Park Hill

Flats and maisonettes built 1957-60 by Sheffield Corporation City Architect's Department under J L Womersley, designed by Jack Lynn and Ivor Smith with F E Nicklin and John Forrester (artist), with Ronald Jenkins of Ove Arup and Partners as engineer. Formally opened in 1961 by Hugh Gaitskell.

The scheme comprises 995 flats across 17 acres (total site 32 acres) at a density of 192 people per acre, with a unit cost of £2,800 each (total cost £2,158,591). It includes 31 shops, 4 public houses, a laundry, boiler house, Garchey refuse station and garages.

The estate is constructed of a reinforced concrete frame, partly board marked, with concrete balcony fronts and brick infill in four shades progressing from purple, terracotta, light red to cream. A continuous flat roof runs throughout at even height.

The design responds to a steeply sloping site with a gradient of 1 in 10 by maintaining a constant roof level, so block heights range from four to thirteen storeys. The main unit of construction is a standard three-bay unit with central staircases set in pairs in an H-shaped frame, each containing a one-bedroom and two-bedroom flat, plus a two-bedroom and three-bedroom maisonette, all with balconies. Access decks at every third floor serve maisonettes and lower flats, with these four 'street decks' as a key design feature — all except the uppermost (Norwich Row) connect to ground level at some point and are served by 13 lifts and two large goods' lifts allowing milk floats and services direct access, creating 'streets in the sky'.

Park Hill comprises four ranges linked by bridges across upper decks, all cranked at obtuse angles between 112 and 135 degrees to maximise site aspect and panoramic views. Lifts, stairs, public houses and laundry occupy nodal points; shops, boiler house and former Garchey station are positioned at the lowest point to the north west.

Elevations are treated as a regular exposed grid of board-marked concrete frame. Balconies on elevations not served by decks follow a rhythmic 2:1 pattern in both directions, varied only at corners. Balconies and decks have vertical concrete balustrading with similar pattern to slender steel balustrading to bedrooms. Timber windows have aluminium horizontal opening sections and flush timber doors. Interiors of flats and maisonettes are not of special interest; the rigid grid ensures kitchens and bathrooms are stacked in pairs for servicing.

The Pavement area retains most original shopfronts with varnished timber shutters and glazed fronts in timber surrounds over concrete plinth with weathering. Many shops including Neils News and the grocery opposite have timber panelled dadoes. Original shopfronts survive behind later security shutters. A linked two-storey block with open stairwell and columns clad in gold mosaic contains the Housing Area Office, which is not of special interest.

The four public houses are four-bay units in ground floors, mostly near the shopping centre. All retain most original features with a common plan: lounge on one side, public bar on the other, linked by central bar and glazed screen. The Earl George Public House on The Pavement retains original fenestration of single lights with applied latticework over inset timber panels and set-back clerestorey glazing, original bar with later facing panels and timber boarded surround under a lowered ceiling, and marble tiled flooring. The Link on Gilbert Row has a four-bay canted front of timber panels in concrete bays with mosaic spandrels; the public bar entrance on the internal court has three projecting canted bays with original doors, bar and fixed bench surrounds; the lounge has been remodelled. The Scottish Queen on Gilbert Row is brick faced with tripartite windows set forward (upper lights glazed, others infilled with timber panels) and clerestorey glazing, original bar counter, timber columns with bevelled and varnished boarding, marble tiled floors, original doors and screen between bars with glazed tiles and later coloured glass, and fixed bench seating. Adjacent public lavatories clad in grey and gold mosaic were disused in 1996. The Parkway on Hague Row has fenestration with projecting four bays of timber windows over timber dado and set-back clerestorey, surrounds clad in slate hanging with a two-bay mosaic mural, and an original interior with central bar, bevelled timber panelling and fixed seating.

The Park Hill Social Centre, on two levels with a ramp to upper entrance, is brick with concrete cornice, roof and sills, timber windows and a sprung timber floor interior.

Park Hill is of international importance as the first built manifestation of widespread theoretical interest in external access decks as a way of building high without the isolation and expense of point blocks. Sheffield and the London County Council were the only major local authority departments designing imaginative and successful public housing in the 1950s, and this is Sheffield's flagship scheme. The decks were conceived to recreate the community spirit of traditional slum streets whilst enabling vehicular segregation; Park Hill has been regularly studied by sociologists since opening and is one of the most successful of its type. The deck system proved uniquely appropriate here because the steeply sloping site allowed all but the uppermost deck to reach ground level, and the impact of the long, flat-topped structure rising above the city centre makes it one of Sheffield's most impressive landmarks. It was Britain's first completed scheme of post-war slum clearance and the most ambitious inner-city development of its time.