Romancing the Stone -Park Hill - English Heritage BBC 2 1/5/09

[dunsbyowl1867]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00k89m5

What is the largest listed building in Europe? Not a cathedral, not a castle. It is Park Hill Estate in Sheffield, a crumbling 1950s concrete monolith that dominates the city's skyline. Saving Park Hill was supposed to be about bringing English Heritage, the national heritage agency, bang up to date, in a modernisation.

Instead, it plunges English Heritage and its chief executive Simon Thurley into an unexpected public row. The decision to list Park Hill was hugely unpopular locally, and rapidly became the defining issue in the local elections: the Liberal Democrats, chaired by Paul Scriven, were running on an anti-English Heritage ticket, collecting 50,000 signatures on a petition calling for the decision to list the estate to be reversed.

Listing Park Hill meant the council could not knock it down - as they had the three other similar estates in their care. Now they had to redevelop it, or face a 50 million pound restoration bill.

They and English Heritage approve a scheme proposed by hip Manchester developers Urban Splash - and English Heritage even promise 500,000 pounds toward the restoration of Park Hill's defining concrete grid. However, there's bad news to come: the credit crunch.

[Waterside Echo]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00k89m5

What is the largest listed building in Europe? Not a cathedral, not a castle. It is Park Hill Estate in Sheffield, a crumbling 1950s concrete monolith that dominates the city's skyline. Saving Park Hill was supposed to be about bringing English Heritage, the national heritage agency, bang up to date, in a modernisation.

Instead, it plunges English Heritage and its chief executive Simon Thurley into an unexpected public row. The decision to list Park Hill was hugely unpopular locally, and rapidly became the defining issue in the local elections: the Liberal Democrats, chaired by Paul Scriven, were running on an anti-English Heritage ticket, collecting 50,000 signatures on a petition calling for the decision to list the estate to be reversed.

Listing Park Hill meant the council could not knock it down - as they had the three other similar estates in their care. Now they had to redevelop it, or face a 50 million pound restoration bill.

They and English Heritage approve a scheme proposed by hip Manchester developers Urban Splash - and English Heritage even promise 500,000 pounds toward the restoration of Park Hill's defining concrete grid. However, there's bad news to come: the credit crunch.

Lets face it. Park Hill is going to be a blot on Sheffield`s skyline for many years to come. Yet again another lost opportunity, if it had to be saved, situated where it is it would have been an ideal building for a university campus. W/E

[SteveHB]

A more detailed look at what the progams all about on ..

'bd' The Architects Website

[Guest Gramps]

I saw a clip on Look North last night. I's beginning to look as though the project will be stuck in a mire of debt for years to come. Hot on the heels of the controversy over the 'Sheffield Stump' on Arundel Gate

And the Sevenstones aka NRQ project now has all the makings of another fanciful romance.

[SteveHB]

Quick Reminder, On at 9

[Waterside Echo]

Quick Reminder, On at 9

Just beaten me to it. Last line of write up-----------------and seems unlikely ever to be finished.

[Waterside Echo]

Just beaten me to it. Last line of write up-----------------and seems unlikely ever to be finished.

Echo`s of the Student Games. Will our leaders ever learn? W/A.

[Guest skeets]

Echo`s of the Student Games. Will our leaders ever learn? W/A.

and l dont think that debt has been wiped off yet, why could 'nt the flats have been left to crumble as was the councils policy, then pull them down ,as has many fine buildings met their fate in the past skeets.

[Waterside Echo]

and l dont think that debt has been wiped off yet, why could 'nt the flats have been left to crumble as was the councils policy, then pull them down ,as has many fine buildings met their fate in the past skeets.

Even BBC 2 got it wrong. It should have been broadcast on the 1st of April.

[DaveH]

Echo`s of the Student Games. Will our leaders ever learn? W/A.

18 years on and we are still paying for those student games!!

At least with a block of flats we have got something to show for our money.

[DaveH]

Got the impression that the council would like to quietly dispose of the flats to save money but would still like to try and give a good impression to the long suffering ratepayers of the City they they "did the best thing" whatever ultimately happens to them.

It seems that the company "Urban Splash" is run by artists rather than architects as the French guy and the bloke with the bald head seemed more interested in turning the flats into a work of modern art by "cutting a section of flats out" (apparently without making any civil engineering considerations) to make a large entrance and then garishly decorating the outside ion a mixture of clashing bright colours.

Urban Splash also prided themselves on "pre-selling" flats. In other words they will sell you a flat before it has been built and before you have had the chance to look around and inspect it. they claim they are the first company to sell property this way, - no they are not! Time - share touts at foreign holiday destinations have been doing it for years. Who in their right mind is going to buy property like this?

In their board meetings they changed their minds about what the final layout and purpose of the flats was going to be, how many they could sell and generally what they were going to do next. They had no overall plan that they could stick to. When money was short and they didn't know if work would continue they even stopped the BBC from filming.

There was controversy over access to the town centre from the flats across the railway bridge through Midland Station, a bridge which the railways would rather close (probably because it also gives direct access to the platforms and allows people to get on trains without paying!). I seem to remember in the 1960's the main access to town from the flats was not over the bridge anyway (I don't think the bridge was there at the time as it also gives access to the Supertram station stop) but was down near Park Square where you could very quickly get to Commercial Street.

It seemed as though the whole enterprise was been lead by a bunch of amateurs who were almost setting themselves up to fail so that ultimately the only option left for the flats would be demolition regardless of weather they are listed or not.

Perhaps this is what the council really wants and the renovation is just a pretence to get around the listed building status.

[Guest teaurn]

I'd be very interested in seeing this programme. Alas, it's not on the BBC iplayer or scheduled for a repeat on TV. Does anyone know where it might be available 'out there' on the net? I've already checked YouTube, it doesn't appear to be on there.

[DaveH]

I'd be very interested in seeing this programme. Alas, it's not on the BBC iplayer or scheduled for a repeat on TV. Does anyone know where it might be available 'out there' on the net? I've already checked YouTube, it doesn't appear to be on there.

Welcome to Sheffield Histury teaurn.

My dad was called Ernest (Ern to his friends) and if mum was making a cup of tea she would say "tea Ern" to him (to which his reply was always something like "arr alreyt" or "arr goo on den") but my mum had got this "tea Ern" gag from Eric Morecambe when he said it to Ernie Wise in a similar situation in an early episode of the Morecambe & Wise show

That aside, the programme about Park Hill Flats redevelopment was shown about 8 or 9 months ago now and although I think it has been repeated once, and was on BBC iplayer at the time for its 30 day limit (something to do with digital rights) it has not been seen since. Certainly I do not have a recorded copy of it, or if I did it is long since erased / overwritten. You may be lucky and some other member may respond with either a personal copy or a link to somewhere where there is a copy.

I think your best bet will be to wait for further repeats of the programme. My own feeling is that as the development work progresses, and it does seem to be moving again now, they will do an "update" on the latest progress and this would also be an ideal time to repeat the earlier programme.

[Markbaby]

I've got a copy as a .avi file. It's just short of 600Mb but I can put it on a CD and send you a copy teaurn if you p.m. me with your address.

[DaveH]

I've got a copy as a .avi file. It's just short of 600Mb but I can put it on a CD and send you a copy teaurn if you p.m. me with your address.

There you go teaurn,

As usual someone on the site knows something about it and Markbaby has come up with the goods straight away.

I am sure you will want to take advantage of Markbaby's offer.

[Markbaby]

I don't know if I should put this here but as DaveH said in a previous post BBC iplayer does have DRM (digital rights management) and the trouble is that you can only download and watch it for up to 30 days after.

Unless of course you "rip" the programme with a small tool called ipdl.exe.

http://po-ru.com/projects/iplayer-downloader/

The site is a little confusing but scroll down until you see Windows GUI and read on from there.

The video files are in mp4 format so you may need a different player (I find that VLC player from Videolan.org works well).

You can also use the tool to save radio programmes too.

I feel that we've paid for the programme in the first place via the license fee, and nobody complains if you had recorded it and kept a copy at the time of broadcast.

Moderators: I apologise now if this posting breaks any rules.

[Guest teaurn]

Welcome to Sheffield Histury teaurn.

My dad was called Ernest (Ern to his friends) and if mum was making a cup of tea she would say "tea Ern" to him (to which his reply was always something like "arr alreyt" or "arr goo on den") but my mum had got this "tea Ern" gag from Eric Morecambe when he said it to Ernie Wise in a similar situation in an early episode of the Morecambe & Wise show

That aside, the programme about Park Hill Flats redevelopment was shown about 8 or 9 months ago now and although I think it has been repeated once, and was on BBC iplayer at the time for its 30 day limit (something to do with digital rights) it has not been seen since. Certainly I do not have a recorded copy of it, or if I did it is long since erased / overwritten. You may be lucky and some other member may respond with either a personal copy or a link to somewhere where there is a copy.

I think your best bet will be to wait for further repeats of the programme. My own feeling is that as the development work progresses, and it does seem to be moving again now, they will do an "update" on the latest progress and this would also be an ideal time to repeat the earlier programme.

Thanks for the welcome, DaveH. Amusing tale re 'tea ern', my username is such for a similar reason. I've only just found out the programme was repeated on the Blighty channel, 10 days ago. Missed it again An update programme would be good, hope there is one. I'm not from the area but I saw Park Hill last September when there was an evening of films there (a good night, unusual surroundings). I think the story of PH is an interesting one.

I've got a copy as a .avi file. It's just short of 600Mb but I can put it on a CD and send you a copy teaurn if you p.m. me with your address.

Thanks for the offer (very kind of you). I'll take you up on that, have sent a PM.