History in neon
The Park Hill estate is a well-known social housing project in Shefflield. It’s a Grade II brutalist building, designed by architects Jack Lynn and Ivor Smith in the 1940′s (and built by 1961), taking inspiration from Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation and incorporating the ‘streets in the sky’ concept, which was pioneered by architects Alison and Peter Smithson.
Like many of its concrete-estate cousins, it hasn’t aged well. So while it’s remembered fondly by some ex residents – including one lady who liked being able to pop over to the on-site pubs in her slippers thanks to the covered walkways – it’s also frequently written off as a crime-ridden eye-sore. A familiar story.
But, now that property development company Urban Splash is redeveloping its ass, the building has a hopeful new future.
And this bridge has taken on a whole story of its own.
‘I love you – will you marry me?’
Urban Splash decided to immortalise the question forever in neon, re-interpreting it as a plea from the building to its city to love its new groovy self.
Cool? Not, according to a R4 documentary, to the spray-painter of the original message, Jason. To him it’s just a ghastly reminder of his unrequited love Clare, who married someone else instead, then died of cancer a few years ago. Not cool, sad!
You can still listen to the documentary here. Or amuse yourself at the Sheffield forum, where people have dedicated some time to questioning how authentic Jason is. I believe in him, do you?
