Updated - Park Hill - A Personal Photography Project

Updated – Personal Photography Project – Park Hill Flats

Back in 2017 I started on a project of photographing the iconic Park Hill Flats. That 1st post was very well received so over the last few years I’ve been dropping back in to Park Hill and adding to the project. The original post is here if you want to read it.

All the images I’ve taken to date are in this post but I’ve also pasted the original text below from the 1st post.

I think it’s easy to lose focus (Pun intended) on the reasons you take photographs when you’re so busy with running the business and during the 2020 COVID 19 Pandemic lockdown it’s allowed me to reflect on this and re-connect. The last images I took were whilst on my bike ride exercise for the day.

The evolution of the building as it gets developed and the way people interact with it is interesting and has changed over the time. I’ll be returning again for an update soon.

Hope you like the images.

Cheers

Timm

Original Post Text

I’ve been fascinated by Park Hill flats for years, The stories of love and loss, real lives and the futuristic brutalist architecture of the Streets in the Sky I find just captivating.

The building is so interesting with a real rich history within Sheffield. The love story of the I love you bridge is a tragic tale of lost love and tough lives that for so many who lived in the streets in the sky were a daily reality.

The building is listed and as such can’t be demolished. In 2006 Sheffield council recruited an agency to develop the flats but to date they have only completed a small portion.

Currently there is a tent city within the gardens of the flats and a small population of substance users who seemed friendly whilst I was there but I’m not sure I’d want to be there over night.

Is it ironic that there are so many empty flats that could house the homeless of Sheffield and in the gardens of these flats the homeless have made a home in tents? Or is it symptomatic of our uncaring society that we can’t see fit to allow them access to the security and shelter of a building?

It certainly made me think and I know of a few people who are trying to do what they can to help out.

I think I’ll go back in the spring and see what’s changed. This could end up being a year long project… Watch this space.

Cheers

Timm.