Architecture of Birmingham
In the postwar period, John Madin became a prolific architect and more recently, Glenn Howells and Ken Shuttleworth have made their mark on the international stage.
[6] The Birmingham Plateau during the medieval period was heavily wooded but poorly supplied with building stone,[7] so the architecture of the early town was dominated by timber framing,[8] with dark wooden structures in complex patterns infilled with lightly coloured plaster.
[9] Distinctive local styles of wall framing emerged, including the use of close studding and decorative braces within panels in herringbone and quadrant patterns, exemplified by the early 16th century Golden Lion Inn, which survives in Cannon Hill Park.
[10] The oldest to have been securely dated is the Lad in the Lane in Bromford, which has been shown by dendrochronology to have been built in the spring of 1400,[11] though the architectural style of the box-framed Selly Manor and the cruck-framed Minworth Greaves suggest they may have earlier 14th century origins.
[38] Edge was also responsible for the Market Hall in the Bull Ring which was completed in 1835,[39] as well as many classical shop frontages and office buildings on Bennett's Hill and the surrounding area.
Yeoville Thomason, who was born in Edinburgh to a Birmingham family, designed many important buildings with the most significant being the Museum & Art Gallery and the Council House, which were completed in 1879.
[44] His range of designs included the Singers Hill Synagogue and a variety of offices for banks, as well as the original Lewis's Department Store, which was completed in 1889 as Birmingham's first concrete and iron building, on Corporation Street.
[45] Birmingham lay at the heart of the mid-19th century Gothic Revival, being closely associated with its two most influential early pioneers: Thomas Rickman and A. W. N. Pugin.
[46] The mid 19th century however saw a conscious and far-reaching revival in the use of Gothic as a complete and rigorous system of construction, encompassing both structure and decoration and involving a renewed emphasis on historical authenticity.
[53] Pugin first became involved with Birmingham in 1833, designing the Gothic detailing for Charles Barry's rebuilding of King Edward's School (demolished) in New Street.
Austere and tightly composed, with ornamentation limited to decorative brickwork and a small number of stone dressings, this was the most influential building Pugin ever designed.
Some of his most significant works include the Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Birmingham, which was completed in 1873,[66] Aston Parish Church in 1879, and St Martin in the Bull Ring in 1873.
[67] The early and dramatic advent of High Victorian architecture in Birmingham took place in 1855 with the completion of 12 Ampton Road in Edgbaston by John Henry Chamberlain.
Red terracotta was useful as a substitute for natural stone, which Birmingham lacked, and it also was resistant to soot and smoke which was prevalent in the city due to the heavy industrial presence.
Horton constructed hotels next to railway stations to maximise trade and made them attractive to visitors decorating them lavishly on the inside as well as on the exterior.
[80] Buildings came increasingly to be designed in an understated style that limited ornament and was based on traditional forms of local vernacular architecture, in Birmingham largely brick, roughcast and half-timbering.
[84] The first sign of this newly-simple and free approach to architecture was a series of buildings in the Queen Anne revival style by Ball and by Arthur Harrison in the 1880s.
[94] The dominance of Arts and Crafts culture among Birmingham's growing manufacturing, commercial and professional classes saw the development of a wide variety of detached suburban houses in upmarket districts such as Edgbaston, Moseley, Four Oaks, and Yardley, and outside the city boundaries in areas such as Barnt Green, Olton and Solihull, designed both by celebrated local Arts and Crafts architects and by less well-known but prolific local figures such as Owen Parsons, Thomas Walter Francis Newton & Alfred Edward Cheatle and William de Lacy Aherne.
[95] Notable commercial buildings in Arts and Crafts styles included Lethaby's 122-124 Colmore Row of 1900 – a building of European importance in its break with revivalism[96] – and Arthur Dixon's 1898 Birmingham Guild of Handicraft in Great Charles Street, whose "virtually styleless"[46] design reflected his radical socialist views by using round arched windows in an explicit rejection of the Gothic Revival.
[96] The most comprehensive expression of the Arts and Crafts spirit within Birmingham however was the suburb of Bournville, which was developed from 1894 by George Cadbury as a model village for workers from his nearby factory, and was largely designed by the architect William Alexander Harvey, a pupil of Bidlake appointed at the young age of 22.
[97] Harvey designed over 500 houses in Bournville between 1895 and 1904[98] – simple but exceptionally varied cottages built in pairs in brick, timber and stone – and a few public buildings clustered around a central village green.
Twist's Hall of Memory (1922–25)[67] and T. Cecil Howitt's Baskerville House on Broad Street (1938) were part of a large civic complex scheme designed by William Haywood.
The past decade has seen the demolition of many postwar buildings and more are set to be replaced in the coming years, some controversially such as John Madin's brutalist Birmingham Central Library.
In 1964, The Rotunda, by James A. Roberts was completed as a separate development to the Bull Ring Shopping Centre, and although the building failed as an office tower, it became a landmark and received Grade II listed status in 2000, before being renovated into apartments by Urban Splash between 2006 and 2008.
Mostly designed by the City Architect of Birmingham and the Public Works Department at the council, the schemes focussed on high-density housing in low-cost builds.
In July 1949, the city council approved a plan by the Birmingham COPEC Housing Improvement Society Ltd. to construct twenty flats for single women in Cob Lane.
[123] A group of four tower blocks located behind The Rep Theatre on Broad Street have also undergone an extensive renovation to improve their insulation and appearance.
This became an unpopular area as it began to suffer from social deprivation and crime whilst the buildings were poorly constructed leading to maintenance issues.
To tackle the downward spiral of the estate, one of the largest tower block demolition and renovation programmes anywhere in Europe began in Castle Vale, with the construction of new buildings, squares and green public open spaces.
The Grand Central Shopping Centre which sits above the station was completely refurbished as part of the works with a new John Lewis department store as the anchor tenant.
