow!


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## thompski

Good stuff there, I went on Saturday as well as another location and really enjoyed the place. Unfortunately brickies were all over the place so didn't get anywhere interesting.


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## The_Revolution

Kaputnik - that fireworks setting on your camera looks like it can do the business; nice pics

Really enjoyed the view at night - very peaceful at night high above the city.





View over Ponds Forge and Sheffield centre


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## OSPA

The_Revolution said:


> A few of my pictures.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Streets in the sky on a nice sunny afternoon.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Gentlemen - tiled walls outside the public toilets that can be found in each block.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I Luv You.
> 
> Really interesting location; I'm glad they're keeping it (but then I don't have to live there).



Wow, I love the one of the toilets with 'Gentlemen' written on it.


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## OSPA

This is a great place (in an urbex sense anyway, I wouldn't want to live there!). Plenty of excellant photographic possibilities!


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## The_Revolution

OSPA said:


> Wow, I love the one of the toilets with 'Gentlemen' written on it.



Little things like this are an unique features - sadly the ones in the building site have been removed and these will probably follow soon once the next phase gets started.


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## cstevens

Another great thread on this area....Its now top of my list, mainly because its inhabited to an extent so accessible....although from what I have read I need to me more worried about the local dodgy element than any security. Apparently some of the less desiarable element of society stayed around.


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## The_Revolution

cstevens said:


> Another great thread on this area....Its now top of my list, mainly because its inhabited to an extent so accessible....although from what I have read I need to me more worried about the local dodgy element than any security. Apparently some of the less desiarable element of society stayed around.



The uninhabited bit is worth a look  wouldn't worry about the locals; there's not many people left and it's fairly quite round there now. The few we encounted didn't give us any bother.


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## tarboat

I really liked exploring this place earlier this year. Here's a few images from that day.


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## cstevens

Do you reckon Park Hill is worth a visit alone, or best in a group?

If the latter who is up for a visit soon?


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## spawney

With regards to a visit, Yeah I'm well up for that. It'll have to be soon though if the flats are being demolished.


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## smileysal

Excellent pics guys, I've gone past this so many times on the train, and driving, and watching the milk floats driving along the high rise streets. Glad Urban Splash are doing the renovations, they do a good job. 

Cheers,

 Sal


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## cstevens

Definitely worth a visit soon, I might try a recce in the next week or even this weekend if I can. I dont think there is that much rush, although there is apparently work going on, I think its not due to be finshed till 2017  So there is still time.


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## MD

cstevens said:


> Definitely worth a visit soon, I might try a recce in the next week or even this weekend if I can. I dont think there is that much rush, although there is apparently work going on, I think its not due to be finshed till 2017  So there is still time.



plenty of time mate i think there are still people living in some of the flats we counted about 4 or 5 normal front doors


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