The pride of England?

Brutalist council flats win place on heritage list

WITH its stark, concrete exterior and graffiti-ridden surroundings, it’s hardly likely to attract coachloads of tourists.

But this brutalist council block has joined Windsor Castle and Blenheim Palace on a list of the top ten historic places in England.

Park Hill Flats in Sheffield, which first divided opinion 20 years ago when it was given Grade II-listed status, was singled out as part of a Historic England campaign celebrating the country’s heritage.

It was picked by architect and TV presenter George Clarke to represent the impact of post-war social housing. Built between 1957 and 1961, the ‘streets in the sky’ development was part of a project to clear the squalor of inner-city slums.

But in the following decades, its four high-rise blocks, which contain 995 flats, fell into disrepair.

While many similar developments were torn down, Park Hill was controversially given Grade II status by Historic England in 1998. At the time critics said it was an eyesore and called for the dilapidated flats to be demolished. Instead, they were bought by developers Urban Splash, whose regeneration project was nominated for the architecture award the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2013.

Part of the site is also now set to be turned into a ‘national flagship’ arts venue by the designers of London’s V&A museum.

Park Hill is a stark contrast to the grand residences that also grace the top ten in the Historic England project, which is called A History of England in 100 Places.

As well as Windsor Castle – the oldest inhabited castle in the world – and Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, which is one of the best examples of Baroque architecture in England, the list also includes Osborne House, Queen Victoria’s holiday home on the Isle of Wight, which was designed by Prince Albert in the style of an Italian Renaissance palace. But some other modest properties do feature, including a 12th century almshouse at Hospital of St Cross in Winchester, which still helps those in need and is believed to be one of the oldest in existence.

Post-war prefabricated bungalows made from cream corrugated sheets in Moseley, Birmingham, also made the cut.

Glorious gardens on the list include Birkenhead Park on the Wirral and RHS Garden Wisley in Woking, Surrey. Duncan Wilson, of Historic England, said: ‘From the earliest form of social housing [almshouses], to the home of our monarch and even to brutalist streets in the sky, these ten places play an important role in telling the social history of England.’

Mark Hews, of Ecclesiastical Insurance, which supports the Historic England project, added that they are ‘an irreplaceable part of our modern heritage’.