sky high

Great exhibition at Park Hill flats at the moment in Sheffield - Love Among the Ruins.  Some brilliant photos from 1961 and 1988 - the black and white and colour contrasts are poignant too.  And also incredible film footage from the early 60s when the bustling shopping area in the flats was in full swing and a vibrant community thrived.

So on Saturday we'd booked onto a walking architecture tour of the undeveloped parts of the now derelict site.  Being fenced off and unmaintained, the weeds have flourished since my last visit.  Andrew Jackson from the Twentieth Century Society led the walk.

Here's one of the 4 pubs on the site - we were inside this a couple of years ago to see a great video installation as part of the Art Sheffield 2016 festival - Up Down Top Bottom Strange and Charm

some of the original mosaics and signs remain

This dry hot summer has given the landscape a kind of pampas grass feel as we look over to the developed Urban Splash section.

Always loved the walkways

and here's another of the pubs

and some wild colour

This is the site of the original Grace Hill Nursery.  Piece in the Sheffield Star on the move to the new site.

More of the colourful mosaics that have stood the test of time

Recent fire damage to one of the blocks

New home of the lovely S1Artspace in the old Park Hill garages - and the flat roof was originally a play area.  S1Artspace rescued this from demolition by moving in this summer.

And for the final bit of the tour we headed into the new Urban Splash part of the development - where some of the original staircases have been kept in.

but the "milk float" corridors have been narrowed a bit to provide more private entrances to the flats.  Loved the personalised glass corner displays at each flat.

Unsurpassed views across our wonderful city of Sheffield

Good appreciation of the original concept of the graduation in brick colours from red at the bottom to pale yellow at the top.  These were replaced with bright panels in the first phase of development but will be retained in the future work.

And a feel for the great open public space behind the flats.  Which could easily have ended up housing a multi story car park if developers had got their way.

A great day - and ended with a relaxing coffee at the lovely South Street Kitchen which opened earlier this year.

Brutal

Very rare chance over the next couple of weeks to get into some incredible spaces in Sheffield, for this brilliant festival run by Art Sheffield

So Friday afternoon found us entering this door for the first time ever

Any guesses . . .

Yes the amazing Moore Street electricity substation, designed in 1968 by Jefferson Sheard, which has been a listed building for some time for these reasons and looms so intriguingly over the city, illuminated at night but with no apparent entrance or exit or window.

So in we go ..

and up we climb

past immaculate board-marked finish concrete walls

and right to the top

for Steven Claydon's incredible audio visual installation

in this amazing vast space

reverberating right through our bodies - really incredible

But we wanted to fit in another special venue before the day was out - so over to Park Hill

and a search for the long since closed down 'Link Pub' - which we finally found by following the arrows

the boarded up estate pub

with the Mark Fell installation inside

and there's a great review of the whole exhibition by Frieze, which is on all over the city until 18 May - catch it while you can