Myself and the legend that is Mr Dunbar decided to have a day of urbex in the South Riding of Yorkshire with three objectives on the list, the first being Park Hill Flats, Sheffield.
Park Hill was a revolutionary scheme to rehouse the residents of ‘Little Chicago’ shortly after the war, so named for the violent crimes in the area. The distinctive design was to provide ‘streets in the sky’ in the sweeping arcs of blocks that linked by skywalks spanning the gaps wide enough for milkfloats to pass over. Being on the hill, the roofline remains at a constant level across the site despite the variance of between four and thirteen floors with all but the top floor being accessible from the ground at some point on the site. The site was given a Grade II listing in 1998 making it Europe’s largest listed building – to much controversy – which prompted redevelopment by Urban Splash which is still ongoing.
History lesson over, I decided that this huge site deserved the detail of medium format and I decided to give digital a miss for the day. Following my trial of urbex in Selby with digital and my debate over the pros and cons, I still think medium format is the way to go for architectural work like this. The scale of this site provides a substantial amount of detail and intricacies which only film could do justice to. I was first struck by the bleakness of the site, partially closed, partially redeveloped, partially still inhabited. The boarded and sheeted flats overlook this unused playground and football pitch. At this point redevelopment seems like a futile effort in bringing life back into the area.
We decided to head up a few floors and came across long ‘decks’ of inhabited and uninhabited flats. I took this shot on the top floor over the skywalk as a local gent gave us his opinion of the site, saying it was an ‘eyesore’ and ‘only fit for demolition’ (numerous Yorkshire expletives removed). It seems this is the general consensus about Park Hill. A little while later we came across another gent who was part of the maintenance crew in his cool little cart.
I was amazed to see one of these carts after hearing about the milkfloats that used to crusade around here (presumably all morning!). Although it wasn’t a milkfloat it was interesting to see how the whole place worked in order to provide easy access to vehicles to make servicing and maintenance as easy as possible.
We moved on down and into the courtyard of another block. I ran out of film on my first roll (Kodak Ektar 100 in case you were wondering) and went with Adox CHS 25 Art. This is a film I’ve had for a while thats been waiting for a perfect opportunity and a subject that would do it’s unique grain capabilities justice. Being 25 ISO, this is a very slow but very fine grain film . I previously used the 50 ISO version of this film and found it struggled in the highlights but the lighting here in Sheffield was much more overcast and as such, the difficulty of highlights blowing out was much less of a problem.
This shot of the closed gents amenities had nearly three stops difference between the shadows and the highlights but the CHS 25 has preserved detail in both areas, I’m rather impressed. Moreover, that super fine grain has meant every single mosaic sized tile is full of detail and not lost in the grain.
Everything in Park Hill has a slope to it and getting a straight on shot is a challenge in itself. I loved the details in this view so decided to get a shot of it knowing the Adox would be more than capable. What I really liked is how everything is so uniform but punctuated with Sky dishes. Park Hill seems to have a distinct lack of character and individuality. Everyone’s flat looks the same on the outside, but whether this emphasises community or pushes it apart is probably debatable.
Another few notes on the Adox 25. I developed it in Promicrol 1+14 for 5 minutes at 24C. I only had Promicrol at my disposal but this caused me problems as I couldn’t find any dev info for this film. So basing my time on 25 ISO Rollei films which I did have some information on (as Rollei and Adox have similar film bases) I worked out 5 minutes would be a reasonable time. I agitated for the first 30 seconds and 10 seconds per minute after that which produced relatively low contrast requiring a bit of pumping up in the scan. Otherwise, I was quite happy with the Promicrol but I’m sure the high acutance of Rodinal would produce exceptional results.
After running through the Adox film nice and quickly I opted for a roll of Kodak Vericolor VPL 100 (expired circa 1994). A word of warning with these films is they have no ISO information on the wrapper or on the paper strip, its only on the unexposed end of the backing paper. If you forget to check what the ISO is at this point, you won’t get another chance. So, obviously I forgot to check! I guessed it was either 200 or 400 so shot it at 200. I only shot half the roll but upon developing I discovered it was 100 ISO. Surprisingly, the shots were all underexposed, probably due to age, and could have been shot at 400 ISO quite comfortably. It also came out with a very strong blue shift which looks kind of cool but is a far cry from the accuracy of Kodak Ektar and Adox CHS 25… the foibles of expired film!
As we finished off at Park Hill, we noticed more and more of these closed amenities – pubs, shops, public toilets. They all had a working class look to them and were probably an active and valued meeting place during the busier days of Park Hill. It’s a shame that these have been closed down and waiting for redevelopment. I’m a big fan of the uniqueness of Urban Splash redevelopments but I can’t help but think the angle they’ve gone for on this site will never meet the standards expected of the city-liver business-person market and that the current (and former) residents will feel like Park Hill is no longer for them. I can only hope I’m wrong.
