Park Hill Tours

07/09/2026

On Saturday, we welcomed guests from Sheffield and Manchester, to walk the Streets in the Sky for our very first British Sign Language (BSL) and Discover BSL tours of Park Hill.

Led by Martin Glover, the tours were delivered with humour and in a conversational presentation style that made everyone feel included and engaged. It was particularly interesting to hear his perspective, as an art facilitator, on the various sculptures and artistic features around the estate.

During the Discover BSL tour, visitors also learnt to sign relevant words along the way, including ‘flat’, ‘architect’, ‘Sheffield’ and even ‘applause’ - a fitting way to thank Martin for his fantastic guiding!

Many thanks as well to everyone who joined us, to BSL interpreter Lauren for translating, and to Urban Splash for helping make these tours happen.

If you’d like to hear about any future BSL tours of Park Hill, please follow us on social media or sign up to our mailing list via our website at www.parkhilltours.com

01/09/2026

Places are still available for our British Sign Language (BSL) tours of Park Hill this coming Saturday. Led by architect and BSL user Martin Glover, and accompanied by a resident guide, you'll discover the history and architecture of Park Hill, walk the iconic Streets in the Sky, and step inside a renovated flat.

For those who are not deaf or hard of hearing, there is also a Discover BSL where an interpreter will translate from BSL into spoken English. This is a great opportunity to find out more about BSL and learn to sign some words, whilst exploring the history and architecture of Park Hill.

These tours are run in partnership with Urban Splash to make Park Hill's story accessible to everyone.

Book now at https://www.parkhilltours.com/bsl-tours/

07/08/2026

Today marked the formal opening of ‘On The Edge’, the winner of the 2026 Chelsea Flower Show Garden of the Year. Designed by Sarah Eberle Landscape and Garden Design, the garden celebrates the centenary of the Campaign to Protect Rural England and the grounds of Park Hill have been chosen as its permanent home.

At the heart of the garden is Gaia, a striking sculpture of the Earth goddess created by chainsaw artist Chris Wood. The planting will be installed this autumn when weather conditions are more suitable and will subsequently be cared for by volunteers of the residents’ gardening group.

The garden is open to the public and will also feature as part of our guided tours. We are fully booked for the remainder of the year (although we recommend checking for cancellations), so follow us on social media for announcements about 2027 ticket releases. We also offer private group tours throughout the year — please visit our website for further details.

31/07/2026

All tickets for our remaining weekly tours this year have now sold out. If you were hoping to book, please keep an eye on our website for any returned tickets that become available. We look forward to welcoming those joining us throughout August. If you’d like to hear about ticket sales for our 2027 tours, please follow our social media channels for updates. Tickets are still available for our British Sign Language tours on the 5th September - see our website for details and booking.

26/07/2026

One of four pubs originally built at Park Hill, The Parkway was designed by Sheffield-based Hadfield, Cawkwell and Davidson Architects for the Hope and Anchor brewery. Built in 1960, its exterior was adorned with bold graphic adverts, an idea suggested by the city architects, and Vetreria Ia Valle glass mosaics in a modernist palette of red, light grey, dark grey, orange, blue and white.

The Parkway was admired in the architectural press, with the Architectural Review in 1961 regarding it the best of Park Hills pubs and highlighting the use of exterior mosaics for both their graphic design and advertising opportunities. A few years later the Architects Journal presented it as an exemplary post-war pub, praising the way it enhanced the street scene through a modern interpretation of the Victorian and Edwardian public house.

The journal also described The Parkway as a notable exception to the poor quality of many pub interiors of the period, calling it a "pleasant interior, free from gimmickry and content to let the natural harmony of bottles, glasses and people provide atmosphere."

We can see this for ourselves in the photograph of patrons enjoying the public bar, complete with a dartboard mounted on the brick wall and a yard-of-ale glass hanging above the bar. On the opposite side of the pub was the lounge bar, finished with Baltic pine panelling and carpet for a more comfortable setting.

Now a convenience store, all that remains are the mosaics, restored in 2020 by Olicana Mosaics after years hidden beneath layers of graffiti and paint. We stop to admire these during our tours and it's always interesting to hear visitors' different interpretations of the abstract orange and blue mosaic.

Our tour finishes near Park Hill's current pub, The Pearl, where you can enjoy a discount on your purchase by showing your tour ticket. The last remaining tickets for this year are available at www.parkhilltours.com

All photographs Sheffield Archives and the Hadfield Cawkwell and Davidson collection. Reproduced with the permission of Sheffield Archives.

21/07/2026

TOURS LATE AVAILABILITY

Our tours are sold out until mid-August however we have received a few returns for this Thursday evening (23/7). To join us for a summers evening tour of Park Hill visit www.parkhilltours.com to book your ticket.

Explore a brutalist icon and its bold reinvention

15/07/2026

Last week, we were delighted to welcome guests of our neighbour Nest.co.uk as part of their event with USM Modular Furniture. The group, made up of architects, interior designers and other industry professionals, brought plenty of thoughtful questions and also included past and present residents and others with a connection to Park Hill.

Like many tours over the last couple of months, despite the hot weather, the design of the Streets in the Sky and the generous planting scheme throughout the redevelopment kept us comfortably shaded for much of the tour.

If you're interested in arranging a private tour for your own group, find out more about what we offer at https://www.parkhilltours.com/private-tours/

30/06/2026

We are excited to announce that British Sign Language (BSL) tours of Park Hill will be taking place this September. In partnership with Urban Splash, we are offering deaf and hard-of-hearing BSL users the opportunity to join us to walk the Streets in the Sky for the first time. There will also be a tour open to non-deaf guests who are interested in discovering how the story of Park Hill is expressed through sign language and perhaps learning a few signs along the way.

Each tour will be led by BSL guide Martin Glover and accompanied by a resident guide and interpreter. Martin is an architect and experienced arts facilitator who has delivered tours for many cultural institutions, including the Barbican, the Design Museum, Chatsworth House, Tate Modern, and Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Some visitors may already have seen Park Hill on screen recently in the BBC drama, Reunion, produced by our neighbours at Warp Films and filmed partly on the estate. The series features deaf talent both in front of and behind the camera, and makes extensive use of BSL.

Tours will be held on Saturday 5th September and tickets are on sale now. Visit https://www.parkhilltours.com/bsl-tours/ to book a place.

These tours could not be run without the generous support of Urban Splash. We are delighted to work with them to make the story of Park Hill more accessible through British Sign Language.

16/06/2026

Sixty-five years ago today, on 16 June 1961, Park Hill was officially opened by the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Labour Party, Hugh Gaitskell MP.

The official opening didn't mark the beginning of Park Hill's story, as residents had started moving into the completed parts of the estate in 1959, but it was an opportunity for the council to celebrate the delivery of a bold municipal housing project in a Labour-run city.

The estate replaced streets of slum housing with 995 flats and maisonettes, 31 shops, four pubs, a laundry, a community hall, and the now-famous deck-access "streets in the sky".

Lewis Womersley, Sheffield's City Architect, described the decks as open-air streets where prams could be pushed, neighbours could talk, and children could play. He and project architects, Jack Lynn and Ivor Smith, argued that they were not just rehousing people but reimagining the working-class terraces into a modern form.

In later years, Park Hill would suffer from a lack of maintenance, changes in public policy, the decline of social housing, and shifts in public sentiment toward this type of architecture. But on that summer's day in 1961, the air was still filled with optimism, civic pride and modernity.

Park Hill isn't just a landmark building. It's also a living piece of Sheffield history. Join one of our resident-led tours, walk the streets in the sky and hear the stories behind the architecture. Book online at parkhilltours.com.

09/06/2026

Park Hill (and Brutalism) isn't just about concrete. Brick, a more traditional building material, features prominently across many of the building's elevations. These brick panels, along with their mortar pointing, have remained in remarkably good condition over the decades, requiring little more than a careful clean as part of the redevelopment, so what you see today is original.

Join one of our tours to discover how the brickwork contributes to Park Hill's distinctive character and how a closer look can reveal clues to architectural features that have since disappeared. Book your place now at www.parkhilltours.com to walk the Streets in the Sky with us this summer.