Sheffield - a new era for Park Hill

Is this city's gritty image finally being softened by imaginative new developments? Chris Arnot finds out

Although partially screened by trees, the Park Hill flats are still easy enough to spot if you're coming into Sheffield by train. Their barrel-chested concrete decks, 12 storeys high in parts, ripple along the crest of the hill that already towers over the station. Inspired by Corbusier and built as "streets in the sky" during the late 1950s, they were Sheffield's answer to the chronic housing problems that afflicted so many British cities as they grappled with the Luftwaffe's brutal, yet haphazard, form of slum clearance. The council flats were opened in 1961 by Hugh Gaitskell, leader of the Labour Party. Among the local worthies looking on was Roy Hattersley, chairman of the public works committee.

The bright optimism of those days faded during the intervening decades to a shade of rain-stained grey. Like so many similar developments, Park Hill suffered from inadequate maintenance and anti-social behaviour from a minority of residents. But it remains the biggest Grade-II*-listed building in the country and it stands on the verge of an imaginative renovation to be undertaken by the celebrated Manchester-based developers Urban Splash.

Under its proposals, 274 apartments will be retained for social or affordable housing. Another 600 will go on the open market. The successors of Hattersley, David Blunkett and other former stalwarts of local government in South Yorkshire have just given the go-ahead for the £160m scheme. Jeremy Till, professor of architecture at Sheffield University and a former resident, applauds the decision. "It's a very brave project," he says. "I'm completely behind it." The substantial Liberal Democrat minority on the city council are not. They were in favour of having the complex de-listed and demolished. One of only two Tory councillors changed her mind about supporting demolition in the light of a characteristically persuasive presentation by Urban Splash in the Park Hill community centre.

Nick Johnson, the director of development, painted a whimsical picture of a future idyll with a wild-flower meadow, cricket on the village green, crown green bowls, small shops, an ethical supermarket, trendy bars, a real-ale pub and "Sheffield's very own Fat Duck, serving bacon-and-egg ice cream and snail porridge for lunch". Christophe Egret, one of the architects, added his seductive Gallic tones to this romantic vision. "We need to reconnect Park Hill with the rest of the city," he said, "and persuade the rest of Sheffield to love Park Hill again."

Ah, yes, the rest of Sheffield. Like Rome, it was built on seven hills, but comparisons end there. Some decidedly un-Italianate developments in the 1960s and 1970s have not stood the test of time. They featured prominently in The Full Monty, the film that gave the rest of the country a belly laugh and left the old steel city with a headache. "My main problem is overcoming the false preconceptions that so many people bring with them," says Rebecca Rose, who runs a company called Relocate2Sheffield.

The southern suburbs are surely among the finest in the country. John Betjeman said as much a long time ago. The poet was particularly impressed with Broomhill, but he might easily have been talking about neighbouring Ranmoor. Substantial stone villas, with large, mature gardens are available for not much more than the price of a basement in South Kensington.

A third of Sheffield is set in the Peak District National Park, which means that you can live close to glorious countryside while being within easy striking distance of the centre of England's fourth biggest city.

And what of that centre? Well, the hard edges are being softened by major investments like the Winter Garden, the largest city-centre temperate glasshouse in Europe. New apartment blocks are mushrooming rapidly. Fashionable spots include Victoria Quays on the canal basin and West One, overlooking Devonshire Square. Prices here range from studios at £89,950 to duplex penthouses at £295,000. Two-bedroomed apartments are around £165,000, including parking.

One of the more intriguing developments in town is above what was once Glossop Road Baths. "I used to go swimming here," says Steve Wilkinson, who has transformed the long-derelict Victorian pool and Turkish baths. Downstairs is a spa for the pampering of Sheffield's female flesh. Upstairs are 21 well-insulated apartments, starting at £120,000 for one bedroom. "A three-bedroom flat has just gone for £280,000," says Wilkinson, who has kept, perhaps, the most impressive apartment for himself. It ranges over three floors, covers 2,500sq ft, and incorporates original features including ceiling girders and a pulley from which a dance floor was rolled out over the water in the 1950s and 1960s. He's selling it for £375,000; call 07713 123323.

Wilkinson lives here with his wife, Katherine, and two daughters. City living, it seems, doesn't have to be for singletons. Hopefully, many more families will be enjoying city apartments (built to spacious post-war Parker Morris standards) when a new dawn rises over Park Hill.

Relocate2Sheffield, 0114 2215587