I read a thread on here with Pics of Kelvin Flats on. I was wandering if people can give their account of living there, how it was etc.

We did a School geography trip and had to go to Kelvin Flats back in 88 or 87 and my group were shot at with Pellet Guns, had potatoes thrown at us and we were chased by a gang. Was it as rough as its reputation, or was life no different than any innercity area?

I used to live in Kelvin Flats in the 80`s, cannot remember exactly, memory fades after so long .....;) ..... but we never had any problems, the flats were nice, if not a little unusual in design, I never ventured out much late at night, so never saw if gangs were beating up old ladies or smashing cars.

The only bad part was the shops across, more were borded up than in use.... a bit like now...

although i can remember throwing potatoes and my mates had some pellet guns... at some bloody school kids. only kiddin :P

I used to go to a Youth club on the Kelvin back in the mid-late 80s... Twas OK as Youth clubs go but the estate was run down, and had a few problems, like any estate does...

Trouble is, when they demolished the Kelvin a few years back, they moved all the problem tenants up here to Stannington :rant:

I lived in there for about 8 years and was one of the last ones to leave during the clearance programme. I loved it and never had any problems at all. The community was second to none and the majority of people we brilliant. In an estate the size of Kelvin, (947 flats) you were bound to get a few problems. Show me any estate that size that has none.

I didn't want to leave and still miss the sense of community. That is irreplaceable.

Originally posted by peter41
I used to live in Kelvin Flats in the 80`s, cannot remember exactly, memory fades after so long .....;) ..... but we never had any problems, the flats were nice, if not a little unusual in design, I never ventured out much late at night, so never saw if gangs were beating up old ladies or smashing cars.

The only bad part was the shops across, more were borded up than in use.... a bit like now...

although i can remember throwing potatoes and my mates had some pellet guns... at some bloody school kids. only kiddin :P i remember in the 80s reading in the sheffield star about an old lady who was beaten with a chair or table leg,and later died,sadly i cant remember the old ladies name,i am sure someone will post the her name,its funny how people forget .

Originally posted by peter41
I used to live in Kelvin Flats in the 80`s, cannot remember exactly, memory fades after so long .....;) ..... but we never had any problems, the flats were nice, if not a little unusual in design, I never ventured out much late at night, so never saw if gangs were beating up old ladies or smashing cars.

The only bad part was the shops across, more were borded up than in use.... a bit like now...

although i can remember throwing potatoes and my mates had some pellet guns... at some bloody school kids. only kiddin :P sorry peter,i also remember the doctor who strangled his two children in the cellar of a house in pitsmoor and then threw himself of the flats,leaving there poor mom to cope with her grief.

As has been said in previous similar threads, yes, things did happen. People jumped, blew themselves up, and attacked people. These are always remembered because they happened on Kelvin. Other awfull things happen in other areas. Granted, they shouldn't happen anywhere but unfortunately they do.

well 2 I missed then Roughly101, but I am sure the same things have happed at ParkHill Flats as well.

It happens allover the place. :confused:

Originally posted by peter41
I used to live in Kelvin Flats in the 80`s, cannot remember exactly, memory fades after so long .....;) ..... but we never had any problems, the flats were nice, if not a little unusual in design, I never ventured out much late at night, so never saw if gangs were beating up old ladies or smashing cars.

The only bad part was the shops across, more were borded up than in use.... a bit like now...

although i can remember throwing potatoes and my mates had some pellet guns... at some bloody school kids. only kiddin :P

LOL I bet it was you :D . Of course I realised they were only trying to scare us (which they did), as i'm sure we'd have been easy targets to hit with them pellet guns.

The daft stuff Schools made us kids do aye, in respect, looking back this was a school trip of pure exploitation, as the teachers just hammered home to us about how bad life was in these flats. By the way we were from Barnsley too.

I think it was the outside that made the place look bad... but inside the flats were actually very nice, but I am sure that someone will disagree with me....

never judge a book by its cover :thumbsup:

it was no different from park hill really - grim to look at with lots of regular people living inside, but scallys in groups hanging about on the ground floor.

my lasting memory of kelvin is walking underneath on my way to langsett road from crookesmoor and being closely missed by a nappy thrown out of a 3rd floor window. nice!

the basic internal layout of all three blocks of flats (kelvin, Park hill and Hyde Park) were pretty much identical.

The only real differences were externally, the windows of HP and K were the same; laid out horizontally.( i e = = = PH were set vertically like so || || || )

The interiors were very light and airy, and fairly well laid-out. The windows were very large, in all three blocks, in relation to the wall they were set in (almost a 6' drop, by nearly 9' wide in my old living room.)

I think it was simply the construction materials, and the construction methods that let the buildings down.

I think that (maybe not so much in PH, as that was the first block of the three to be built) the materials were a bit substandard, or, at least, the reinforced concrete (particularly) and the flat rooves were not suitable for the British climate.
the flat I lived in on HP had a hole in the foor, through to the public access landing below, that you could get your fist in, where teh concrete had spalled, and crumbled away.

The PHF blocks don't seem to have been as damp and as poor in construction as the other two.

That is the physical climate of the blocks, as far as My memory serves me,

the atmosphere on them...

well, all three blocks seem as if they had developed a keen sense of community, despite a lot of disadvantage, and poverty etc.... and a lot of what were then termed "problem families" being moved on.

People did cleave together, and try and make the communities on those blocks something to be proud of. They worked hard to try and instill a sense of hope and positive attitudes into the residents.

things could be awkward, as mums with small kiddies could feel isolated, as there was nowhere safe for them to play, especially if you were on the uppermost floors. you couldn't just let the kiddies out to play... it was so far from some flats to the lifts that it could take ages to get out to the outdoor play areas, and of course you couldn't just leave the younger ones to their own devices.

If you were elderly, again, it could be isolating. shops not always near enough to reach easily.

You had the idiot drunkards and dead-heads piddling in the lifts, and folk being inconsiderate with noise. Sometimes it felt like a losing battle. but, on the whole, I think the positives outweighed the negatives.

PT

anyone who would like to see my photographs of kelvin flats, please click the link below:

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

:thumbsup:

Great pictures Pete. What I can't get over is how MASSIVE the flats seem. They dominate the area a lot more than I recall. Those terraces on Upperthorpe look tiny in comparison. I'd be really interested to the opions of anyone who was living in the area when the flats were built - how did you regard Kelvin?

I lived on Kelvin on Edith Walk back in the late 80's.
Believe it or not I was burgled from the outside!

Went away with friends for the weekend, came home and the place was a tip, no not the burgler I just wasn't very tidy:D . It wasn't until I sat for a while I realised stuff was missing, including my beloved suede tassle jacket.

reported it to the police but no joy. Was in the post office at netherthorpe some days later when man in front of me was blatantly wearing my jacket :o cashing his giro.

Furious with rage and feeling like I was in the Bill I demanded that the teller inform me the name of this villan. In total breach of dpa she let me covertly see the giro with name and address on it. His balcony was next door to mine!:mad:

So I gave chase and followed said cretin to his fiddle job in a petrol station in town. Called the police who then arrested him and as I could identify jacket with bad red cotton used to sew up a ripped inside pocket he was charged with handling stolen goods. :clap:

Oh and the benefits bobbies got him too! :D

Turns out they accessed my house by doing spiderman moves on the outside of the flats and got in through a chink in the window I had left open in the kitchen which was by the balcony.

Apart from that and the odd suicide I loved my short time on Kelvin. :cool:

And those milk hatches were really useful aswell :D

Originally posted by roughy101
i remember in the 80s reading in the sheffield star about an old lady who was beaten with a chair or table leg,and later died,sadly i cant remember the old ladies name,i am sure someone will post the her name,its funny how people forget . think her name was elsie,murdered by one of the twins...i lived on there for 9 years,it was ok. never had any bother, knew fetish fairy from on there when she was just fetish:thumbsup: the youngsters used to play on the landings whilst the mothers took turns looking after them, it was a good comunity in a lot of ways

sad to see it go as i had many friends on there

For a woman on her own, it was very scary and had its moments so thankfully I didnt stay that long.