When the construction of a canal through the area was proposed, Baskerville's body was exhumed and found to be in good condition.

They abandoned the remainder of Gibson's Basin to Birmingham City Council who filled it in for their Civic Centre plans.

[2] In 1926, the city council organised an open competition for the new layout of the Civic Centre, however, many of the designs were deemed 'Too Ambitious'.

As a result, the city engineer was asked to work with the architects of the Hall of Memory, S. N. Cooke, to create a better design.

[3] It became the only component to be built from the plan for the Civic Centre which would have covered all of Centenary Square and the Convention Centre, and included the Masonic Hall (1926–27 Rupert Savage) (demolished 2008) and Birmingham Municipal Bank (recently TSB) building (1931–33 also T. Cecil Howitt) on Broad Street.

[6] A feasibility study into whether it was possible to locate the Central Library was carried out, and the building was deemed to not be suitable as it would not be strong enough to hold all the books.

[11] A statue of King Edward VII was moved to a plinth near the South-West corner of the building in November 2010.