Streets in the Sky: Hyde Park Flats, Sheffield, 1988

Born in Birmingham in 1955 and raised in Leeds, Bill Stephenson first enrolled at Nottingham Trent Polytechnic to study furniture design. While documenting his coursework, he discovered photography — a discovery that quickly became a vocation, leading him to abandon design and pursue life behind the camera.

Butlin's

After leaving Nottingham Trent Polytechnic, Bill worked a couple of odd jobs as a tyre fitter and delivery driver before spending a season as a photographer at Butlin’s in Skegness in the summer of 1977.

Bill: “This seemed like ‘lost time’ for many people, including my parents, especially as my brother and sister were studying medicine. However, working at a frantic place like Butlin’s, I quickly lost my shyness with people, which would help define my work years later.”

Donna Hargreaves and Carmen Bello both age 14, sit on a 4th storey concrete parapet. It was usual to see young people sunbathing on these balconies catching the last of the days sunshine.

Sheffield City Polytechnic

Bill would spend hours absorbing the work of photographers like Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, and Garry Winogrand, who inspired him. He sent a portfolio of photographs to the British Journal of Photography, which was published. This led to an invitation from course leader Ken Philip from the Communication Arts BA (Hons) Fine Arts Degree course at Sheffield City Polytechnic. Bill was accepted onto the course, and at the beginning of the third year, he had a tutorial from a regular visiting lecturer and photographer, Paul Hill.

Self Confidence

Paul expressed his exasperation with Bill’s progress and inquired about his background before joining the course. Bill revealed his experience at Butlin’s and the self-confidence he gained through public photography. Impressed by Bill’s abilities, Paul suggested using them to tell stories and “tell what he has seen” with others.

"I quickly developed a passion and commitment for photographing and recording communities of people who are often neglected, marginalised or considered unimportant."

Tony ‘The Ton’ Greaves and Martin age 8, outside the ‘Pop In’ centre. The young kids looked up to Tony as a role model, he was nicknamed ‘The Ton’ as they believed he could lift a ton weight.

Hyde Park Flats

“The Hyde Park and Park Hill Development was the largest social housing estate of its type in Europe, built on one of Sheffield’s seven hills. It was divided into two distinct areas: the low-rise Park Hill Flats and the high-rise tower blocks ‘Hyde Park.’ By the mid-1980s, Sheffield City Council considered Hyde Park Flats a failed experiment in social housing. The last community to live there was in 1988, and the flats were vacated during 1989–90. Several flats were refurbished to provide accommodation for the World Student Games in 1991, with the rest of the flats being demolished between 1992 and 1993.”

Streets in the Sky

Bill’s Streets in the Sky project was concerned with photographing the last residents of Hyde Park Flats in 1988.

Bill: “Despite the neglected condition of the building and increasing anti-social behaviour at that time, I found a close community reluctant to be broken up and dispersed throughout other housing estates in Sheffield. I did not meet a single resident who wanted to be rehoused; despite the condition of the flats, they considered Hyde Park to be their home and a significant landmark and were proud to be tenants in such a prominent building overlooking Sheffield.

“Many believed that Hyde Park, despite its shortcomings, represented a vision for social housing that was both optimistic and outward-looking and that the council had made ill-judged and short-sighted decisions that had contributed to the decline, deterioration and the eventual demolition of the building.”

Manual Bello playing with his dog near the ‘Pop In Centre’. Dogs are banned from the flats, tenants faced being evicted if they did not give up their pets.

Building Relationships

“The process of photographing at Hyde Park initially proved difficult. I started photographing in May 1988, but it wasn’t until June of that year that I made contact with a small network of residents who understood and supported the project. There was resistance to anyone ‘official’, so establishing relationships with ‘personalities’ on the estate was vital to working closely with residents.

“I kept my camera out of sight in a plastic carrier bag to lessen my impact when walking around the estate. Talking to people, looking for introductions and visiting the various facilities helped residents become familiar with my purpose.”

"I loved the concrete, the ambition and the post-war optimism that shaped it. But mist of all I loved that it was social housing, built for working people."

Bill’s Streets in the Sky was exhibited at The Untitled Gallery, Sheffield, in October 1988 and toured nationally. Bill was nominated for the Fox Talbot Award for this work, organised by the National Media Museum, Bradford.

The photographs in this series were taken using a Hasselblad 500 C/M camera with 80mm and 50mm lenses.

A collection of limited edition prints from Bill Stephenson’s Streets in the Sky series is available exclusively through British Culture Archive.