Sheffield city living: Are they the tenements of tomorrow? (& other scenarios)

[alchresearch 214]

I wonder why people can't afford kids? Might it be something to do with buying a small overpriced flat with a large mortgage as a first time buyer, then being unable to move "up the ladder" to a house to start a family.

 

Maybe it's to do with the rise of house prices across the board, and not just flats. I bought my house in 2000 for £60,000. It's now worth £145,000 but I'm still on the same wage, so there's no way I could afford it now.

[chris@25 10]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6065330.stm

 

 

"One of the main reasons why house prices have been so buoyant for the last ten years is that the country has simply not been building enough to meet the demand for houses to buy or rent.

 

"We estimate that the number of households has been growing at 200,000 or even more each year in recent years," said Milan Katri, chief economist of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

 

"Yet new building has been running at between 140,000 and 160,000 a year," he added."

[crookesey 632]

Many of the apartments in the city centre are converted Victorian offices and factories that were surplus to requirements. The new blocks have been built on land where demolition has taken place. I never heard of any alternative plans for either so had the apartments not appeared we would have many empty buildings and bare demolition sites.

[Paulmat 10]

I sometime's wonder whether people who say that these place are bad quality/cheaply built, and cramped, have ever lived in one, or even been inside one.

 

My dad currently lives in one (and he's nearly 60), and I think he really likes it. His flats quite a decent size, and I think he really likes being in the centre. Even though he's opposite a club it doesn't bother him.

 

I think that some people have to accept that although city living isn't to their tastes (and many other people's i'm sure), there are lots of people who will really like it.

[littleblue 10]

I wouldn't say the flats are pokey at all. I live in one and the lounge is 24ft square.

 

 

As for the slums of tomorrow - it is entirely down to the people who live in the area and how desirable the area is. Everywhere has a shelf life which depends on the needs of the residents around it.

 

 

Hopefully Sheffield will improve and more "yuppies" as they are liked to be called here will move in and help give the place a much needed facelift.

[Bago 10]

Nope. I hope we don't get the typical yuppies type who are so snobby. I do hope that there is a balance of age groups, and that the people live here cos they appreciate the greeneries. (Presumably, they should have lived elsewhere before that to really understand what Sheffield is like. Naturally.)

 

It isn't always the same because the housing is completely different as our the tenents and owners. Tell me, which is the most wealthy borough in London? Well, if you don't know it's Kensington and Chelsea, an inner city area with high density housing. And ask the residents of Manhattan what it feels like to live in a high rise ghetto, that's if you can get past the conceirge. I think they rather like it.

Maybe there is a true point that new city living high rises may not be like the old public social housing it used to be.

 

However, the most wealthy borough of Chelsea and Kensington have history too. It is also close to London. The buildings there are historical. Flats are from old buildings, than mere high rises. If anything, people are buying a piece of history. Not just a typical high rise.

 

Manhatten is also different too, because it is in New York, where land is expensive. So is inner city London. It's also true in HK too. All these cities are all financial centres too, where money makes money, and the land prices are always high. Compare Sheffield to these cities, do you think it is possible to reach that kind of pricing level ? I don't think so. I'm not being mean, but just to put a realistic point across.

 

I think you will find that people in Manhatten don't necessarily like living in high rises. Most work in high rise buildings, but a lot of people have no choice in what they live in. A lot of people go outside Manhatten to the suburbs for holidays. Cos it's much more spacious, and green.

 

Have a look at this statistic for comparisons:

 

Borough of Chelsea and Kensington

Area = 12.13 km²

Population = 196,200

Population Density = 16,175 / km²

 

NY City

Area = 1,214.4 km²

Population = 8,213,839

Population Density = 10,316/km²

 

[Population Density of district, Manhattan (25,849/km²)]

 

Hong Kong

Area = 1,104 km²

Population = 7,041,000

Population Density = 6,294.65/km²

 

[Population density of district Kwun Tong (55,000/km²)

(former Kowloon Walled City: 1,900,000/km²)]

 

Sheffield

Area = 367.94 km²

Population = 520,700

Population density = 1,415 / km²

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_density

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_selected_cities_by_population_density

 

Why do Sheffield need that many high rises ? It doesn't. Also, it means that, the number of people may not match the number of flats at one point, and some flats will definitely not be chosen over others.

[Mattski 10]

Bago,

 

If you read my original post and the posting it was in response to you will find that I was countering the claim that highrise living fails always and everywhere.

 

Of course i'm not comparing Sheffield to Manhattan, that would be silly.

[Guest alyssa]

Makes me think that maybe architects should have to study some sociology/demographics as part of the course....

 

Did you maybe think that they already do? Quite a large portion actually.

[Bago 10]

Bago,

 

If you read my original post and the posting it was in response to you will find that I was countering the claim that highrise living fails always and everywhere.

 

Of course i'm not comparing Sheffield to Manhattan, that would be silly.

 

Do you mean this original post ?

 

This subject comes up periodically and nothing new is ever added except the latest witticism regarding the certain failure of these developments.

 

Please guys, give it a break. Negativity is one thing but purposefully, systematically and repetitivly putting Sheffield and its regeneration down does no good to anyone. You just come across as mean spirited and miserly and happy with nothing but schadenfreude.

 

And the bug difference you all sem to miss is that these are private properties and as such are subject to an entirely different set of factors than their public sector predecessors. For a start, they are designed to be nice not cheap.

 

M

 

Well...I do apologise if that is the case.

[andeht 10]

I’ve been in Sheffield on and off since 2001 when I started Hallam Uni. Did student halls for years 1 + 3 (was in a terrace in Stoke for Y2, which was horrible might I add) and was living down Eccy rd in Year 4. Since graduating I worked in Woodseats for a few months and I’m now working smack bang in the city centre.

 

When I was working in Woodseats I was commuting every day until I got on my feet and sorted things out, it worked out at a 90mile round trip every day.. Even in a diesel, that was costing me. The worst part of it was the 1.5-2 hour (that’s if there were no accidents/roadworks) journey each way – and I didn’t even go through the city-centre! Up at 6, in work by 9, finish at 5:30, home by 7-7:30. That was over 12 hours door to door and when I got home I was usually too tired to do much other than cook my tea, watch TV for an hour or two and hit the sack.

 

Whilst I was commuting, I was looking round for somewhere a bit closer, to rent, and had always fancied a nice city-centre apartment so took at look at them. Had a look at West 1, can’t say I was impressed. It looks nice… but that’s about it. Location means it’s highly priced and the cheapest rooms (studio’s) were no bigger than the halls I’d been in at Uni, they just cost twice as much..

 

Anyway, I finally picked one up at Jet Centro which was about twice the size (still a Studio and not huge mind), looked a lot nicer and even had a parking space and ‘balcony’ (if you can call it that.. it is pretty small) and only cost marginally more than the prices at West 1.

 

Been there a year now (think the development is 2years old) and still quite impressed with the place. There are a few suspect characters about (pretty sure there was an incident with the Drug Squad a few months back) but few and far between in my experience, most people I’ve talked to are honest, respectable people... You get a bit of mess at the place, but there is a maintenance company that takes care of the place and it usually gets cleaned up within a day or two.

 

The main advantage, for me at least, is obviously the location. It’s 15/20 mins walking distance from work (would actually take me longer to drive there with all the traffic at rush hour) and door to door it’s about 8 hours… rather than the previous 12! It’s also similar to when I was a student, in the sense that if I fancy a beer, takeaway, walk – whatever – it’s all just outside the door. The same is probably true for a few places, but since ‘back home’ is(was) out in the sticks, the city is a bit different for me . The plus is that I don’t actually need that much space. I’ve got furniture, a few boxes of junk, computer, TV, Hifi.. and that’s about it. I don’t need rooms and rooms for junk to accumulate in. In fact if I had a semi half the rooms would probably be empty as I wouldn’t have anything (furniture included) to put in them.

 

Enjoying the city centre living atm so much that I’ve put a deposit down on a 1 bedroom going up at the block near Bramall Lane. Truth be told I’d perhaps prefer it if there were quite as many going up there, but they are looking/sounding nice and have to be better than throwing rent money down the drain which is what I do now.

 

It might sound as though I was a little hasty with this, but I did look around a bit, both inner-city places and places outside the city in commuting distance (although after my experiences of driving to/from Woodseats I was eager to avoid commuting as much as possible!), but being a recent graduate money is a bit of a sore spot and the only house-type property I could find in my price range, near the city centre, is either a bit further out than I’d like or in areas that are a bit ‘dodgy’ (imho).

 

So, in summary, I’ve only had good experiences with inner-city living to date. I’d be surprised if some of the places do start to degenerate, because of the maintenance companies etc and just the types of people that I presume live there (young professional types, the occasional students who can afford to pay the higher rent costs). Personally I intend to live in the city centre for a good few years and then perhaps look at getting something bigger when/if my needs require it (family, more junk etc) and when I can actually afford it – and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the same philosophy many of the inner-city residents take.

[peterw 10]

Surely, for any of today’s buildings to become future tenements they’d have to get some some sort of award for architecture shortly after being constructed. It happened a few decades ago in Sheffield, and Manchester followed suit — but in Manchester they decided to demolish rather than give them a Listed status.

[jgharston 11]

Population density of district Kwun Tong (55,000/km²)

 

Yaay! Used to live there! In a two-room apartment that measured about 18ft by 12ft.