page_title: Brutalism in Sheffield
section_title: Jordanthorpe
hierarchical_section_title: Brutalism in Sheffield / Notable demolished developments / Jordanthorpe
caption_attribution_description: English: Jordanthorpe Sheffield High Rise. A curiously solitary high rise building surrounded by low rise flats and houses. Presumably a '60s housing experiment in mixed housing
context_page_description: The 1950s and 1960s saw the construction of numerous brutalist apartment blocks in Sheffield, England. Sheffield City Council had been clearing inner-city residential slums since the early 1900s. Prior to the 1950s these slums were replaced with low-rise council housing, mostly constructed in new estates on the edge of the city. By the mid-1950s the establishment of a green belt had led to a shortage of available land on the edges of the city, whilst the government increased subsidies for the construction of high-rise apartment towers on former slum land, so the council began to construct high-rise inner city estates, adopting modernist designs and industrialised construction techniques, culminating in the construction of the award-winning Gleadless Valley and Park Hill estates.
context_section_description: The Jordanthorpe complex was a set of three identical tower blocks located in the centre of the Jordanthorpe housing estate in south-central Sheffield. The Jordanthorpe estate, including surrounding low-rise housing and maisonette blocks, was constructed in the 1950s and 1960s on land acquired by Sheffield County Borough Council by compulsory purchase from neighbouring Derbyshire, and subsequently annexed into the territory of the West Riding of Yorkshire. They were the southernmost tower blocks in Sheffield.
  The three towers at Jordanthorpe were built by Wimpey Homes of an identical design to those at Pye Bank, now also demolished, and Stannington, which still exist albeit now in a heavily refurbished state. Construction began at Jordanthorpe in 1966, and the three towers were completed in 1967. The three towers were identical in design, consisting of fifteen storeys containing 87 single-bedroom apartments each and rising to heights of 41 m (135 ft). The upper fourteen storeys were residential, with the ground floor dedicated as communal space.
  The towers were named Chantrey, Ramsey and Rhodes. Although directly adjacent to each other, they were all accessed via individual cul-de-sacs branching from the main ring road, Dyche Road, in the centre of the estate; Chantrey was located on Dyche Drive, Ramsey on Dyche Place, and Rhodes on Dyche Close. 
  Very soon after completion, as with the Wimpey-built towers at Pye Bank and Stannington, problems with heating, draughts and damp became evident due to the wide-scale use of Wimpey no-fines concrete in their construction. Unlike the Stannington complex, however, the Jordanthorpe complex was not refurbished to address these issues at the end of the 1980s, due to funding constraints at Sheffield City Council. The condition of the towers eventually deteriorated until Ramsey and Rhodes were condemned at the turn of the 21st century, before being demolished in October 2001 by controlled explosion as part of the council's stock reduction plan.
  Chantrey was in slightly better condition, and after minor remedial work, remained in use as residencies reserved for people over State Pension age. This did not last long however, as it too was condemned a decade later. Chantrey was subsequently demolished on 29 April 2012 using controlled explosives, with demolition being carried out by Demex Ltd., a local contractor.
  The site of the Jordanthorpe tower blocks remains the centre of the wider Jordanthorpe housing estate, and the footprints of all three towers have since been redeveloped into a medical centre, a nursing home, and semi-detached low-rise housing on Dyche Drive.
caption: The Jordanthorpe complex seen in 2005, with only Chantrey still standing.
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