"I visited Sheffield's other 'streets in the sky' where life is a world apart from Park Hill"

When Sheffield’s Hyde Park flats were completed in the mid-1960s they left those at Park Hill, below, in their literal and metaphorical shade.

A hulking presence atop the hill overlooking Sheffield city centre, the new estate comprised 1,313 homes, compared with 995 at their little sister.

In the six decades since, their paths have diverged radically.

Both were feted upon completion as the homes of the future before entering a period of sharp decline as they suffered from antisocial behaviour and crime, and fell into disrepair.

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But while Park Hill was granted listed status and has undergone a dramatic transformation to become one of the city’s most sought-after addresses, the flats at Hyde Park suffered a more ignominious fate.

Two of the four blocks - including the largest, Block B - were demolished, while the remaining two were renovated and initially housed competitors in the 1991 World Student Games.

Today, those two blocks, renamed Harold Lambert Court and Castle Court, still tower over the flats at Park Hill.

Wide walkways remain

But the metal-clad buildings stand largely forgotten by the outside world, while the lovingly restored concrete blocks at Park Hill are celebrated on stage and widely hailed as brutalist masterpieces.

When we visited the old Hyde Park estate, we found it very quiet but those people we did meet were friendly and spoke of a good community spirit there.

The green between the two blocks was well maintained, with cherry blossom on the trees, and we were told it is a popular place to soak up the sun in the summer.

Harold Lambert Court doesn’t look anything special from the outside, and that’s if you’re being generous, but inside you get a feeling for why many people love living there.

It has the same wide walkways - dubbed the ‘streets in the sky’ - which were a key part of the design at Park Hill, introduced to foster a sense of community. There are benches facing the large windows lining the corridors, which look out over the greenery below.

While building work was taking place when we visited, the interior is in need of updating and some residents complained of issues, including leaky windows, it wasn’t hard to appreciate the building’s potential.

‘Good community’

David Frank invited us inside the flat on High Pavement Row which he recently bought.

While he is having issues with the windows, which he is waiting for the landlord, Together Housing, to repair, he told how he had fallen in love with the flat’s spacious interior and amazing views over the city centre.

“There’s a good community here, too, and it’s nice and quiet, though you might have the odd problem, like anywhere,” he added.

Another resident, who didn’t wish to be named, told us how she had lived there for more than 20 years and enjoyed the convenience of being close to the tram and having easy access to the city centre.

“When I have visitors they tell me how I have a fantastic view from my flat but I’ve lived here for so long I tend to take it for granted,” she added.

She did say there was a lot of work needed in the block, where she explained there used to be eight caretakers and there was now only one.

Affordable housing

While Park Hill gets all the plaudits, a place in what remains of the old Hyde Park flats is considerably cheaper. A quick internet search shows how a two-bedroom flat at the latter is listed for £120,000, while a similarly sized apartment at Park Hill has a £230,000 guide price.

Like Park Hill, the new development at Hyde Park was designed with everything a new community could need, including a choice of pubs and shops.

Those facilities are beginning to return to Park Hill, where a popular cafe and a trendy bar have opened in recent times, but the same cannot be said of Hyde Park, where there is little beyond the Premier convenience store on the ground floor of Castle Court.

Mithun CK, who works there, said a lot of new people were moving into the area. He told how most people were friendly and caused no problems, though there was occasionally some trouble.

Between Harold Lambert Court and Castle Court, in stark contrast to the metal-clad housing blocks, stands the pretty stone-built St John’s Park Church, where the door was open and a sign above declared ‘all welcome’ and ‘serving the community’.

‘A lot of lost people’

Inside, we met Catherine Rooker-Brown, the operations manager, who told us how it tries to help residents by offering facilities including a lunch club, a youth group and a food bank, though it can be hard to get people along.

She said: “People here go through the same issues that Park Hill went through but they do know each other and there’s a bit of community spirit.

“There seem to be a lot of lost people, a lot of social isolation, and a lot of issues with drugs.”

She added: “It does feel like a bit of a forgotten area, without the resources other areas have.”

Catherine told how there were several different landlords locally, meaning it could be difficult to pin down who was responsible for a particular area and to get issues sorted quickly.

She said a community survey by the church showed there was a particular need for more youth activities.

She told how there had been talk of new student flats being built in the area which she felt would ‘change the dynamic’ and bring more shops and other much-needed amenities.

Taking in the impressive views as I wandered down the hill back towards the city centre, it did feel like this is an area which is ripe for regeneration.

Could it become as trendy as Park Hill? Probably not, though I’m sure many people would be glad of that if they’re more interested in a quiet life and cheaper housing.