• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Grand Hotel Colmore Row

Here are 2 pictures I've posted before, hope you like them.

In 1896

Grand_Hotel_1896.jpg


Not sure of this one

GRAND_HOTEL.jpg
 

It looks like things are moving forward at last for the Grand Hotel's restoration.

Members of the Casework Committee of The Victorian Society have had a number of meetings with Hortons' Estate (the owner of The Grand Hotel) concerning the restoration and re-opening of hotel. It promises to be a fantastic and exciting conservation project.

Hortons feel that their plans are now well enough advanced to hold a public exhibition of them and I attach a copy of the letter received from Hortons, advising the location and timing of the exhibition.

Hortons hope that members of The Victorian Society will be able to visit the event. To assist them in doing so, the exhibition will remain open, to members of the Victorian Society only, until 7pm on 11[SUP]th[/SUP] January, so that they can attend on their way to the Group's Casework Showcase on that evening.

Depending upon the feedback received, they hope to be in a position to submit a Planning Application in the near future.

I will be presenting a session at the Casework Showcase on the background and issues facing the restoration project. Non-members are welcome to attend. Cost is £5.00 at the Council House, Victoria Square.

Victorian Society Casework Showcase
Wednesday 11th January, 7.30 pm
The Council House, Victoria Square

Presentations by members of the Casework Committee on recent cases
Cost £5



Thanks.

Stephen Hartland
Chairman
The Victorian Society
Birmingham & West Midlands Group
 
wend this is great news..just the sort we want to hear...thanks for the update:encouragement:

lyn
 
Great news, just what is needed for the New Year. Let's all show our support for 'saving' this iconic building, if indeed that is the proposal.
 
Such good news. Fingers crossed that it gets the go-ahead. I'm sure the Victorian Society must have worked hard to help get it to this stage. Thanks. A lovely building, well worth the effort. Viv.
 
Stephen is a lovely man and very dedicated to the city and it's historic buildings. I think working with Horton's they will have the best result. Thanks to all involved in the Victorian Society for their dedication and Horton's for keeping this beautiful building.
I like many will have lovely memories of this iconic building. My uncle Eric always stayed there when visiting us from London he loved the place.
 
It is good that the Grand and in particular the Grosvenor Suite will be going back to its former glory. I have been to several functions there, including a ball. When working at St Philips Place, several of us used to go to the bar which had its entrance at the back, for lunch, so I have had much association with the Grand. Hortons' Estate was not only a client of the company I worked for, but Peter Horton himself worked in my department (I guess his 'apprenticeship', seeing as the company was a firm of surveyors), so my personal involvement has been quite deep.
 
Good news indeed. I have always had a soft spot for the Grand; I went to my first company dinner/dance there back in the mid-70s. My abiding memory however is slipping on the carpet at the top of the second section of stairs and sliding gracefully from top to bottom It was the last time I wore leather-soled shoes to a function!
 
I was a guest at the reopenning dinner of the Grosvenor Suite in 1978/79. It was a marketing event function put on by the hotel to publicise the fact that it was back in business after another of its periods of closure. All I can remember of the function was that we had a whole quail each. The only time I have ever eaten that bird. I have been to several functions there before and afterwards.
 
I have managed to scan the letter from Horton Estates to thr chair of the Victorian Society I have also deleted Stephen's address from the top of the letter. A nice start to the new year though!

Grand_Hotel.jpg
 
Great news. Why do they have these exhibitions mid week. I would love to go but can't, because of work commitments.
 
The Grand won't have been built with asbstos, but it may have been added later. Removal is an enormous job - I once had to type out a removal manual in accordance with new regulations (about 2002) and it's a total headache for anyone attempting such a job, and very costly. All will have been taken into consideration.
 
I was thinking more of what happens to the asbestos, not the size of the building. Double and triple bagging etc, how and where it is transported to, I typed something like 200 pages of what must and what must not be done. It's made quite an industry out of something that used to be commonplace. I remember my father in law building his own garage in 1964. He put asbestos (as was the rule then) on the inside of the kitchen door just in case of fire in the garage. On the INSIDE! Astonishing what was done with it before it was fully realised what damage it did, but I suppose the same story can be told about many things.
 
Came across this short report on Estates Gazette site:

"Brum buildings take starring roles in new BBC drama

By Lisa Pilkington on January 27, 2012
Watch out this spring for two of Birmingham's landmark buildings which have star roles in a new Stephen Poliakoff drama series for BBC Two.

Birmingham's Council House and the ballroom of the vacant Grand Hotel on Colmore Row (owned by Hortons' Estate and pictured right) have been overrun recently with actors and film crew for the filming of Dancing on the Edge, an explosive new drama series set in polite society in the early 1930s following a black jazz band during times of extraordinary change.

The five-part series stars Anthony Head, Jacqueline Bisset, Caroline Quentin, Jane Asher and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Children of Men, American Gangster), but sadly no starring role or even a bit part for media luvvie Mike Whitby, Birmingham council's effervescent leader.Never mind Mike, the role of Birmingham's first elected mayor is still available!"

One to watch out for. And a nice view of the Grand's ballroom below (apologies but can't enlarge pic).

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1328910318.881338.jpg

Viv.
 
Thanks for the information Jennyann. It is wonderful that this beautiful building is to be renovated and brought back to life again. I was thrilled to see my auntie in the video clip. She was Head Receptionist at the Grand for many years after the war, and if you look at the photo showing Reception, my Auntie Eve is the girl on the left with long dark hair seated. Fantastic!

Just trying to insert the photo here:

Auntie Eve.jpg

Judy
 
Last edited:
That's brilliant Judy. We all scan photos on here to see if there's anyone we know. I'm so pleased for you!!
 
Thanks Charlie. I was taken aback to see my auntie in the video. I've now sent the link on to my sister who will enjoy seeing it. I guess we all do hope to find someone from our own family in a picture one day, and it is such a lovely surprise when you do.

Judy
 
That's great Jayell that you were able to find your Auntie on the Grand Hotel video. She must have seen so much in her job as a Receptionist at the Grand. Hopefully, there will be more photos, etc. come to light when the renovations are completed and the history is delved into. It really would have been "the end" if this building couldn't be saved.
 
Jayell said:
Thanks Charlie. I was taken aback to see my auntie in the video. I've now sent the link on to my sister who will enjoy seeing it. I guess we all do hope to find someone from our own family in a picture one day, and it is such a lovely surprise when you do.

Judy
Click to expand...

oh thats great for you and the family judy...so pleased for you and thanks jenny for posting the link..
:encouragement:
lyn
 
Great result both for the future of the Grand and for Judy. How lovely to see one of your relations actually at work! The slideshow pics are brilliant. The B&W photo of the ballroom is as I remember it. It had a lot (and I mean a lot) of gilding everywhere, even in the 1980s. The ballroom was so big, when we erected our mobile stage for our guest speakers and panelists, it looked tiny in the room, swamped by the scale of the surroundings. In the 80s it had a lot of the standard hotel blue Axminster carpet theme going on and the place seemed a bit jaded by then, especially in the non-public areas. However I seem to remember the food was pretty good and the majority of our delegates thought so too. (Well that's what many of them tend to be interested in! Oops didn't mean to say that) But we often found on conference feedback forms the issue of food provided at events takes on a whole life of its own. Never mind the content of the conference! Viv.
 
The following quote is from yesterday's Birmingham Mail:
"The long awaited restoration of Birmingham City Centre’s historic Grand Hotel has been given enthusiastic support by council planners.
Once completed the hotel will be reopened and shops fronting Colmore Row given a new vintage look.
The hotel will also be removed from the list of at risk historic building."
 
wonderful news lesley....for once the council has got it right and given us something to cheer about..:encouragement:

lyn
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top