Mark Hillyer- Park Hill

Mark Hillyer is a photographer living and working in Leeds. His personal projects include documenting the changing urban and industrial landscape of Yorkshire and the infrastructure driving & supplying the evolution of the region.

“The Park Hill project illustrates the redevelopment of the Park Hill estate as a metaphor for the transformation of Sheffield from it’s blue collar, industrial roots, into recession, depression & stagnation through redevelopment, investment and rebirth as a white collar, modern and thriving city.

Park Hill Estate originally contained 995 individual units and was built between 1957 & 1961 in a Brutalist architectural style by architects Jack Lynn & Ivor Smith. The estate was built to replace an area of the city known colloquially in the 1930’s as “Little Chicago”, a gridiron of continuous terraces and steep alleyways with no mains drainage. Clearance of the area began in 1935 to be replaced by four storey maisonettes, but was halted by WWII.

In 1953, inspired by Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation, work began on designing Park Hill Flats.

In 1998 Park Hill became Europe’s largest Grade II listed building.”