Sheffield Estates

[RichardB]

http://www.ourselvesourplace.org.uk/ps-fl-1-2-12.php

The new housing in the northeast of Sheffield was largely built to replace slum housing in the city centre and industrialised areas like Attercliffe. The programme of building that had begun in Longley in 1926, continued until the 1950s. In the end, the combined estates formed the second-largest concentration of council housing in Europe. Gas and electricity was installed in most houses along with hot and cold running water. A bathroom and separate toilet in the back porch led many to regard their new homes as little palaces. The new estates, crucially, were built above the smoke line, free of the falling daily soot. The period of unemployment from the early 1980s coincided with a marked decline in public investment in the estates in the north of Sheffield. As a result the area has suffered decades of inadequate maintenance. The latest regeneration programme aims to address residents' concerns.