Park Hill and Hyde Park Flats, Sheffield, March 1988

History and Construction

Built on one of Sheffield’s reputed seven hills, the monumental council housing developments of Park Hill and Hyde Park were divided into two distinct areas; the low rise Park Hill flats and the high-rise tower blocks of Hyde Park. My purpose was to photograph and therefore record the last community of social housing tenants living at the high rise Hyde Park flats in 1988 before being vacated during 1989-90 to provide accommodation for competitors at the 1991 World Student Games. Hyde Park was finally demolished between 1992-3, a landmark building that had dominated Sheffield’s skyline for over twenty years.

Post-war optimism, civic pride and the urgent need to improve the quality of council housing to accommodate Sheffield’s growing working class population produced Europe’s largest ever social housing development.

Commissioned by J L Womersely, Sheffield’s Chief Architect between 1953-64, his vision for the development was influenced by the modernist design philosophy of Swiss architect Le Corbusier. He appointed principle architects Jack Lynn and Ivor Smith who despite having just graduated from university were both advocates of ‘Modernism’ and ‘Brutalism.’ They began preliminary design work on the Park Hill and Hyde Park developments in 1953 believing that modernist architecture could preserve and even enhance a sense of social and communal cohesion.

A viability survey was completed in 1955 by Sheffield City Council concluded that the site;

“…was suitable for high density, multi-storey housing due to the proximity of the city centre, geological stability, clean air as the site was located on the leeward side away from the heavy industrial pollution of the Don Valley, open topography, ample light and magnificent views.”

Construction started at Park Hill in 1957 and was completed in 1961, followed by Hyde Park in 1965 which was opened by the Queen Mother in June 1966.

The site to be redeveloped was one of the earliest large scale slum clearances of poor quality, dilapidated and insanitary back-to-back and courtyard housing in Britain. Having originally built to accommodate the rapid influx of workers employed in the steel industry during the 19th century. It had been previously known as ‘Little Chicago’ in the 1920’s and 30’s due to its reputation for overcrowding, poverty and violent crime, the area was partly demolished in the late 1930’s and late 1940’s much of the housing being condemned as unfit for human habitation.

In order to replace the number of houses lost through redevelopment, it was decided that only a multi-storey development on that site would be possible. At 18 storeys Hyde Park flats were the highest outside London with the entire scheme consisted of 665 flats and 648 maisonettes housing up to 4,600 people. Included in the design was a Garchey waste disposal system, a junior and infants school, shops, 4 pubs, a youth club and children’s play area, a clinic and launderette.

Described as resembling a citadel or medieval Italian hill village, the design was considered revolutionary at the time as access to the flats was provided by decks that were open to the elements, yet wide enough to allow children to play safely outdoors and neighbours to interact with each other, small electric vehicles such as milk floats were also able to service the flats. Former street names were reused with the word ‘street’ being supplanted by ‘row’. Both estates were highly praised at the time in the belief that community life could be maintained by following principles of the 19th century terraced housing they replaced.

‘Streets in the Sky’ was the architectural term derived from these wide open decks. It was initially popular and successful, but was later marred by inadequate maintenance which contributed to the decaying fabric of the building, poor security and the allocation of flats to unsuitable tenants. By the mid 1980’s the City Council considered the flats to be unviable and were a failed experiment in multi-storey social housing.

The remaining Park Hill estate today is part private and part council housing and is currently undergoing refurbishment, it was listed Grade II* in 1998, making it the largest protected building in Europe.

My Work

When I read in the Sheffield Star newspaper that Hyde Park flats were scheduled to be demolished I decided together with Matthew Conduit manager of the Untitled Gallery, (now Site Gallery), Sheffield, that some sort of photographic documentation should be made to record this iconic building before its destruction.

I had not been a resident at Hyde Park flats, so before starting the project I had expected to photograph tenants alienated in an ‘Orwellian, lawless, dystopian concrete jungle’ and could not wait to be rehoused. However, this populist opinion of the flats seemed to have been made by ill informed people who disliked brutalist architecture and had never lived at the flats. Regrettably, I went along with this narrative for some time producing dislocated, impersonal, ‘street style’ photography, uncertain whether the architecture or the residents should dominate the image.
After some time I realised this approach was completely wrong, so I stopped taking photographs and started talking to the tenants, attending meetings and attempted to become a ‘guest’ in their community in order to reflect ‘with some truth’ what I found.

I restarted the project and began taking photographs with the emphasis being on the residents and less so on the architecture which now became an incidental backdrop to the portraits. I also decided to try and look less like an outsider or an official and therefore less conspicuous, so while walking around the estate I kept my camera in a supermarket plastic carrier bag.

During the late spring and summer of 1988 I became a recognised character on the estate and developed a familiarity and intimacy with the residents which I hope comes across in the portraits. As I got to know the residents, kids would often shout from the balconies;

“Bill, have you taken any good photos today?”

Very quickly I found a close-knit, welcoming, multicultural community that did not want to be dispersed throughout the various social housing estates on the outskirts of Sheffield. Regardless of the current run down condition of the flats in 1988 I didn’t meet a single resident who wanted to be rehoused. They considered Hyde Park to be their home, a special place to live and were proud to be social housing tenants living in such a prominent building that overlooked Sheffield.

Despite its current shortcomings, many tenants believed Hyde Park represented a vision for social housing that was both optimistic and outward looking and that the council had made ill judged and politically motivated decisions which contributed to Hyde Park’s decline, deterioration and eventual demolition.

Some tenants expressed their opinion that the dispossession of their homes and the demolition of Hyde Park was a politically driven decision by the Conservative Thatcher government to remove tenants out of social housing and into the private housing sector. They believed they were victims of ’social engineering’ which was part of a government policy to abdicate social responsibility making people less dependant on the state and more self-reliant.

However, the principle reason for Hyde Park’s demise is inevitably linked to collapse of the steel industry during the early 1980’s, which produced high unemployment and a bankrupt city council. Nevertheless tenants felt that the decision to run down the building making it almost uninhabitable, such as the slow repair of the lifts and removal of graffiti added to the stress and uncertainty of where they were going to be relocated to.

Many felt that such a unique and celebrated building should have been refurbished and allowed to evolve and develop over time, rather than be demolished. However no consultation was made by the council and the residents opinions were not taken into consideration.

My thanks go the tenants that supported and enabled my photography at Hyde Park flats in 1988 and it’s testament to the strength of that community that it still thrives through social media 35 years later.

The original project and exhibition was supported by Matthew Conduit, curator and manager at the Untitled Gallery, Sheffield and financially by Sir Norman Adsetts OBE, Yorkshire Arts and MasterLab.

‘Streets in the Sky‘ was nominated for the Fox Talbot Award in 1989 by the National Museum for Photography, Film and Television, Bradford.

All images are Strictly Copyright © Bill Stephenson All Rights Reserved.

This photograph of Hyde Park flats was licensed for the double inner gatefold photograph for Manchester dance and DJ legend Luke Una‘s best selling 2xLP É Soul Cultura.

Luke was a tenant at Hyde Park flats in the mid-1980’s, before becoming renowned in the Balearic, Brazilian E soul, house, disco and techno scene. He wanted to use an image of Hyde Park flats on his album as this was where his musical career and life started.

He describes this compilation album as “outer cosmos, transcendental music for the late night disenfranchised who are just holding it together”. It was nominated for the ‘Best of British’ compilation album 2022 and is available on the Mr Bongo record label.

The same photograph of Hyde Park Flats, Sheffield was used in the inner gatefold collage for Manchester DJ Luke Una‘s latest double album É Soul Cultura Vol.2.

He describes this compilation album as “…musical alchemy, unifying the diverse“.

It’s available from the Mr Bongo record label