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Grand Hotel Colmore Row

Many thanks for that, ellbrown.

Feeling slightly more reassured, but is it good to demolish a tower block, and then build another, on the same spot?

I hate these 'modern town planners'.

Eddie
 
Alan your query had absolutely nothing to do with this thread. I have moved it to General Discussion.

Thank you
 
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ellbrown:

Just read your posting #208, and the new owners comments, re replacing the towering monstrosity that overlooks the Grand Hotel.

That is the sort of language that frightens me. Reading between the lines it very much sounds like three piece suits out to make as much profit as they can, with their new venture. Do they really care about the 'Birmingham Skyline'? I don't think so.

It will just be another high tower overlooking the new Grand Hotel.

Eddie.
 
As far as I can see the work on the Grand Hotel cost Horton Estates a lot of money and headaches. They are an old well established company in Birmingham, I am so pleased they took on such a project, to save and restore the frontage of this beautiful building. So many would say it cant be saved and knock it down.

As far as the Nat West tower is concerned, I agree with HRH Prince Charles, a carbuncle. I have never liked Madin's work so anything may be an improvement. It makes no sense to have a building empty for 12 years in such a prominent area of the city. I hope it will look good!
 
As a student at Aston in the early 1980s I didn't have the means to enjoy the splendour of the Grand - but I do recall the Backyard Bar at the rear of the hotel, with its own entrance on Barwick Street. The fittings were in contrast to those in the hotel itself: barrels as tables and sawdust on the floor. We drank there occasionally because it served real ale (M&B Springfield Bitter) when the vast majority of pubs and bars in Birmingham offered only pressurised beer. Another hotel bar on our regular rounds was Atkinson's Bar, attached to the Midland Hotel in Stephenson Street; this was quite plush, with a mock-Victorian décor lined with bookshelves, and served four ales direct from casks on a stillage including Draught Bass and Ruddle's County.
 
By the late 1980's the bar that was underground at the Grand was called Colmore's. I used to work opposite St Philip's and we used to go there for lunch fiarly often. No sawdust by that time, it was not like the Grosvenor Suite, but it was relatively posh.
 
The Backyard Bar was kept open eeen during the times that the hotel was closed during the many times the management went bust in order to keep the licence.
 
Crockett & Jones the only shop on Colmore Row at the Grand Hotel to not be covered over by hoardings?

Are they coming back here when the hotel reopens?

 
The Crocket and Jones shop was previously the Anatomical Boot Company with a green shop front. At one comapny where I worked, the managing director would come to work the day before he went on holiday wearing Hush Puppies and carrying his brown leather brogues. He would ask his secretary to take them into the Anatomical Boot shop for repair so that they would be ready for him when he returned from his holiday.
 
image.jpg
Streetview still shows the shop before the covers went on. If the street banner is anything to go by this was how the shop looked in July 2011. It certainly would have been a handy shop for anyone staying at the Grand, especially if it did shoe repairs as per David's post. Viv.
 
David
A little earlier than the 1920s. The Anatomical Boot Co first appear there i n Kellys between 1908 & 1910
 
Facade150817.JPG The latest photograph released by Hortons` Estate Ltd., showing the newly restored facade of the Grand Hotel above the retail outlets on Colmore Row, now the scaffolding has been taken down to street level.
 
Possibly an error in reporting Mike. Yes, the work on the roof seems to be complete now. Viv.
 
grand hotel, its good to see hortons and the city farthers working to geather to get this most important building back to its grandure. it will bring a lot of trade and visitors to to the city. kind reguards sidwho
 
THE GRAND HOTEL
In 2015 Hortons commissioned Tom Bird, a talented Birmingham based photographer, to make a photographic record of the Grand project. Here is a link to his images beginning in the basement, rising through the public spaces up to the new build roof and finally into the courtyard and external facade. www.infinityproject.co.uk/grand-hotel
 
What a fantastic record Allan, and so detailed. Thank you very much for posting, I'm sure many members will find it very interesting. Viv.
 
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