0:00:03 > 0:00:07Just over a century ago, the motion camera was invented,
0:00:07 > 0:00:11and changed for ever the way we recall our history.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13For the first time, we could see life
0:00:13 > 0:00:16through the eyes of ordinary people.
0:00:18 > 0:00:23Across this series, we will bring these rare archive films
0:00:23 > 0:00:26back to life with the help of our vintage mobile cinema.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32We'll be inviting people with a story to tell to step onboard
0:00:32 > 0:00:35and relive moments they thought were gone for ever.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43They'll see their relatives on screen for the first time,
0:00:43 > 0:00:46come face-to-face with their younger selves,
0:00:46 > 0:00:49and celebrate our amazing 20th-century past.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54This is the people's story, our story.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21Our vintage mobile cinema
0:01:21 > 0:01:25was originally commissioned in 1967 to show training films to workers.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29Today, it's been lovingly restored
0:01:29 > 0:01:32and loaded up with remarkable film footage, preserved for us
0:01:32 > 0:01:34by the British Film Institute
0:01:34 > 0:01:37and other national and regional film archives.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41In this series, we will be travelling to towns and cities
0:01:41 > 0:01:44across the country and showing films from the 20th century
0:01:44 > 0:01:47that give us the Reel History of Britain.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53Today we're pulling up in the 1960s...
0:01:57 > 0:02:00..when high-rise housing promised a better way of living.
0:02:15 > 0:02:17This is Park Hill in Sheffield.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19When it was built, it was considered
0:02:19 > 0:02:23the most radical and ambitious estate settlement of its kind.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35Coming up, a thumbs-up for the Park Hill Estate...
0:02:35 > 0:02:37This is one of the best examples
0:02:37 > 0:02:41of what modern council housing can be about.
0:02:41 > 0:02:45How one high-rise block turned bad...
0:02:45 > 0:02:48They did let it just slip away and I think that was sad.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51And a moving memory of a long-lost brother.
0:02:51 > 0:02:53Magical.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56Touching to see my brother again after so long.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09We've come to the Park Hill Estate in Sheffield,
0:03:09 > 0:03:13which in 1998 became the largest listed building in Europe.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18It's always divided opinion. Some call it the Utopian dream.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21Others see it as a blot on the landscape.
0:03:23 > 0:03:25But it's certainly a towering concrete monument
0:03:25 > 0:03:28to the '60s vision of modern social housing.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54The story of 20th century social housing in Britain
0:03:54 > 0:03:56starts at the end of the First World War,
0:03:56 > 0:03:59when Lloyd George promised homes fit for heroes.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01And the Housing and Town Planning Act of 1919
0:04:01 > 0:04:05required local authorities to provide new homes
0:04:05 > 0:04:07for the working class.
0:04:10 > 0:04:15But World War II halted progress and bombing raids damaged or destroyed
0:04:15 > 0:04:17more than a quarter of all homes.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22Post-war baby boom and growing immigration
0:04:22 > 0:04:26all contributed to an acute housing shortage after the war.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32Then the '60s saw a breakthrough.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36Visionary architects had a bold idea - build up into the sky.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40Pioneering town planners embraced high-rise living
0:04:40 > 0:04:44in the belief it would deliver a whole new way for people to live.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48But history has a different story to tell.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58'My guests today have come from all over the country
0:04:58 > 0:05:00'to tell us about their 1960s council homes.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04'Some will be seeing the films we're about to screen
0:05:04 > 0:05:08'for the very first time, showing us photos of their younger selves
0:05:08 > 0:05:11'and revealing what it was really like to live through
0:05:11 > 0:05:14'this social experiment in modern communal living.'
0:05:21 > 0:05:25'My first guest is 65-year-old Sandra Sandlin, who experienced
0:05:25 > 0:05:29'at first hand the radical housing policies of post-war Britain.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34'She and her family were initially housed in one of the thousands
0:05:34 > 0:05:37'of prefabricated bungalows the Government built
0:05:37 > 0:05:40'to provide temporary housing for people after the war.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43'They adored it.'
0:05:43 > 0:05:46- You brought this photograph? - This is the interior of our home.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49This is me, here.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52I should think that's probably 1960, I'm about 14 there.
0:05:52 > 0:05:54My mum, with the cat,
0:05:54 > 0:05:57my nan, my auntie and uncle, my brother and my cousin.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59And we lived on the Belle Vale prefab estate,
0:05:59 > 0:06:02which was the largest prefab estate in the country.
0:06:02 > 0:06:06We lived in bungalows with gardens all the way round.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08And it was really lovely.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12When I look at other places, I realise how fortunate I was.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20'Today in our mobile cinema, Sandra's going to see films
0:06:20 > 0:06:24'from the nation's archive that show prefabs just like her childhood home.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28'How will she feel as the memories come flooding back?'
0:06:33 > 0:06:38'It was really lovely, cos we were surrounded by countryside.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42'Gardens all the way round, growing 'your own veg, loads of flowers.'
0:06:45 > 0:06:47We had two bedrooms,
0:06:47 > 0:06:51great big bathroom, great big airing cupboard, lovely.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57'About 160,000 prefab houses were built around the country,
0:06:57 > 0:07:00'but they were only intended to last for 10 years.'
0:07:01 > 0:07:04- VOICEOVER: - Licensed only for 10 years,
0:07:04 > 0:07:06these will be rented at low cost.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09They are prefabricated and build of fine steel
0:07:09 > 0:07:12with a lining of plywood, for keeping a good, constant heat.
0:07:14 > 0:07:19'But in 1970, after 23 years in the same prefab, their happiness was
0:07:19 > 0:07:23'shattered when they were forcibly rehoused into a modern maisonette.'
0:07:23 > 0:07:30We moved from a detached bungalow into a block of maisonettes.
0:07:30 > 0:07:36So it was smaller and it was upstairs and there was all that inconvenience
0:07:36 > 0:07:38to get to the garden to hang the washing up
0:07:38 > 0:07:42and it was a tiny little square patch of land for the garden.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47So, it was no improvement.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56It wasn't my ideal of heaven. It wasn't my idea of a home.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03'Sandra's prefab estate was demolished
0:08:03 > 0:08:07'but she's always wished the council had allowed them to stay there.'
0:08:09 > 0:08:12'People were devastated to leave the prefabs
0:08:12 > 0:08:14'because it was so lovely.'
0:08:14 > 0:08:17Why did they have to demolish them? They could have kept them.
0:08:17 > 0:08:23If they felt that they weren't suitable for permanent dwellings
0:08:23 > 0:08:26then upgrade them!
0:08:34 > 0:08:37'Sandra was typical of many British people
0:08:37 > 0:08:41'who wanted a traditional family home.
0:08:41 > 0:08:46'But building bungalows on precious green belt land proved to be impossible.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49'So, planners' thoughts turned to redeveloping inner-cities.'
0:08:52 > 0:08:55Without any question, some architects in the '60s thought
0:08:55 > 0:08:59that urban planning could solve social life.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02They could bring people out of the slums, put them
0:09:02 > 0:09:06into buildings like these and they would aspire to better things.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09'To find out how urban planners tackled the housing problem,
0:09:09 > 0:09:12'the architect and historian Charlie Luxton
0:09:12 > 0:09:14'is meeting me here at Park Hill.'
0:09:14 > 0:09:18How do they arrive at the high-rise solution as the main solution, really?
0:09:18 > 0:09:20Already, from the 1930s,
0:09:20 > 0:09:23they're starting to question the way cities are expanding.
0:09:23 > 0:09:28You're seeing the kind of towns taking over the countryside issue
0:09:28 > 0:09:32and so they needed to replace very dense housing
0:09:32 > 0:09:35in the same sort of footprint.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37So really, the solution seemed to be to go up.
0:09:41 > 0:09:43Park Hill was a classic of its kind.
0:09:45 > 0:09:52I think this is one of the best examples of what modern council housing can be about.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57It was about, you know, aspirant working-class people,
0:09:57 > 0:09:58giving them a chance.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02Do you think the high-rise notion
0:10:02 > 0:10:07has any possibility of forming what we used to call a community?
0:10:07 > 0:10:10The idea here was to recreate some sense of that community,
0:10:10 > 0:10:13with these streets in the sky, so that you could retain
0:10:13 > 0:10:15kind of a social dimension to the way that you live.
0:10:15 > 0:10:21And they invested in infrastructure, they invested in the shops, the schools, the playgrounds.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25Do you think the high-rise solution was a good solution, looking back on it?
0:10:25 > 0:10:28Fundamentally there is nothing wrong with high-rise living.
0:10:28 > 0:10:30It works in other countries.
0:10:30 > 0:10:31I think the real problem
0:10:31 > 0:10:34comes from the way they manage those high-rise buildings,
0:10:34 > 0:10:37and the kind of people they put in them.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44Today we have come to the Park Hill Estate in Sheffield,
0:10:44 > 0:10:48where the utopian dream of streets in the sky both lived and died.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53The flats are almost empty at the moment, but my next guest,
0:10:53 > 0:10:5853-year-old Bob King, remembers when every flat was full.
0:10:59 > 0:11:05He moved here as a baby in 1962, and Park Hill was his playground.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08To us it was home. We were free to go anywhere we wanted,
0:11:08 > 0:11:12but we felt comfortable in this section here, cos it's where we played football.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15Where we did our games, our courting, where we met friends.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18What we learnt here would take us into our future lives.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21And we learnt about friendship, and we learnt about other people.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25We learnt all the life skills we needed here, on Park Hill flats,
0:11:25 > 0:11:26which made us what we are.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34In our mobile cinema, Bob is about to see a film
0:11:34 > 0:11:36released by Sheffield City Council in 1962.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40It vividly captures everyday life on the estate.
0:11:45 > 0:11:50Will it remind him of the terrific community spirit he loved so much?
0:11:57 > 0:12:00It was fantastic, to be transported back in time
0:12:00 > 0:12:03and to see familiar faces that I knew from way back then,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07in proper film on the big screen. Such magical stuff.
0:12:07 > 0:12:08This was our life.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17This film showcased Sheffield's pioneering approach
0:12:17 > 0:12:21to modern communal living for the working class.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27The new architecture was known as brutalist.
0:12:27 > 0:12:29It was practical and cheap.
0:12:36 > 0:12:41If you can imagine 995 flats with all those people living so close to each other,
0:12:41 > 0:12:43not to be at each other's throats every day,
0:12:43 > 0:12:45they must have got something right.
0:12:49 > 0:12:51To maintain a sense of community,
0:12:51 > 0:12:54neighbours are rehoused next door to each other
0:12:54 > 0:12:59and old street names are reused. It was a northern socialist utopia.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04It was like a little mini-village.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07The person who did it all thought of everything.
0:13:07 > 0:13:13Newsagents, hairdressers, shoe shops, clothes shops, a cafe.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17Everything you ever wanted was there in one little area on the flats.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26There were two milk floats. They were brilliantly designed
0:13:26 > 0:13:28to fit exactly just below the ceiling point.
0:13:31 > 0:13:35There seemed to be a little competition about who could have the prettiest doorstep.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38If the latest vinyl colours came out for linoleum,
0:13:38 > 0:13:42they'd go and get an off-cut and fit a little piece to their doorstep.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55It symbolises my youth and my growing up, through childhood,
0:13:55 > 0:13:59adolescence, and shaped me into being what I am now.
0:14:02 > 0:14:07It's like saying goodbye to an old friend. It was my life, my history.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11It's quite emotional. I'm quite moved. It's lovely.
0:14:23 > 0:14:2757-year-old Sheffield resident Charlie Lindley grew up here also.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32And today he's come along to see a remarkable film
0:14:32 > 0:14:38that actually shows his family living on Park Hill back in 1966.
0:14:38 > 0:14:44- Did you go to the primary school here, then?- Used to fall out of bed and you'd be straight in your class!
0:14:44 > 0:14:48- When you fall out of bed when you get older, you'd be straight in the pub!- As you got older, yeah.
0:14:48 > 0:14:52Me first pint at 18, me dad took me down to Scottish Queen.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55It were like a passage of rites kind of thing, you know what I mean?
0:14:55 > 0:14:58I think most of us did, their dad took them out for the first pint.
0:14:58 > 0:15:03Put you on the housing list at 18, got you voting.
0:15:03 > 0:15:04That's how it were then.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10How will he feel watching the film today?
0:15:18 > 0:15:21Park Hill replaced an area of back-to-back houses
0:15:21 > 0:15:26and steep interconnected alleyways, houses with appalling sanitation
0:15:26 > 0:15:29that had been declared unfit for human habitation.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35We lived in a slum area with back-to-back houses.
0:15:35 > 0:15:39One room downstairs, one room upstairs, and an attic.
0:15:39 > 0:15:44We moved on to the Park Hill flats and we thought we'd got everything
0:15:44 > 0:15:48because we got hot water, central heating,
0:15:48 > 0:15:52indoor toilet, three bedrooms.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54It was just a brilliant feeling.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58It was like a palace compared to where we'd come from.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01It held our hopes for a better future.
0:16:03 > 0:16:04It were everything to us.
0:16:04 > 0:16:12We lived, slept, ate, laughed, cried, had our first girlfriends.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15Everything, it's meant everything to me
0:16:15 > 0:16:18and to other people who grew up in that generation.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22It's like being in heaven up here
0:16:22 > 0:16:26because we've always been poor people.
0:16:26 > 0:16:31We've had so many good friends up here and these places is just lovely for us.
0:16:31 > 0:16:34Either for old age or young age.
0:16:39 > 0:16:44Today, Charlie will see himself featured in a BBC documentary from 1966
0:16:44 > 0:16:46that asked the residents of the Park Hill Estate
0:16:46 > 0:16:49how they felt about where they lived.
0:16:50 > 0:16:55What will it be like to see on the big screen the 12-year-old boy he once was?
0:16:55 > 0:16:58I think it looks a lot better than estates.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01They're just houses, rows of houses.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04But here it's modern, compact.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06Not crushed together, just put together,
0:17:06 > 0:17:10and it looks better than anywhere else.
0:17:12 > 0:17:14It were a big thing.
0:17:14 > 0:17:19It's not every day you get a camera crew in your house.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22Seeing his family on screen is a big moment for Charlie.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27When we moved back here I felt settled, when we came here.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31And here, if you do feel a bit lonely, you just get your shopping bag and your purse,
0:17:31 > 0:17:35and toddle off down to the shops. There's always somebody there that you know.
0:17:35 > 0:17:38The film reveals that although his mother loved the flats,
0:17:38 > 0:17:42Charlie's dad wasn't actually happy living on Park Hill.
0:17:44 > 0:17:49We moved down to Park Hill and everything seemed good at the time
0:17:49 > 0:17:51but I could never really get settled.
0:17:51 > 0:17:52When I came home from work,
0:17:52 > 0:17:55I didn't feel as though I really belonged here at all.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59Watching the film back, I realise what my dad thought about t'flats.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01It wasn't a home to come to.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04It felt as though it were some kind of a prison.
0:18:06 > 0:18:12That hurts a little bit, knowing that he did live here for all that length of time, just for the family.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16A particularly emotional moment for Charlie
0:18:16 > 0:18:20is when the director interviews his brother, Geoff,
0:18:20 > 0:18:22who had learning difficulties.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26I think it's beautiful.
0:18:30 > 0:18:31I think it's, er, nice.
0:18:33 > 0:18:35Magical.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38Touching to see my brother again.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41He weren't the only one who had learning difficulties round here,
0:18:41 > 0:18:43but everybody looked out for them.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46No harm was going to come to them,
0:18:46 > 0:18:48and people were like that in them days.
0:18:51 > 0:18:56This film has a poignancy for Charlie because he lost his dad eight years ago to cancer,
0:18:56 > 0:18:58and then his brother died not long afterwards.
0:19:02 > 0:19:03Pottering about in the garden...
0:19:03 > 0:19:09'You don't usually get the opportunity to see your dad talking when he's dead, or your brother.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12It's emotional, I think.
0:19:14 > 0:19:15All right.
0:19:29 > 0:19:31What did you think watching those films?
0:19:31 > 0:19:34When we watched the second and Charlie's younger brother came on,
0:19:34 > 0:19:40I felt for him because his brother is no longer with us. I felt this is going to hurt Charlie.
0:19:40 > 0:19:45What they were saying was right at the time. But I felt for Charlie when Geoff was on there, lovely lad.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48It's a strange feeling to see you on the screen.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51Somebody's going to be watching us on a screen.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54- He was euphoric, wasn't he? He thought it was beautiful. - Yeah. He meant it.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58With his learning difficulties, one of his problem were he couldn't lie.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01When he said it, he really meant it was beautiful.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15Here on Reel History, we're at Park Hill in Sheffield,
0:20:15 > 0:20:19joined by visitors with different memories of '60s high-rise living.
0:20:21 > 0:20:2450-year-old Anne Kimuyu has travelled today from Cardiff,
0:20:24 > 0:20:28but she spent most of her life in a tower block in Nottingham.
0:20:28 > 0:20:29She loved it.
0:20:30 > 0:20:36Her family were among thousands of immigrants who came to Britain in search of a new life in the '60s.
0:20:36 > 0:20:37All needing homes.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42Anne was born to mixed-race parents in Kenya.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47She and her two younger sisters arrived here in Britain with their mother,
0:20:47 > 0:20:51when discrimination forced her parents apart.
0:20:52 > 0:20:56How did you arrive in the estate from Kenya? What was the journey?
0:20:56 > 0:20:59In 1964, Kenya got its independence,
0:20:59 > 0:21:03and in 1965 we actually had to leave Kenya.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06My mother's life was under threat as a white woman.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09I remember it was a big plane, I was very cold.
0:21:09 > 0:21:14We came with the clothes on our back, a small little brown suitcase,
0:21:14 > 0:21:18cardboard type suitcase, and a kettle. That's all we had.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22Then, we were offered the flats and the flats were just amazing,
0:21:22 > 0:21:29- they were lovely.- How did you find your experience in those flats with the people at the time?
0:21:29 > 0:21:34The flats became a place where we all felt a big community, but all from different backgrounds.
0:21:34 > 0:21:36We just all got on together.
0:21:36 > 0:21:41Today, Anne will see footage of the Hyson Green Estate in Nottingham where she lived.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47How would she feel being taken back to the place she once called home?
0:21:51 > 0:21:56My mum, I think, was one of the first tenants. We were right on the front.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59It was absolute luxury. We thoroughly enjoyed living there.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02It was... We couldn't believe it.
0:22:02 > 0:22:07There were built-in wardrobes and the floors were all tiled and black,
0:22:07 > 0:22:13and everything just felt warm. I remember feeling warm all the time and it was just lovely.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16They were just as I remembered them.
0:22:16 > 0:22:20The pictures I have are very few and it just brought a lot of memories back.
0:22:23 > 0:22:28There was something about the flats and the community and the friendships that were made.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33You know, we felt we had a place, and for years I actually felt very safe there.
0:22:36 > 0:22:41By the mid-'60s, Anne's experience of high-rise living was shared by millions of people.
0:22:41 > 0:22:46Over 55% of all plans approved were for new high-rise developments.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52But something terrible happened in May 1968.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54It would change everything.
0:23:01 > 0:23:08At Ronan Point in East London, a gas explosion destroyed 22 flats and killed four people...
0:23:10 > 0:23:14..dramatically exposing the vulnerability of high-rise housing.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24We heard a terrific explosion, we see a load of rubble coming past the window,
0:23:24 > 0:23:27the next thing we knew, half the building was falling down.
0:23:30 > 0:23:36A few years after that major explosion in those block of flats, they actually took us off gas
0:23:36 > 0:23:40and we weren't allowed to have a gas cooker, if we had one.
0:23:40 > 0:23:46For thousands of tenants like Anne all over the country, the disaster was an alarming reality check.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53In the rush to build skyward, corners had been cut.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56Prefabricated sections leaked where they joined,
0:23:56 > 0:24:02causing terrible damp, and residents were stranded when lifts broke down.
0:24:02 > 0:24:04The failings in the funding of the high-rise dream
0:24:04 > 0:24:09were now well and truly exposed, and Anne's once-beloved estate in Nottingham
0:24:09 > 0:24:14became known as one of the worst places in the country to live in.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18Over the years, things changed dramatically in Hyson Green flats.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21Different people came and went.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24I think they put us in there and left us to it.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26And I think that's quite typical of a lot of places.
0:24:26 > 0:24:32The Hyson Green estate in Nottingham was demolished in 1988.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35- VOICEOVER:- No-one is mourning the passing of the Hyson Green flats,
0:24:35 > 0:24:39least of all the residents. These homes are, quite simply, a disgrace,
0:24:39 > 0:24:45a housing experiment where the tenants believe they were the guinea pigs.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48They didn't do anything to the flats to keep up the maintenance.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52They did let it just slip away, and I think that was sad.
0:25:08 > 0:25:14Across the country, tower blocks had been allowed to fail to fulfil their promise of a better way of living.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18Decked access routes became breeding grounds for crime and vandalism.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24Problems with anti-social behaviour saw many families move out
0:25:24 > 0:25:28and the estates became dumping grounds for problem tenants.
0:25:28 > 0:25:34They had been neglected, and become what they'd been designed to replace - failing slum estates.
0:25:43 > 0:25:48The story was echoed here at Park Hill in Sheffield.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52My next guest, Grenville Squires, became caretaker here in the mid-'80s
0:25:52 > 0:25:54and he witnessed the estate's demise.
0:25:56 > 0:26:02But today Park Hill is in private hands and there are ambitious plans to revitalise it.
0:26:02 > 0:26:07Grenville is hoping there's a bright future around the corner for his beloved Park Hill.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11Your experience here, for a long time, was a very happy one. You speak of it very fondly.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14Oh, yeah. She's my mistress, isn't she?
0:26:14 > 0:26:18She's the only lady that's called me out at 2 o'clock in the morning and made demands,
0:26:18 > 0:26:22and she's the only lady whose demands I've reacted to.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26I've got to say that cos the wife is watching this!
0:26:27 > 0:26:30No, she were great.
0:26:33 > 0:26:35Seeing our films charting the rise and fall of Park Hill
0:26:35 > 0:26:40proves an emotional experience that moves Grenville to poetry.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49Park Hill has not had its face washed for 50 years.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52If you didn't wash your face for 50 years, you'd be mucky.
0:26:52 > 0:26:54The old girl's got a mucky face.
0:26:56 > 0:26:58This is a poem about Park Hill.
0:26:58 > 0:27:02Park Hill is an eyesore so pull it down
0:27:02 > 0:27:04It is a blight on Sheffield's town
0:27:04 > 0:27:07That's all you hear that's all they say
0:27:07 > 0:27:09Just blow it up, take it away
0:27:09 > 0:27:11We need someone with some foresight
0:27:11 > 0:27:13Who does not see it as an ugly blight
0:27:13 > 0:27:16To give our flats some TLC
0:27:16 > 0:27:19Put back the spirit that used to be
0:27:19 > 0:27:23Replace the concrete repair that crack
0:27:23 > 0:27:25Then put the community spirit back
0:27:25 > 0:27:27Make it a place we want to see
0:27:27 > 0:27:29Please give Park Hill some TLC.
0:27:36 > 0:27:41Everybody I've talked to about this Park Hill Estate sings from the same song sheet.
0:27:41 > 0:27:42They loved it.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45They talk about paradise, they talk about it being beautiful,
0:27:45 > 0:27:48they talk about it as a place of a great community.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51All here, brilliantly conceived.
0:27:51 > 0:27:55And then neglect, lack of maintenance,
0:27:55 > 0:27:59meant that it became called the ugliest place in Europe.
0:27:59 > 0:28:04But that now is being changed too, as they begin to refurbish it.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09The new Park Hill is due for completion in 2017.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12A lot of my guests today will be hoping
0:28:12 > 0:28:17it brings back the sense of community they once so much enjoyed here.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30Next time on Reel History, we're in Norfolk,
0:28:30 > 0:28:34remembering the time Mr Beeching axed the railways in the '60s.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37All the proposals in it are directed towards stopping them
0:28:37 > 0:28:40doing those things that they're no longer well suited to do.
0:28:40 > 0:28:44I thought, "Wow," you know, "He's decimated the railways!"
0:29:02 > 0:29:05Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:29:05 > 0:29:08E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk