The other week while on a return visit to Sheff, I ventured up to Park Hill and took some pictures of my old front door and the surrounding wilderness. It's all rather sad and boarded up at present due to the ongoing attempts to clear and renovate the place.

Click here for the pictures (http://www.samscam.co.uk/gallery/index.php/parkhill-2005/)

Great photos. I didnt know that the Scottish Queen had shut down. Are all the pubs on there in the same state?

Originally posted by theimposter
Great photos. I didnt know that the Scottish Queen had shut down. Are all the pubs on there in the same state?

As far as I know the Parkway Tavern is still not boarded up. I can't say if it is still open as we were only there having a nose for about half an hour. The other two have been closed for years.

I only ever went in the Scottish Queen once and was utterly terrified. Does anyone have any memories/stories about the pubs on the estate?

No stories samscam but know how you must be feeling.

Used to live on Duke Street and whenever I go back it's as though another piece of earlier life has been taken away.

Thanks for the pics, had relatives live on Long Henry Row, went out with a girl on Norwich Row.

hey samscam, thanks for the photos. depsite studying the 'street in the sky' at uni i have never seen them like that before. really interesting.

i know it was sunny on the day you took the pictures but even baring this in mind i can see how le corbousier thought that blocks of flats would be a good idea!


did it make you feel sad going back?

they look well kept, better close up than from afar - are they maintained because theres still a few residents?

e x

Hmmm... I had some very happy years there and it is indeed a bit on the sad side to go back and see the place in such a state. The essential services (rubbish collection etc) seem to be being maintained - though obviously there are less people there to clean up after now.

If they did it right it could gain the same kind of modernist chic as Trellick Tower in London or Park Hill's French cousin the Unité d'Habitation - which we plan to visit in September:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unité_d%27Habitation

Bring on the rooftop swimming pool I say!

hi

well i think you will be impressed with Unité d'Habitation, went whilst at uni.

as someone has discussed on another park hill thread, the way they get it right is a feeling of exclusivity rather than how park hill is viewed

(too young to know how it was viewed historically tho - was it ever considered a privilege to live there?)

enjoy marseille

e x

Im a new user of sheffield forum and still finding my way round and dont seem to get help when i ask lol. But i thought id drop a line i am a dinner lady at Park Hill school and have been for 17 years incase anyone is intrested.thank you

Who are you asking Jan? We're a helpful bunch on here :confused:

I think that Park Hill should be renovated into an exclusive address. I studied a little of Le Corbusier too, and am amazed at how little appreciation there is amongst it's residents for the privileges of living there.

The flats are well laid out and roomy, there's more 'garden' than anybody could hope for in that price bracket elsewhere, and the views are stunning.

Chuck the scum out and lets put the country's biggest listed building on the map, with a big sign 'THIS IS SHEFFIELD'!!!

when park hill was first built, yes, it was considered very prestigious.


It was a huge improvement for a lot of folks who moved on there, from no inside sanitation, to the swish hot water on tap, and district heating system, from the communal boilers, to the wonderful "garchey" waste disposal system.

the flats were light, modern and well designed. they really were very very nice indeed

the only problem was that the council didn't vet the people that were being housed on there, after a few years.

when they were new, the prospective tenants were vetted, even about their income, to ensure that they'd be "model" tenants.

this is not the case any more, sadly.

memories of the pubs on the flats...

My gran and granpa, who lived on Norwich Row, overlooking the pub, used to go drinking in the Parkway. My aunt and uncle lived directly above the parkway on Long Henry Row.

i remember sunday afternoons, going to grandma and grandpa's for sunday lunch. we'd go to the pub, and have a bottle of fizzy orange, or lemonade, and a bag of crisps or nuts and we'd sit in that funny corridor that you went into the back room through. my sister and i would get bored, so we'd climb over the low fence. into the Grace Owen nursery grounds (it wasn't very high) and we'd play in the sandpits etc that were there back then. (no, we did no damage, no harm. we just sat and played in the sandpits. the only thing we did would, sadly, have been counted as trespass)

PT

samscam

Great `photos, a picture is worth etc. Thanks

I did not live in ParkHill but a mate did. Forgot the address but Terry Hill if anybody remembers him...back in the 60s, had a Trump 350 was it? the one with the fat back guard.

Wasn`t too keen on the place I`m afraid, (raises shield and waits for brickbats) as lights out in dodgy places too many times and I could never catch the herbivores who lobbed junk from above.

We went into the Queen if I remember rightly and started a ruckus about politics...ahhh..testosterone!

BTW What the H... are those things that look like king size second hand teapots?

D

Originally posted by samscam
.....Does anyone have any memories/stories about the pubs on the estate?

i used to enjoy the scottish queen for a quiet pint, but didn't like the earl grey, owing to the amount of fights/ muggings which took place outside it.

i lived just above the earl grey (three floors up), and watched all the action when there was nothing on t.v.

here are my photo's of park hill:

http://photobucket.com/albums/b171/sheffieldarchives/park%20hill%20flats/

Originally posted by empea
.....

(too young to know how it was viewed historically tho - was it ever considered a privilege to live there?)

...

my old neighbour there moved in before they were even opened! they were always considered ugly but with all-mod-cons (heating etc).

when they added on hyde park, someone off the architects team said (before they opened) that they would be slums in twenty years!

Originally posted by Strix
...

I think that Park Hill should be renovated into an exclusive address. I studied a little of Le Corbusier too, and am amazed at how little appreciation there is amongst it's residents for the privileges of living there.

woa! hold on there a minute! there is no privelege living in a place where the waste disposal system stinks, the lifts hardly work, the buildings are filthy and the workmanship is shabby!

The flats are well laid out and roomy, there's more 'garden' than anybody could hope for in that price bracket elsewhere, and the views are stunning.

woa again! the flats are NOT roomy unless you have a two/ three bedroom, otherwise you are in a pokey bedsit: ten foot square kitchen. no living room, bedroom about 8' by 6'. much of the duke street end has no open space. there are no views in half the flats as they face each other, not town, and the lower flats aren't even raised above the ground level.

Chuck the scum out and lets put the country's biggest listed building on the map, with a big sign 'THIS IS SHEFFIELD'!!!

the reason so many scum moved in is because anyone with any money/ opportunity left due to the severe design/ maintenance problems which plagued much of the estate:rant:

Hate to be cynical, but why not let Sheffield Council build on the area that used to be Fowler St, Hayward Road, Woodside Lane, Marshall St, Reginald St, etc, etc, move all the current residents from Park Hill and anywhere else that is due for demolition, clear fell Park Hill, and start all over again.

I was always curious what they were like inside. I had heard, contrary to previous postings, that they were spacious inside. Obviously there were different sizes of flat? Is this true or what?

Is there a link to photos of Park Hill, including interiors, when they were first opened?