Happy 50th Birthday Arches

Happy 50th Birthday to Arches

2025 will see Arches Housing turn 50 and over the course of the next eight months we will be celebrating this milestone with numerous events and community days.

Since our creation back in 1975, we have prided ourselves on our connections with our communities and our customers alike. As part of our celebrations to mark our birthday, we will be interviewing a wide range of customers, staff members, Board members and partners to share their memories of working with and for Arches over the years.

You can read a new interview each week at the bottom of this page, as well as following our social media platforms where we will highlight our brand new interview for that week. We’re looking forward to sharing our stories and celebrating our 50^th anniversary together.

Burngreave Road before

Burngreave Road from the side

Burngreave Road now

An Arches at 50 interview:

“It’s a real full circle moment, once I realised that my daughter was living in the same house, I had raised her in”

Now not many people can claim to having a ‘twin peaks’ moment in their life but Julie Brooks certainly can. As a resident of Arches for over 38 years, Julie has brought up her three daughters and one son in a range of different Arches homes across Sheffield.

It was only recently though that she realised that one of her daughters was living and raising her young family in exactly the same property as she had several years earlier.

Julie comments: “It’s a real full circle moment, once I realised that my daughter was living in the same house as I had raised her in, more similarities occurred. Not only was my daughter living in the same house, but she was exactly the same age as I was when I lived there with my young family!”

She continues: “The closer I looked at the house, I began to realise that there were a lot of elements still there from when I lived there – some of them I even added myself! It was a real full circle moment; I had little bit of ‘Déjà vu’. I have photos of myself in the house and so does my daughter – it’s uncanny how much everything looks alike. 

Julie has lived all of her adult life in an Arches home and when asked to describe Arches in three words, simply says ‘Amazing, Brilliant and Family-feel’. She’s always been very lucky with great neighbours who have all shared a sense of community and she has high praise for Arches and its staff as well.

Julie adds “I’ve always had a great relationship with everyone at Arches, whether it’s the housing team or the maintenance team, they’ve always been able to sort out my concerns or problems. Over the years my mobility needs have changed, and Arches have helped me to sort adaptions to my property so I can remain close to my family.”

Dates for your diary:

Read more Arches at 50 interviews

Arches Timeline:

Piccies from our Arches @50 launch event: