Final Park Hill phase heads Sheffield agenda

With an earlier stage of Urban Splash’s project in the running for the RIBA Stirling Prize, phase five, the 105-apartment Talbot Street block, is set to be greenlit.

Plans were submitted by Made it Together for Urban Splash in June, with architect Mikhail Riches, designer of the Stirling-shortlisted phase two, again engaged on design.

Also on the professional team are Estrada Ecology, Civic Engineers, Austin Smith Lord (as landscape architect), Buttress advising on heritage, Broadfield Project Management, Sandy Brown on acoustics, CHPKFire, Booth King and Salford Environmental Consultancy.

The application, given reference number 24/01672/FUL by Sheffield City Council, comes along with a listed building application, much like its predecessor applications at the Brutalist estate.

Park Hill’s redevelopment was launched around 20 years ago, with outline planning permission first granted in 2006 for the refurbishment of up to 874 flats across the 32-acre complex.

Phase one included 260 homes, 30,000 sq ft of commercial space and a nursery. Phase three was the second part delivered, in 2021 and now including 350 student bedspaces, with phase two following in 2022, covering 199 apartments.

Phase four, on which Places for People is a partner, was consented in November last year, with permission formally finalised earlier this year.

The application to go before committee on 16 September covers refurbishment and alterations to 105 flats, along with a request for flexible use on a 2,259 sq ft ground floor space.

The flats range from one to four bedrooms and are located at the higher end of the site on the elevation facing into the city centre, over and across South Street and Sheffield station.

Phase five is presented by the architect as having four flanks. It has an existing lift core at the knuckle of Flank H and I, which will have a private residents lobby at ground floor and a new lift installed.

There is a stair core at the end of Flank L for residents to access Norwich Street, while flats on Long Henry and Norwich Street will be accessed via the ‘streets in the sky’ that make Park Hill so notable.

According to Mikhail Riches’ design & access statement, for phase five it is proposing the same balcony colour palette as that used in phase two, which it abuts on the South Street side.

Even disregarding the success of the scheme so far and the desire to see completion of what has become a successful regeneration project for the city, the council is in effect more or less obliged to grant permission, as it cannot currently demonstrate a four-year housing supply.