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Bull Ring 2003

ellbrown

ellbrown

ell brown on Flickr
Modern view from 2009



The bottom end has changed since the Spiceal Street development opened.
 
Since your photo was taken in 2009 Ell., there has been further development (yet another cafe I believe) which is obscuring the view of St. Martins even more.
Yow! Why do they DO this? It takes a lot of work to get planning permission for a conservatory in your own garden, yet they can seem to approve the most awful things in the historic City Centre in the name of progress.
 
I knew you'd have a pic up your sleeve! Good shot Ell, nice lights, modern festive - but as I thought, nowt like the atmosphere of the 1950s. Looks more like a passageway with the buildings left and right which really seem to enclose the space. Thanks for posting. Viv.
 
I have a proposition for Birmingham Council (Christmas decorations department!). Don't spend money on fairy lights. Why don't you project images of the old Bull Ring buildings onto these tall buildings? i.e images of the buildings that they replaced. Viv.
 
They use the same decorations year after year! They go up in October, switched on in November. Taken down in January.
 
Charlie said:
Since your photo was taken in 2009 Ell., there has been further development (yet another cafe I believe) which is obscuring the view of St. Martins even more.
Yow! Why do they DO this? It takes a lot of work to get planning permission for a conservatory in your own garden, yet they can seem to approve the most awful things in the historic City Centre in the name of progress.
Click to expand...

Spiceal Street was redeveloped in 2011, and it has been open for a year. Restaurants are in front of St Martin's, up to the Nelson statue.

I've not taken photos of it completed yet.

Apart from when the floral trail was in town last summer

 
Birmingham's come a long way from the traditional park's department brash, bedding out designs. Nice to see a bit of creative flair in planting. Viv.
 
Think it won gold at the Chelsea Flower Show!

The horticultural department puts out a floral trail in the city centre every summer.
 
The buildings that they replaced were no great hell...go back at least another generation...before Goring.
 
A modern view of the Bullring - the Debenhams side - from Dudley Street.
Dudley Street goes under the bridge that carries Smallbrook Queensway.
Edgbaston Street is to the right (next to the Indoor Market)




The same corner, but from Smallbrook Queensway

 
That's some contrast Ell. It's even dramatically different from 20 years ago. And as your caption to the pictures points out, the link bridge is one of the few older features left. Now that I recognise! Thanks for posting. Viv.
 
No problem Viv.

Think the link bridge was refurbished when the new Bull Ring was built in the early 2000's.




All nice and new in the Bullring. Then you walk over the link bridge into what's left of The Pallasades. It will be refurbished along with the rest of New Street Station as "Grand Central".
The only bit that was done up on the other side (at the time) was what became TK Maxx.

The bridge I was referring to was the road bridge below the link bridge.

To get from the Dudley Street / Edgbaston Street corner, you now have to walk up a spiral staircase to Smallbrook Queensway (or use the lift).
 
Sounds like you don't even have to set foot on the road these days. Even in the 1960/70/80s I remember you could navigate the Bull Ring completely under cover for quite a long way. I expect that was the idea. The other feature of the 1960s Bull Ring was it's Mediterranean climate - yes that's right, supposedly it had a Mediterranean climate! Viv.
 
Might as well post my video of Birmingham Moor Street to Bordesley here as well, as it passed the Bullring (if you didn't see it in the High Street Deritend thread)

[youtube]OES-F87xEh8[/youtube]
 
Some pics of the new Spiceal Street from this morning.

Will eventually be up on my Flickr sometime during the coming week.

DSCF3115.jpgDSCF3116.jpgDSCF3123.jpg
 
It's a shame that new development has spoiled some of the views of St. Martin's. I preferred it when it was open space with those box water features. The service at that new Brown's restaurant there is also rubbish. It's well worth paying a bit extra at Janie's Italian.
 
ellbrown said:
I wonder what ever happened to these, once they started the Spiceal Street development 2 years ago?



Click to expand...

That's what I'd like to know. It would be a shame if they wound up in a skip like the old bull sculpture did during the most recent re-development of the Bullring. But at least that had lasted from the sixties whereas those water features lasted less than 10 years!
 
Not sure I quite get these features although I do like the illuminated version. All adds to the atmosphere of a place at night (and maybe helps to keep the vandals at bay too!). So what are these? Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Not sure I quite get these features although I do like the illuminated version. All adds to the atmosphere of a place at night (and maybe helps to keep the vandals at bay too!). So what are these? Viv.
Click to expand...
Water used to cascade down them into pools but they were removed as they built more restaurants and called it spiceal St.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Hi Brumgum and Ell. Think water features must have added soothing dimension, so pity they've gone. The disappearance of the bulls on the exterior walls of the 1960s Bull Ring doesn't seem to have ever been fully explained. And there were at least two, maybe even three of them. Pity really because not only did I like the style but they were also a distinctive feature of the 60s Bull Ring. Viv.
Click to expand...

Ditto to all of that but sadly we're well used to such acts of vandalism in this City, you might like to see this corner of the Birmingham it's history it's people exhibition in the museum as they did manage to save a flag from the old Bull Ring of that same design..

https://www.flickr.com/photos/birminghammag/8102685330/lightbox/
 
Some pics taken from the balcony at Costa (accessed via Forever 21).

St Martin's Church




Moat Lane




Opened 10 years ago (the new malls and Selfridges)

 
Spiceal Street seen from Costa at the Bullring (balcony).

Nelson standing above the new structures.





 
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