page_title: Brutalism in Sheffield
section_title: Upperthorpe
hierarchical_section_title: Brutalism in Sheffield / Notable existing developments / Upperthorpe
caption_attribution_description: Fire-spreading in aluminium cladding, demonstrated on a tower block in Hillside.
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 Upperthorpe complex, also known as the Martin Street complex, is one of two sets of tower blocks constructed as part of the Netherthorpe Redevelopment Area, the other being the Netherthorpe complex at Brook Hill around 0.3 mi (0.48 km) to the south. Construction of the complex at Upperthorpe commenced in 1958 through building contractor Tersons Ltd., who later became part of the British Insulated Callender's Cables company, on behalf of Sheffield County Borough Council. As a result, they are largely identical in design to the Herdings Twin Towers, which were also built by Tersons. The last blocks at Upperthorpe were completed in 1961. There are seven identical tower blocks at Upperthorpe, sited in a line on the south side of Martin Street and demarcating the northern edge of the Ponderosa park.
  The seven towers at Upperthorpe are named Adelphi, Albion, Bond, Burlington, Martin, Oxford and Wentworth. They are each named after a former street which crossed the Upperthorpe site when it was occupied by slums, cleared to make way for the development. Each tower is identical, consisting of thirteen floors housing 48 one-bedroom apartments and rising to 38 m (125 ft) in height; the upper twelve floors are residential, with the ground floor housing communal facilities such as a laundry area.
  The addresses of the Upperthorpe towers, and their namesakes, are as follows:
  Adelphi: 97–191 Martin Street; named after Adelphi Street, the adjacent road.
  Albion: 481–575 Martin Street; named after Albion Street, the adjacent road.
  Bond: 385–479 Martin Street; named after Bond Street, which formerly crossed here but no longer exists.
  Burlington: 289–383 Martin Street; named after Burlington Street, the adjacent road.
  Martin: 193–287 Martin Street; named after Martin Street which through the development.
  Oxford: 469–563 Oxford Street; named after Oxford Street, on which it stands.
  Wentworth: 1–95 Martin Street; named after Wentworth Street, which formerly ran parallel to Martin Street but no longer exists.
  All seven towers were refurbished between 1993 and 1996. As part of the refurbishment, each tower received their nearly identical white, light brown and dark brown aluminium-based cladding which they carry today, covering the original concrete structures. Martin Street was also largely pedestrianised and is no longer a single through road; areas at the base of each tower were retained for resident parking, accessed from perpendicular side streets, with the sections between towers converted into footpaths. 
  A fire occurred in Wentworth tower during refurbishment in 1995, which damaged several flats and portions of the cladding which was under installation at the time; there were no injuries, and the damage was repaired as part of the refurbishment programme. The cladding design here stopped the spread of the fire, in direct contrast to the later Grenfell Tower fire in London in June 2017 in which 72 people died. Following the Grenfell disaster, the cladding of all high-rises across the United Kingdom was tested to new fire safety standards. All of the Upperthorpe blocks, including Wentworth, passed inspection, although Hanover House across the city failed and had its cladding removed.
caption: Damage to Wentworth tower after its 1995 fire.
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "4160", "Image ImageLength": "3120", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image ImageDescription": "dav", "Image Make": "HUAWEI", "Image Model": "NEM-L51", "Image Orientation": "Rotated 90 CCW", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "NEM-L51C432B102", "Image DateTime": "2017:06:21 14:33:51", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "268", "Image DeviceSettingDescription": "[105, 112, 112, 0]", "Thumbnail ImageWidth": "512", "Thumbnail ImageLength": "384", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "0", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "8780", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "26061", "EXIF DocumentName": "[]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/100", "EXIF FNumber": "2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:06:21 14:33:51", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:06:21 14:33:51", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "298973/10000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "2", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "0", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Daylight", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "379/100", "EXIF SubSecTime": "256142", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "256142", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "256142", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4160", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3120", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "8620", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Custom", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "27", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}