Final stage of flats regeneration to be approved

Phase five of Park Hill flats in Sheffield is due to be approved by councillors

The final stage of redeveloping Sheffield’s Park Hill flats is due to be completed 18 years after the work first started.

Councillors are set to approve plans for the derelict Talbot Street block to be refurbished into 105 apartments with commercial spaces on 17 September.

Outline planning permission for the estate’s regeneration, with 874 refurbished flats across the whole complex, was first granted in 2006 but the plans have been through several changes.

Sheffield Council has said the Grade II* listed complex is of major importance to the city.

Park Hill was built between 1957 and 1961 and was seen as revolutionary at the time.

It covers 32 acres and has interconnecting wings which vary from four to 12 storeys.

Each floor was wide enough to accommodate a milk float leading to the complex being described as “streets in the sky”.

The estate has inspired the award-winning musical Standing at the Sky’s Edge and has featured in Doctor Who and The Full Monty.

The brutalist design was given listed status in 1998 by English Heritage, making it the largest listed building in Europe.

Sheffield Council hoped this would attract investment but it was not until 2004 that developer Urban Splash bought the estate.

Derelict flats in the phase five part of the Park Hill redevelopment

The plans for the Talbot Street block include townhouse-style ground floor duplexes with 22 one-bedroom units, 69 two-bedroom units, 13 three-bedroom units, and one four-bedroom unit.

The Friends of Park Hill has asked for one of the flats to be furnished as it would have been in the 1950s and opened up to the public.

Planning officers said each phase of the complex has a specific colour to chart the estate's history.

“Phase five will retain the full width of the ‘streets in the sky’, and apply colour on the balcony and individual apartment entrance doors within a palette of blues, greens and purples.

“The design strikes a positive balance between celebrating the building’s characteristic features and modernising the block for contemporary living."

They said the "bold colours" of the first phase reflected its role as the beginning of the regeneration project and the primary colours in phase three signal its use as student accommodation.

Planners said with phase five there should be an "intention to restore, rather than replace, as many of the existing concrete balustrades as possible to maximise retention of historic fabric".

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