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Rotunda

I can't compete with ellbrown's wonderful photos but here are a few from the slides. After all they are 50 years old!
I like the first one as it shows a tiny bit of Worcester Street. The second one's scene doesn't appear to have changed much and the third one is so 1960's.
 

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pen its not a case of competing.. as time goes by photos like you are posting will be harder to come by.. made even more precious by the fact that they are one offs...they are a snap shot of our history...wonderful thank you..i do like the worcester st shot..

lyn
 
Thanks Lyn, my friend Diane will be really pleased to know that they are being seen instead of hidden away in a cupboard.
 
I do quite like The Rotunda, but I had a girl-friend who worked there not long after it opened, at an employment-agency towards the top of the building, and she didn't like it at all. Her main complaint, as I recall, was that it was always airless and stuffy, and also full of static! There's no pleasing everyone!

G
 
Lady Penelope said:
Thanks Lyn, my friend Diane will be really pleased to know that they are being seen instead of hidden away in a cupboard.
Click to expand...

yes pen please pass on our thanks to diane for sharing these photos with us...they are causing quite a stir on the forum...:)

lyn
 
I saw the Birmingham rotunda in 1980 when I visited the city. It is certainly an unusual building and is a landmark one fr Birmingham. Whilst it is a 1960' structure the fact that it is circular does give a pleasant appearance which the square or rectangular structures of similar date most certainly do not.
I have never been in the the rotunda but I can understand why some have issues with it. I had to visit a municipal/government building of seven floors in Hanley some years ago. The person I was seeing told me that no one worked above the third floor: staff did not like the movement and other factors concerning the building.
On my 1980 visit my wife and I were invited into a luxury type flat in a tower block In Edgbaston. It was dark and the view over part of the city that we could see was quite impressive. However, we did not feel comfortable in there and were glad to get back on terra firma. ;)
 
For a few years, there was a Bullring banner all the way around at the top, but it appears to have gone (maybe Storm Doris made it come down?)

View today from Albert Street.



The Bullring banner was still there as of January 2017 (seen here from Moor Street Station)



October 2015 from the Library of Birmingham Discovery Terrace

 
In the 1980s / 1990s when it was sponsored by Coca Cola. It also used to have the time on it (pre-refurbishment).

Photo on Skyscraper City (not mine) By MartianG

Rotundaatnight.jpg



This one found on Twitter

B83pnfdIUAEhbNk.jpg
 
Blimey Ell that's a blast from the past! I remember the digital time too. They should have kept that when it was refurbed. There were others around the city centre too. Thanks. Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Blimey Ell that's a blast from the past! I remember the digital time too. They should have kept that when it was refurbed. There were others around the city centre too. Thanks. Viv.
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I think the clock and Coca Cola sign had long since come down (early to mid 1990s?) by the time of the refurb in the 2000s.
 
I had a friend who was training to be an architect and one of his first jobs was working with the group who designed the Rotunda, I think he had to design door knobs or something and moved quickly on. Incidentally there is a round hotel in Honolulu on Oahu called the Circle Hotel, it faces across the road Waikiki beach, staying in a room with curved walls is a strange sensation. I was told it was one of the first modern hotels on the island
Bob
 
Here’s the big guy in front of the Rotunda. There’s a handy pint glass on his right arm - just about his size. Did this ‘fill up’ ? Viv.

D72CE5E4-C93F-4FE7-BD31-426FC34D4438.jpeg
 
One of my friends worked in an office at the top of the Rotunda before the referbishment. She said it used to shake when the trains went under
 
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