If you come to Sheffield by train, you will see a skyline dominated by the Park Hill flats, built 40 years ago, and said then to be the answer to the city's housing problems.
The flats have now become the subject of an exhibition titled- surprise surprise - High Rise, at the city's Graves Art Gallery. The exhibition is a photographic history of the Regents Court and Park Hill developments. It features Tim Smith's colour photographs and a smaller section of black and white pictures on loan from the Sheffield Libraries archives.
We visited the gallery twice, and both times it was virtually empty. Perhaps going in the late afternoon is not a good idea. It gives you the chance to look at the photographs in peace if you want to, but also makes the gallery seem dead. We did not feel welcome. All we could hear were the echoes of attendants' voices in a nearby room, and a solitary figure taking notes and muttering that the flats should be pulled down. If the gallery had had windows, and we could have seen the weather outside, we suspect it would have been raining.
The pictures themselves are quite striking, particularly Smith's. Few show just concrete and mortar -- most look at the way people 'fit' into the buildings These are the most engaging: looking at them you start to get an idea of people's lives in these complexes. One shows an old man carrying his shopping home, a tiny figure on the giant concrete walkways - poor bloke. Our favourite photo was one taken down a stairwell, showing kids grinning back. It looked like a square helter-skelter.
Each picture has a quote from one of the residents beside it, describing their attitude: pride; togetherness; loneliness. Further information sheets were also available, but they had long since suffered death-by-photocopier.
The gallery has tried to involve much younger children by providing a noticeboard for them to display postcards of their own homes. A small-scale reconstruction of the flats, built like scaffolding, on the gallery floor was another really smart touch. Kids from the local Grace Owen school had drawn pictures of themselves and put them in the empty windows.
But this is not an exhibition for teenagers, unless you are doing a GCSE project. It will probably appeal to older Sheffielders, who will find part of their history here. Younger kids with their mums and dads will like it because they can draw their pictures. But teenagers? We don't think so. While we were glad we went, the subject matter would never normally have attracted us in. We went because we were asked to. More importantly, the appearance and atmosphere of the gallery as a whole does not and will not draw in young people. Galleries should ask themselves whether they want teenagers to come to them.
About the team
This reviews was produced by editors Sara Hawkins, 16, David Burnham, 15, and Mark Lewis, 14. It was published in the Museums Journal. For more reviews in the series, see column left.
