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Inner Ring Road

Never thought about the IRR as 'strangling' the city Guilbert, but that makes sense. Thanks for your observations, very interesting. And Brumgum, know what you mean about the sweep of the road, but pity about some of the buildings alongside. Here's a 1960s view looking the other way. Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1375726305.643605.jpg
 
Vivienne14 said:
Never thought about the IRR as 'strangling' the city Guilbert, but that makes sense. Thanks for your observations, very interesting. And Brumgum, know what you mean about the sweep of the road, but pity about some of the buildings alongside. Here's a 1960s view looking the other way. Viv.

View attachment 87768
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I like the buildings..
https://www.flickr.com/photos/61798879@N00/2349514228/


[URL]https://www.flickr.com/photos/drewfield/1009831138/in/faves-13974995@N02/[/URL]
 
During these tunnel closure works, I've seen traffic congested going down Jennens Road. It is then forced to go down and around Masshouse onto Park Street.
Only buses are allowed to use Masshouse Lane to access The Priory Queensway.

Then the traffic goes around Digbeth and towards Moat Lane.

Roads reconfigured for buses and pedestrians now.
 
Excellent blog link Brumgum. Thanks, well worth reading. The City has (and has had for a very long time) lots of well designed, buildings of great architectural interest, lots of good services and facilities, lots of ideas and preparedness to try out those new ideas and heaps of enthusiasm. But my mind keeps coming back to the question of why doesn't it seem to grasp the idea of coherence? And by that I mean: "a logical, orderly, and aesthetically consistent relationship of parts". Just doesn't seem to happen when it comes to planning. Such a pity, as the potential's all there. Maybe the latest re-development is intended to make it more cohesive. I hope so. Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
But my mind keeps coming back to the question of why doesn't it seem to grasp the idea of coherence? And by that I mean: "a logical, orderly, and aesthetically consistent relationship of parts". Just doesn't seem to happen when it comes to planning.
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I was born in London were I lived for 30 years, and I have now lived in Birmingham for 30 years.

It seems to me one of the problems with Birmingham is that rather than "tinkering at the edges" to improve the city the developers keep going for massive grand designs that involve knocking down and redeveloping large parts of the city, so the city is constantly changing.

In the 1960s and 1970s the ring road and other major roads were built, now they are trying to get rid of some them.

In he 1970s the whole area round the Bull Ring was redeveloped, then 10 years ago they knocked it all down and redeveloped it.

In the 60s and 70s they knocked down the old "New St station" to build a new one, and now they are knocking most of it down to build another one.

In the 1980s much land around Broad St was knocked down to create the NIA, ICC, Symphony Hall etc.

In the 1970s they built the existing library and redeveloped the area around it, soon they will knock it all down and build another huge project.

On the other side of the road the old Central TV buildings, and other buildings around it, are currently being knocked down for another huge development.

Corporation St is now closed to traffic while they build a tram system linking Snow Hill station with New St station.

All of these are massive projects, and many do improve the city, but they do change the character of areas totally, and are usually built in the "modern" style, but that "modern" style quickly goes out of fashion so they area soon looks dated.

In fact when walking round central Birmingham the place seems to be one huge building site.
 
guilbert53 said:
I was born in London were I lived for 30 years, and I have now lived in Birmingham for 30 years.

It seems to me one of the problems with Birmingham is that rather than "tinkering at the edges" to improve the city the developers keep going for massive grand designs that involve knocking down and redeveloping large parts of the city, so the city is constantly changing.
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London is different from other cities in that, for most of the last century, it hasn't had an overall planning authority for buildings/transport etc. Such things have been governed by the local councils. Most of the major cities in the UK have a single authority. They tend to get the large central developments. Some things seem to come and go in waves. There was a time when everyone wanted central large conference facilities. We go the ICC and a lot of Broad St got new hotels. Glasgow and Manchester did something very similar. Sometimes London keeps pace. "Covent Garden" market (the old fruit and veg rather than just the odd stalls) has moved more often than the Bull Ring has been redeveloped. London isn't immune from large scale redevelopments - Docklands was bigger than anything Birmingham has ever tried and we've never tried anything on the scale of the Olympic park. They got more millennium projects than we did.
 
wam said:
London isn't immune from large scale redevelopments - Docklands was bigger than anything Birmingham has ever tried and we've never tried anything on the scale of the Olympic park. They got more millennium projects than we did.
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I think one of the reasons these projects have more of an impact in Birmingham is the relative smallness of Birmingham city centre core.

I have just looked on Google Maps and the old inner ring road is only about 1 mile across (from one side of the city to the other).

Even the outer ring road is only 2 miles across.

And of course most of these major projects took place inside the outer ring ring (many of them inside the inner ring road) so they seem to have much more of an impact on the city that the ones in London do.

Docklands is about 5 miles from the centre of London, and the Olympic site is about 7 miles from the centre of London.

Something 7 miles from the centre of Birmingham takes you out to Solihull, which would hardly have an impact on Birmingham city centre at all.

London can cope with some of the large developments due to its huge size. Large projects in the centre of Birmingham have much more of an impact.
 
Also London has a much more complex transport network. On the whole the different parts are very effective and connected too (although people still moan about the various services). In one journey to Docklands from south London I use a bus, overground train, followed by Docklands Light Railway. I also have an alternative of bus and tube, reaching far out across Docklands. The key is they all link up nicely and you don't have to wait long for connections. Basically London has a tradition of looking more outward, so travelling this way is all part of living here. Now if you move onto road links, they're basically overcrowded, fragmented, often poorly maintained depending on the local council and, well in a word, 'rubbish'. But then we do have Boris's Bikes - what more do you need!! Viv.
 
guilbert53 said:
I think one of the reasons these projects have more of an impact in Birmingham is the relative smallness of Birmingham city centre core.

I have just looked on Google Maps and the old inner ring road is only about 1 mile across (from one side of the city to the other).

Even the outer ring road is only 2 miles across.

And of course most of these major projects took place inside the outer ring ring (many of them inside the inner ring road) so they seem to have much more of an impact on the city that the ones in London do.

Docklands is about 5 miles from the centre of London, and the Olympic site is about 7 miles from the centre of London.

Something 7 miles from the centre of Birmingham takes you out to Solihull, which would hardly have an impact on Birmingham city centre at all.

London can cope with some of the large developments due to its huge size. Large projects in the centre of Birmingham have much more of an impact.
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Will the Big City Plan address some of these issues especially regarding cohesion..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fh7JB-LwCQ
 
guilbert53 said:
Docklands is about 5 miles from the centre of London, and the Olympic site is about 7 miles from the centre of London.
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Docklands is about 2 miles from the centre of London, and the Olympic site is about 3 miles from the centre of London. Check the map.
 
Thanks for the last link Brumgum. Just had a browse of all the other photos on there. Quite a few are Birmingham. Some very interesting ones with past/present comparisons. Viv.
 
To think these were from slides rescued from a B'ham Uni bin!! They're excellent. They bring to mind the Phyllis Nicklin 1960s photos. These seem to be recording new developments, one with with hints of the past still in view (remains of Market Hall just visible). Whereas I think Phyllis Nicklin was probably more focussed on disappearing buildings. A nice addition. Someone deserves a pat on the back for rescuing them. Viv.
 
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