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Buildings at risk

LYNN ;
Was there ever a survey of the public attendance made over a period of time of the public useing it
Appart from a couple of schols whom may used it today i would imagine its a low turn out and i can see why council do not want to save it ;
Its a no goer years ago when the area was thriving yes from spark brook and mosely and the old balsall heath it was a thriving baths
despite its poor conditions way back in the fiftys it was abit of health and safty then with tiles missing here and there in and around the t today thobaths its self yet alone the mold and crumbling today to my account some think should have been then not like today
olyimpics bath is what we need instead of patching up these old ones and save money
surely thats hasd to be good for birmingham, astonian;
 
Computer drawn does not mean junk. Computers with the right packages can save lots of time and money in the analysis of requirements for preserving old buildings. You can't blame the tools for the end result.
 
Well certainly the only potential use of the old central library, if they are addled enough to preserve it, is as a car park, though there might be some problem in getting the cars into it.
 
It's a pity that they did not put this competition on line. Anyway, my 4 penneth...

Curzon St. Station should be part of the Millenium Museum project surely. The building, together with some tracks and sheds could be for rail exhibits including The City Of Birmingham. Tea shops on the covered platform...a lot to like.

The Golden Lion...It's rubble or should be. We can't return to pre E1 times just because it's a Pub. Forget it. Maybe a location in Stratford On Avon could be found; where it would fit in nicely if they wanted it. Could become a pub again there.

Central Library...rubble...make a parking lot for visitors in the centre of things. Couple of stories would provide space for hotel use down town with gated secure lots. Day use also.
A lot to like here and hotels might jump at the chance to get space. Give the building eye appeal.

Methodist Central Hall surely should become part of The University. If it is not needed by them then it is much too beautiful to loose. Be interesting to learn other folks ideas for this one.

Mosely Road Baths. This is easy. When I worked in Hamilton Ontario, I used a running programme 2 days a week at the central gym. They did not have a pool though...it was a basket ball court. However there was a gallery circuit like at the Mosely baths and this was a running track. We would run in a group around the basket ball court to piano music. At one end there was a piano and wonderful elderly lady playing 'I don't want him, you can have him...he's too fat for me'. PC now I suppose but back then everyone hung in for the two miles...you betcha. Four miles per week...gosh! Anyway, why not here also. A private gym with pool and Turkish baths. There must be a few pianists around who would be glad to play for pay. Don't laugh, we would not start until, she, was ready to start. I do seven miles a week now...only walking on the treadmill though. I would have thought that this could be a viable venture with referrals from doctors and winter and summer usage. What is needed here though is parking. Maybe make the pool into a basket ball or gym area...much less maintenance required.

Anyway...a few ideas.
 
Curzon Street will be part of the HS2 station.

Central Library and Paradise Forum to be demolished to make way for the Paradise Circus redevelopment!

Any room at the Black Country Living Museum for The Golden Lion? Doubt it will ever return to that waste land in Digbeth!

Well Aston University if directly opposite Methodist Central Hall. It was used by the Chinese as a church (until recently).

Bused it past Moseley Road Baths today, looks in use, and the Balsall Heath Library was open! You should see the massive FORWARD coat of arms above the old Women's Baths entrance!

2009 photo - but it looked good today from the top deck of the no 50 bus!

 
Please do all keep nominating the great buildings you're all mentioning here. We'd love to hear from you. We cover Victorian and Edwardian buildings (1837-1914 is our remit) and all building types from institutions and places of worship to viaducts and kilns.

Just send us ([email protected]) a few words about it, why/how it is at risk and a couple of photos?

Sophie
 
I don't know the age of this building - but it is in Digbeth. Went up on fire end of last year. Not been repaired since!





The only thing that changed was the graffiti art and the area to the right has been cleared (looked like a car park today!)
 
Hi elbrown
That old building was never part of the tower building behind it was always an old run down cafe near on forty years even when the old routine house
Along alcester street was alive with fleas and some of the old down and let's was dossing there and it closed down for years
Then some one tried to regenerate it when they opened up the disability building across the red and because it was still a thriving
Industry around there and the car park you see was always a garage there for more years than I recall
And then down the side of that cafe there was a car wash and a tyre business operating the same time as the garage forecourt
Then it was a printing company for a year or two that closed down and year or two again some young couple gave it a go to restart a cafe again
But that fell on the way side and close for years hence the property houses now burnt down a some kind of dinner
Which obvisiouly did not make the grade and no punters meaning customers
If you come further back down into the high street end of digbeth like I did last Saturday meridian street
As become a chicken shack take away and there was a lot of them along meridian street stretching along onto new canal street
The old dog pub was painted simmular to that Burnt down building some think does not add up inmymind with the Birmingham council
Granting these old building like meridian and new canal street which. Basic are now more like back streets
With every couple of yards a chicken shack and chicken named out let's for take always
You cannot tell me that these business are all taking money
And besides the streets OK dirty and and unkempt they say that the hs2 station is gonna operate there at some point
Surely the tourist does not want to see such dirty broken down and in hygeinic shops as it approaches they OK disgraceful
What I cannot understand why. Is the council issueing licences out like sweets to grant curry house and chicken shacks takeaway foods
On every street I brum and virtually next door to each other is beyond me
The same now on pershore rdselly park and stirchley which is worse every other shop is a so called curry house resturuant
Next door to each other they all ain't making money surely not
But any way elbrown that's was the building left burnt down its a clear cut case I would say and its not a listed building
Like the old custard house of birds custard along the red or even the old police building listed building. With history astonian,,,,,,
 
The Custard Factory is listed, and it got restored 4 or 5 years ago (although still get graffiti tags now and then).

Think Digbeth Police Station might close down one day (not sure).

I just wish all these buildings destroyed by fire could get restored and not left as wrecks for years!

E.g. The Ritz Ballroom and Kingsway Cinema in Kings Heath!
 
Article on the Birmingham Post

City 'must work together' to protect its heritage

Coun Philip Davis defends Birmingham's attempts to preserve the city's rich heritage of buildings

Birmingham Post columnist Joe Holyoak accused the city council of hating our civic heritage. Now, the authority's heritage champion Coun Philip Davis has hit back and pledges the 'bad old days’ of knocking down architectural gems are over.
I bow to no-one in my admiration for Joe Holyoak as an advocate for Birmingham's great buildings.
But to suggest the city council does not care for our community's Victorian and 20th century legacy is simply untrue.
As someone with a passionate concern for the built environment, Joe is absolutely right to draw attention to the threats we face in preserving places and buildings we value.
It is equally important to understand the scale of the challenge. Preserving Moseley Road Baths - a great Edwardian building and a product of the late 'civic gospel' period - is a massive task for the city.
And 'the city' is not just the council. It is the whole diverse community - residential and business - which makes up Birmingham in the 21st century.
 
Grade II listed former Tram Depot and Office Range.

Moseley Road, Balsall Heath - seen from the top deck of the no 50 bus.

 
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What an interesting building, really glad they have listed it, must have walked passed it many times as a kid, the horse drawn depot, stables and offices in Cambridge, were turned into a pub, the iron rails run through the bar area?.
 
I also saw this one in the Jewellery Quarter. Empty for a long time. Taylor & Hodgetts - Branston Street. Grade II listed.

 
Another interesting building, looks to be around 1830/40s, commercial premises. Lets hope the powers to be keep it listed as they have a poor record in Birmingham of destroying gems.
 
It's listed as 1870! Branston Street Works

BIRMINGHAM

997/0/10275 BRANSTON STREET
29.8.01 48-56

II

Manufactory, empty at time of inspection (August 2000) . c. 1870, with minor late C20 alterations. Red brick with blue brick detailing and a plain tile roof, hipped at the south-east end. PLAN. Irregular, triangular building, on a wedge-shaped plot bounded by Branston Street and the railway cutting for the line which passes under Branston Street.
EXTERIOR: Front elevation of 3 storeys and 8 bays, rising from a chamfered blue brick plinth. Ground and first floor windows with semi-circular arched heads, with linked hood moulds in blue brick forming a continuous band. Ground floor windows overboarded at time of inspection. Upper floor openings with shallow segmental arched heads. C20 replacement frames for former cast-iron multi-paned frames which remain in situ in south-west end and rear elevations. Main entrance to bay 6, with stepped semi-circular arched doorway with blue brick surround and 6-panel door. Blue brick eaves band . Rear elevation with cast-iron, multi-pane window frames beneath brick segmental arched heads. C20 timber fire escape. Irregularly- placed chimney stacks, with end wall stacks to both slopes to the north-east gable, a clustered ridge stack, a stack parallel to the ridge, and a tranverse stack. These stacks served at least 16 flues, and their positions were made necessary by the buildings' eccentric plan form.
INTERIOR: not inspected.
HISTORY: The manufactory, known as the Branston Street Works is shown on the 1886-7 Ordnance Survey map in its present form. The 1886 Trade Directory lists 12 craftsmen , including jewellers, engravers and chasers occupying the site, ( the form of which, unusually, precluded the provision of a vehicle entrance ) suggesting that the works were designed for multi-occupancy from the outset..
A late C19 purpose-built manufactory, designed to provide workshop facilities for independent craftsmen. The use of such a very restricted site demonstrates the demand for industrial workshop space, and the value of vacant land , however limited,in the late C19 in this industrial quarter of Birmingham, now recognised as being of international significance.


This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.

Source: English Heritage

Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
 
Hidden Spaces at Curzon Street Station finishes tomorrow! Inside are photos from the Birmingham Post.

Idea's for reuse of at risk buildings!

Only went today as was in Spain when it opened (only got back Tuesday evening).







 
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