Park Hill Estate: an infamous Sheffield icon...

who remember Park Hill Estate: an infamous Sheffield icon

Streets in the sky

In Sheffield, South Yorkshire, there is a council housing complex called Park Hill. Architects Ivor Smith and Jack

Lynn designed it, and it was constructed between 1957 and 1962. The Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier’s 1952

housing complex in Marseille, France, known as the Unité d’habitation, served as the model for the estate. The goal

of the unité d’habitation was to unite the local population in a “vertical garden city” that included private

apartments, stores, restaurants, and other amenities. With four street levels that were large enough for milk floats to

drive over and each having easy access to ground-floor stores and pubs, Park Hill was dubbed “streets in the sky.”

3,000 people were housed in Park Hill. A survey one year after the flats were officially opened was very positive.

Most people living there said they felt better off and the architects won awards for the design.

What went wrong?

By the 1970s problems started to build up. Crime on the estate was making headlines in newspapers and with the

increase in unemployment by the 1980s there were more and more social problems. Drug use made Park Hill a

dangerous place to be at night and people began calling the building ugly and likening it to a prison block. It turned

into a symbol of broken dreams and families were moved out. The estate became unused and unloved but in 1998

was listed as a Grade II building which protected it from being torn down.

‘I love you will u marry me?’

In 2004, Sheffield council gave Park Hill to developers Urban Splash so they could restore the run-down property.

The interiors of the apartments were renovated, and glass and colourful panels were added to counterbalance the

massive concrete in the original design. At ground level, a brand-new “high street” with stores, pubs, and bars was

established. The graffiti “I love you, will you marry me?” was scrawled on a concrete bridge when the rehabilitation

crew first arrived in Park Hill. Neon lights were utilised to cover the proclamation of love, which served as a

metaphor for Park Hill’s revitalisation. The first new businesses and residents came into the building in January

2013.

There is disagreement among Sheffield residents regarding Park Hill. While some still view it as an unsightly blight

on the landscape, others see it as an essential component of the city’s history.