An independent report in 2013* highlighted significant health inequalities within Sheffield. The life expectancy reported for men falls by nearly 8 years and almost 10 years for women across the length of the 83 bus route which links Millhouses in the south with Ecclesfield in the north. As Ilona Sagar’s Deep Structure film draws links between bodies and buildings, health and environments, this discussion will look at how care is situated within our communities, its social reproduction and how it is determined by guidelines developed from statistics and data.

*Sheffield Fairness Commission 2013

Guests include – former and current resident of Park Hill, Joanne Marsden, who established the Park Hill young mothers action group; Howard Humphries, former resident and Youth Courts social worker; Jack Czauderna, a former GP who ran a co-operative GP practice in the 1970s near Park Hill and current Chair of Darnall Wellbeing; and Dr Julia Udall, Senior Lecturer in Architecture at Sheffield Hallam University, whose research is in community organising and the urban commons.

Dr Julia Udall, Senior Lecturer in Architecture at Sheffield Hallam University, teaches across the M.Arch Course, and undergraduate history and theory. She is a director of the UKs first Social Enterprise architecture practice, Studio Polpo. Her research interests include urban commons, community economies and organising, and design pedagogy.

Jack Czauderna was a GP in Darnall in the East End of Sheffield all his working life. In the early 1980’s it ran as an equal pay collective, one of three in the country. Later under different political circumstances the practice became one of the first all salaried practices in the country. Like Tony Benn who retired from being an MP to devote more time to ‘politics’, Jack retired from being a GP to devote more time to ‘health’. He set up Darnall Wellbeing, a community health and wellbeing group to run alongside his practice and he continues this work in the Darnall community. He is also the Chair of the Pioneer Health Foundation which keeps alive the legacy of the famous ‘Peckham Experiment’.

Joanne Marsden is a former and current resident of Park Hill. She was part of a group of women who established, the ‘Young Mums Action Group’ in the late 80’s, on Park Hill Estate. The main aim of the group was to improve the lives of the residents and children on Park Hill and people living in the surrounding areas. Joanne played an influential part in the group and was proud to represent Park Hill even when the reputation of the flats was labelled as a, “decrepit no-go area” by the press. Some of the group’s accomplishments included, writing and recording a song to help save Park Hill Primary School from closing down, applying for funding to take local children on holiday, and applying for funding for community education in the local school for adults and for crèche provision. Living on Park Hill highlighted several inequalities and realising that all the surrounding areas e.g. Ponds Forge, Ponds Street, Bard Street etc. where being developed, the Young Mums started picketing for better services and environmental improvements on Park Hill. Joanne Marsden went on to volunteer in the local Youth Clubs and later qualified as a Youth and Community Worker working for Sheffield City Council.

Howard Humphries Born in the Park District. Decanted from the Park slums in 1959 he resided on Park Hill up to 1975 after getting married and getting a tenancy on Hyde Park. He was a steelworker and was made redundant during the Thatcher years, Retraining and qualifying as a social worker, Howard Humphries now works with young offenders both in a secure and community setting.

Ilona Sagar lives and works in London. Using a diverse range of media spanning performance, film and sound installation, she has formed a body of work which responds to the social and historical context found in the public and private spaces we inhabit. Sagar’s practice is developed in a cross-disciplinary dialogue with a range of art and scientific disciplines including dance, architecture and neurology. Forthcoming solo commissions include: Serpentine Gallery, London and a residency at Uniarts, Helsinki. Her film ‘Correspondence O’ (2017) won an AHRC Research in Film Award in 2018. Recent projects include: ‘Living with Buildings’, Wellcome Collection, London (2018/2019); ‘Self Service’ publication and event series, CCA and GOMA, Glasgow as part of Glasgow International (2018); ‘Correspondence O’, solo exhibition at South London Gallery, London (2017/2018).

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