As Featured in the Guardian: Beton House, The Streets in the Sky Come Alive Again

Less than 20 years ago the entire Park Hill estate in Sheffield was sold to a developer for just £1. It was called an eye-sore, a project-impossible, draped in unfashionable concrete and bygone memories of a Brutalist era that didn’t quite fit in the 2000s standards of glass-heaven architecture. 

But that was then. Today, the picture, or shall we say – the playground, has changed. The concrete is coming back to life, sprinkled with daring colours, in a Mondrian-like pattern, yet embracing its brutally honest (or, honestly beautiful?) foundations. 

Featured in The Guardian’s latest article ‘It always felt good here’: how Sheffield’s brutalist Park Hill estate survived the haters and their bulldozers” is the estate of Park Hill, which is the home of Beton House, Sheffield’s unparalleled student accommodation.

The Beton House Accommodation

For those enthralled by history or fascinated by modern art, Beton House provides not just private student accommodation Sheffield, but a real home away from home, bursting with character. 

Whilst walking the famous Streets in the Sky is no longer as thrilling of a game as it once was for the teenagers growing up on the estate, today’s student tenants can enjoy a cinema room, gym, private dining area, dedicated study room, and a leafy outdoor area, perfect for when the sun decides to pay a visit to Sheffield. 

The redevelopment of the Park Hill estate has breathed a new life into the solid concrete walls but hasn’t completely eradicated its unique character, which to many Sheffielders carries a subtle feeling of belonging and home. 

As Joanne Marsden says in The Guardian’s article, featured above: “When I come back on the train, I look up and think: ‘Wow, I’m here. I’ve made it.’”, then she continues “They modernised it and put bling on it, but I can’t say it feels any better than what it were. It always felt good living here.”

Nowadays, the prejudice against Sheffield’s hilltop estate is all but gone. There’s student laughter, there are young families, greenery, and a growing sense of community. 

In an era when recycling, upcycling and sustainability are the leading values of the day, maybe we’re finally appreciating the worth of redeveloping and repurposing what was once built, rather than simply flattening it to the ground. Because, is it not much better to share a piece of history with those who once lived, dreamed, and dared amongst these same walls?