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Park Hill Flats in Sheffield


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Guest transit

http://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/uploads/monthly_04_2007/post-157-1176920243.jpghttp://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/uploads/monthly_04_2007/post-157-1176920273.jpghttp://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/uploads/monthly_02_2007/post-1-1171227183.png

Pictures taken today showing the current demise of Park Hill shopping centre . Park Hill infant school already levelled-just starting to demolish what was once a thriving shopping centre ,memories of which i will tell another time.

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Guest plain talker

Oh, wow!! Look at the arial shot in Mickj's post! there are no trees on the hillside between Granville Street and South Street!

you can see the old Park school, and the new Park hill schools, side by side, too!

I can see the cinema, opposite the New Inn, (where the doctors' surgery is now) but I don't recognise the Church/ chapel building just a little further along Talbot street, before you get to the flats.

It's strange, looking at the right hand side of the picture, where they are just starting to build Hyde Park Walk/ Terrace, and quite peculiar to see everything "flattened" around St John's Church, at Hyde Park, before the HPF were built.

I squinted, and I squinted 'till I was crosseyed, he he but I couldn't see the mop that always lived, upside-down on my gran's balcony, which made it look as if there was someone grey-haired looking out.

It was a source of much amusement to us, as my grandpa had poor sight, and was always convinced, when walking up Shrewsbury Road, and down South Street, on his way home, that it was my gran, watching for him. He'd come in, quite "tetchy", and grumble about how he'd waved, but she'd been ignorant, and not waved back!! he he he he

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Truly amazing pictures

I've said it before a million times and I'll say it again - the whole place looked less cluttered in the years gone by

These days we stick too many obstacles in our way - just look at Fargate for an example of messing up open space by shoving loads of nonsensical objects that you have to navigate your way around when walking there.

Everthing from trees, to sculptures, to fancy metal things, to plant pots

Forget it - just remove them all - let's have open space and less clutter and stress

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Guest Whelk

You always got a superb view from Park Hill....the major one being the fact you couldnt see Park Hill flats!!!

Again as in the case of Kelvin it seems that when first built and the next few years after,these were actually great places to live.

Then due to neglect by the council,these places seemed to get more and more run down,leading to the "wrong"sort of people being moved in to them thus leading to further decline.

Wether it just happens in Sheffield or other cities in the country I dont know

Also please feel sorry for us poor saps that had to deliver on the flats for many years,Iused to hate it knowing you'd got a fridge to deliver on there

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This quote about Park Hill Flats is from the BBC website

The 10ft wide decks were designed so a milk float and other vehicles could drive down them, to recreate the community spirit of the traditional slum streets which they replaced.

I'm a bit concerned about this "artists impression" of what the new development will look like

Are those pteradactyl (or other such flying dinosaur) winging their way in from the city?

But an improvement on the previous outlook

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I remember up at the very top end, nearer Talbot Street, there was a "built-in" concrete playground, with concrete tunnels and a concrete slide.

The edge of the concrete slide used to cut the crease at the back of my knee, when I was a kid, because I was afraid to slide, quickly, down the stupid (! ) thing properly. I'd try to slow myself down, slide down with my knees over the edge, like a wally, and it'd slice into my leg. I'd go home, crying, many a time, as a tot. lol.

Hi plain talker, I well remember this play area, was it locally called "The Maze"?

Slides, climbs, sand pits and concrete tunnels Used to find some disgusting deposits in the sand as far as I can remember !!

Used to live on Duke Street but had relatives live on Long Henry Row and used to knock about with some kids who lived near that play area.

BTW, only just joined this site, refugee from Sheffield Forum. Very best of luck with keeping old Sheffield alive for ex pats like me.

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Managed to unearth another picture of the flats.

Here's one of mine from 1974

I have posted several pictures of Pond Street and and the tower blocks on Norfolk Park from this era elsewhereon this site in other threads. while I was doing the Pond Street shots (from Pond Street) I was tempted to look up and photograph that skyline of flats which look over the city centre from Park Hill and welcome visitors to the city arriving by bus (Pond Street) or rail (Midland Station). The picture shows Park Hill Flats, Hyde Park Flats and of course some more familiar locations nearer Pond Street itself.

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Guest plain talker

DaveH I can see the SUT tours office, there, and the old housing/rent-offices for the council just beside them.

I remember being dragged down town by my mother into that place, and having to queue back,up the stairs to make the payments.

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DaveH I can see the SUT tours office, there, and the old housing/rent-offices for the council just beside them.

I remember being dragged down town by my mother into that place, and having to queue back,up the stairs to make the payments.

The 7 storey building on the left opposite the 2 pubs (one of which is the Old Queens Head) was part of Sheffield Polytechnic in the early 1970's and was their "computer studies" building. As an A level student at Ashleigh we used to go down there every thursday afternoon for a lesson. we sat at a big machine which converted computer command lines into a set of punch card instructions. We wrote our own computer programs in FORTRAN 4 which could do amazing things like solve 2 simultaneous mathematical equations, or even a quadratic if we got really good. The program had to be taken to a computer operator in the back room. The computer filled this room and had less processing power than a sinclair ZX80. Most of the time when your program was run a print out came back saying syntax ERROR, M/C ERROR and a whole list of codes you had to look up in a book to find out what you had done wrong.

Makes you realise how much computers have changed in the last 36 years.

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Guest transit

Here's one of mine from 1974

I have posted several pictures of Pond Street and and the tower blocks on Norfolk Park from this era elsewhereon this site in other threads. while I was doing the Pond Street shots (from Pond Street) I was tempted to look up and photograph that skyline of flats which look over the city centre from Park Hill and welcome visitors to the city arriving by bus (Pond Street) or rail (Midland Station). The picture shows Park Hill Flats, Hyde Park Flats and of course some more familiar locations nearer Pond Street itself.

...once again Dave ,thanks for a great pic ! - this view from the balcony under Roxys would be very familier to many Sheffielders as it was virtually the same from late 60's to late 80's - some changes were SUT building soon changing to National Travel , and what about the kerbside garage beside! The whitish concrete building on the left is the Royal Mail Sorting office - of which i know Busman will know every square inch! The photo also gives me a clue to the date of pic - winter '74 - not only because of the cloudy/dull skyline but -thanks to my "bus knowledge!" i can tell you the bus on the far left was part of a batch of 36 ,delivered new as 'N' reg from Aug '74 - but before entering service , had to have a small "extra" window fitted in the front windowscreen pillars ,as they had a "blind spot" which delayed their use. The bus in the centre is a repainted Sheffield Transport bus into the "new" South Yorkshire PTE , which most of the buses in the pic eventually carried.

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...once again Dave ,thanks for a great pic ! - this view from the balcony under Roxys would be very familier to many Sheffielders as it was virtually the same from late 60's to late 80's - some changes were SUT building soon changing to National Travel , and what about the kerbside garage beside! The whitish concrete building on the left is the Royal Mail Sorting office - of which i know Busman will know every square inch! The photo also gives me a clue to the date of pic - winter '74 - not only because of the cloudy/dull skyline but -thanks to my "bus knowledge!" i can tell you the bus on the far left was part of a batch of 36 ,delivered new as 'N' reg from Aug '74 - but before entering service , had to have a small "extra" window fitted in the front windowscreen pillars ,as they had a "blind spot" which delayed their use. The bus in the centre is a repainted Sheffield Transport bus into the "new" South Yorkshire PTE , which most of the buses in the pic eventually carried.

Brilliant detective work transit.

Most of my pictures are from 1969 to 1979 but the vast majority were taken in the same week while on Christmas vacation from university in December 1974. I had just completed my first term at Hull university and it was the first time I had been away from Sheffield for so long. when I came home I took a lot of these Sheffield pictures and they adorned my hall of residence room wall in Hull for the next 2 semisters.

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Guest transit

Brilliant detective work transit.

Most of my pictures are from 1969 to 1979 but the vast majority were taken in the same week while on Christmas vacation from university in December 1974. I had just completed my first term at Hull university and it was the first time I had been away from Sheffield for so long. when I came home I took a lot of these Sheffield pictures and they adorned my hall of residence room wall in Hull for the next 2 semisters.

....i knew these years of "bus interest" would come in usefull one day !!!!!! lol

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OK, so I have just tried to sort out the names, addresses and colours of all the tower blocks on the Norfolk Park estate (see Norfolk Park estate in the 1970's thread) so lets see if we can sort out Park Hill from ground floor to top.

This I find confusing as Park Hill is, as its name suggests built on a hill, so it is several floors (landings? walkways? streets?) taller at one end than the other so firstly how many floors at the tallest point were there?

Secondly, my grandmother and half the kids I went to Norfolk school with lived on these flats and I know that these floors (landings? walkways? streets?) had names. Ones called "Hague Row" and "Long Henry Row" come to mind but I don't know the others and I can't put them in height order.

Any offers to provide this information?

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Guest transit

OK, so I have just tried to sort out the names, addresses and colours of all the tower blocks on the Norfolk Park estate (see Norfolk Park estate in the 1970's thread) so lets see if we can sort out Park Hill from ground floor to top.

This I find confusing as Park Hill is, as its name suggests built on a hill, so it is several floors (landings? walkways? streets?) taller at one end than the other so firstly how many floors at the tallest point were there?

Secondly, my grandmother and half the kids I went to Norfolk school with lived on these flats and I know that these floors (landings? walkways? streets?) had names. Ones called "Hague Row" and "Long Henry Row" come to mind but I don't know the others and I can't put them in height order.

Any offers to provide this information?

...cant find the link yet, but i'm sure Plain Talker gave a detailed list of all landings on Park Hill and Hyde Park flats somewhere on here .... :blink:

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...cant find the link yet, but i'm sure Plain Talker gave a detailed list of all landings on Park Hill and Hyde Park flats somewhere on here .... :blink:

I thought so, it was plaintalker who started me off doing the Norfolk Park detailed lists.

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Guest plain talker

PT hears her name being taken in vain! ;)

Yes I did a fairly comprehensive list of the landings on PHF, HPF and Kelvin Flats.

PHF had four landings only, Five if you count the non-residential "Pavement" row which held the shopping complex thereon.

Gilbert Row was the bottom-most row, with the smallest number of dwellings on it, then Hague Row.

The next row was Long Henry Row, and finally, the topmost one, Norwich Row (the one on which my grandma lived)

At the highest end (the bit near the incinerator chimney, the block had the full four residential rows.

As the complex crept up the hill, the height of rows became lower and lower, with just a landing-and-a-half on the part facing onto Talbot Street.

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PT hears her name being taken in vain! ;)

Yes I did a fairly comprehensive list of the landings on PHF, HPF and Kelvin Flats.

PHF had four landings only, Five if you count the non-residential "Pavement" row which held the shopping complex thereon.

Gilbert Row was the bottom-most row, with the smallest number of dwellings on it, then Hague Row.

The next row was Long Henry Row, and finally, the topmost one, Norwich Row (the one on which my grandma lived)

At the highest end (the bit near the incinerator chimney, the block had the full four residential rows.

As the complex crept up the hill, the height of rows became lower and lower, with just a landing-and-a-half on the part facing onto Talbot Street.

Thanks for the info on that plain talker, just what I was wanting to know

My maternal grandmother, a widow for most of her life, lived on Hague Row from 1964 when she moved out of the town centre to 1967. She then moved briefly to one of the new Kenninghall tower blocks on Norfolk Park (7th floor for an elderly widow was not good) before returning to Hague Row in a different flat. Her friend she spent a lot of time with lived on Long Henry, hence my interest and vague memory of these places.

Do you have links to your similar info on Hyde Park and Kelvin flats? I have recently posted a picyure of Kelvin flats in the thread with that title.

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Guest plain talker

Thanks for the info on that plain talker, just what I was wanting to know

My maternal grandmother, a widow for most of her life, lived on Hague Row from 1964 when she moved out of the town centre to 1967. She then moved briefly to one of the new Kenninghall tower blocks on Norfolk Park (7th floor for an elderly widow was not good) before returning to Hague Row in a different flat. Her friend she spent a lot of time with lived on Long Henry, hence my interest and vague memory of these places.

Do you have links to your similar info on Hyde Park and Kelvin flats? I have recently posted a picyure of Kelvin flats in the thread with that title.

Nno, I don't have a link, I'm afraid, but I think I mentioned the names somewhere on here.

the rows on PHF, just the same as Kelvin, and HPF were named for roads that were there for the redevelopment (eg Portland, Edith, Kelvin and Woollen Walks at Kelvin, and all the rows on HPF - too many to name right now!)

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Nno, I don't have a link, I'm afraid, but I think I mentioned the names somewhere on here.

the rows on PHF, just the same as Kelvin, and HPF were named for roads that were there for the redevelopment (eg Portland, Edith, Kelvin and Woollen Walks at Kelvin, and all the rows on HPF - too many to name right now!)

Thanks plain talker. If you have posted these before I will try to do a search for them but I don't find the sites built in search facility to be that good, - some stuff still takes a lot of finding, - even some of my own posts that I have forgot which thread I put them in.

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