• 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

Paradise development 2018

Status
Not open for further replies.

ellbrown

ell brown on Flickr
Edit. Please note there are a number of other related threads as follows

Paradise pre development 2014 - 2016

Paradise Circus


Paradise development 2017


Paradise development 2019


Last bit of Fletchers Walk before it is demolished.



Clear view of the Town Hall from the library.



1 Chamberlain Square hiding the Museum.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I look at these pics and keep seeing that black 'box' building in the lower right of pic 2. It has a rather untidy roof. Is it staying or possibly due for demolition ?
 
The glass building with red sections is Chamberlain House and it will be demolished eventually, as will The Copthorne Hotel.
 
I look at these pics and keep seeing that black 'box' building in the lower right of pic 2. It has a rather untidy roof. Is it staying or possibly due for demolition ?

As Ell says, it is Chamberlain House and it is going.

In fact I have just seen on the Paradise web site there are weekend road closures planned for the roads that run alongside it (13th/14th January, 20th/21st January and 27th/28th January) so I think they will start demolishing that building very soon.

See the first article here (January 2018 Closures)

https://www.paradisebirmingham.co.uk/access/

In fact if you go to this web site (link below), and scroll down to the heading "The Place" you see a plan for the whole site and realise everything on that site will be demolished.

However the last building wont be finished till the middle of 2026 !

https://www.paradisebirmingham.co.uk/the-vision/

Here is the timeline for the whole Paradise site

https://www.paradisebirmingham.co.uk/timeline/
.
 
Some views of the demolition from a bus on Suffolk Street Queensway. Was a lot of traffic round here.





New vantage points opening up.



 
Lane closed on Paradise Circus Queensway to enable the start of demolition of Chamberlain House.





This was where the steps down to Easy Row Subway used to be.



From Chamberlain Square.

 
eric even if we dont think much of most of the new buildings they are slinging up wouldnt it be nice to be able to walk around a finished city centre and actually know where we are going...cant see many of us being privey to that..as ells photos over the years show its looking just like a war zone..not nice for visitors to see if they are only here for a few days or weeks....

lyn
 
The whole Paradise site by 2026!

The first building should be complete by 2019.

Centenary Way is now open all the way from Chamberlain Square to Centenary Square. Although there are other routes around the site you can walk such as Great Charles Street Queensway onto the pavement on Paradise Circus Queensway, but you have to cross over at the lights towards the bottom of Cambridge Street. I noticed that the path behind Baskerville House was open, as you can go around the portacabins in Centenary Square (Edward VII statue is in the middle of that).
 
Lyn, it just seems a continuous massive building site , I agree casual visitors will not be very impressed and will not return in a hurry. Let's hope it is sorted out before the Common Wealth games. At the moment it reminds me of the bombing !! Eric
 
I feel sorry for the workers. Bet the directors will walk away with bonuses although they mismanaged the company
 
I feel sorry for the workers. Bet the directors will walk away with bonuses although they mismanaged the company

Some of the directors have allegedly already paid themselves a £4million bonus last year, quite sad for the people who do the real work.
 
An earlier redevelopment with some building work in the very early 1970s. On the right a new library being built, using plenty of concrete, which they probably thought should make it last forever ...
1970s.jpg
 
thanks phil....new to me that one...like we keep asking...will the construction in the city centre ever be finished....i doubt it

lyn
 
This was a few days ago after the Carillion collapse. DSM Demolition were still knocking down the old Conservatoire.









I think they are only doing Chamberlain House at weekends.

 
Yes Ell, they are doing the demolition of Chamberlain House at weekends as this requires a road closure and although one was scheduled for last weekend I don't think it happened.

I stayed in the Copthorne Hotel this last weekend. I got a good rate as I think people know that it is on a building site. I was helping organise a conference for 70 people. These were mainly from the rest of the UK but we had visitors from Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and Germany. We should also have had one from Austria but Amsterdam Airport, where he was due to change flights, was closed last Thursday because of the storms. I last stayed there in 2003 when we were told that the hotel would be demolished within the next year! My biggest problem was that I did not realise that the Hall of Memory bus stop had been taken out so I had to go all the way round to Great Charles Street then try to work out my way to the Copthorne. There was a route from Gt. Charles Street but I did not know that so I went round the block into Victoria Square. It was fortunate for us this weekend that the the pathway from Centenary Square to Victoria Square had been opened up.
 
No it didn't happen this past weekend, bad weather - snow and heavy rain.





My biggest problem was that I did not realise that the Hall of Memory bus stop had been taken out so I had to go all the way round to Great Charles Street then try to work out my way to the Copthorne. There was a route from Gt. Charles Street but I did not know that so I went round the block into Victoria Square. It was fortunate for us this weekend that the the pathway from Centenary Square to Victoria Square had been opened up.

Now that the Paradise roadworks are done, there is a new pavement around Paradise Circus Queensway, from the end of Great Charles Street Queensway (bus stop at the back of the museum & art gallery should be in use again I think).

Below photos taken in October 2017







 
Last edited:
i have been told the due to the carillion collapse all construction work that they were doing has now ceased in the city centre..

lyn
 
They said on the news that the new hospital in Smethwick to replace Dudley Road and Sandwell is unlikely to restart for months.
 
Chamberlain House demolition should resume this weekend?





The former Conservatoire site behind.

 
Has this now all come to a stand still because of the Carillion failure, if so, what are the council going to do about it. I read all Governments contracts have been passed to other Companies, such as HS2, but what happens to contracts such as Paradise Circus ? What a fiasco ! Eric
 
eric as far as i know carillion were also contracted to work on HS2 as well as the work on paradise circus and the new hospital that will replace dudley road hospital ..no idea what will happen now but i guess things will remain at a standstill until other contractors can be found athough it looks as though the demolision is still going on but i would think that is because they are different contractors..we have the commonwealth games being held in birmingham in 2022 so the powers that be need to get a move on if they want to attract visitors to the city

lyn
 
Has this now all come to a stand still because of the Carillion failure?

Carillion were building One Chamberlain Square and work on that has stopped.

However Carillion were also providing all the Health and Safety support for the WHOLE site so no work could go on anywhere on the site until that was sorted.

However that has now been sorted out and demolition of Chamberlain House and the rest of that corner of the site can now go ahead.

And company BAM had already been contracted to build TWO Chamberlain Square (only the foundations had been built by another company) so now that can go ahead.

You use the term "Fiasco" at the end of your update (which means "a complete failure, especially a ludicrous or humiliating one") and it seems as though you are blaming someone (the Council?) for what has happened?

It is nobody fault but Carillion for over stretching themselves and getting themselves into liquidation.

As I say above, the demolition of the site is going ahead, and BAM will start building TWO Chamberlain Square in March I think. I guess a new contractor will be found to finish off ONE Chamberlain Square soon.

So hardly a Fiasco.

Rememeber the company building Brindley Place all those years ago went bankrupt and the half finished site had to be sold to another company to finish it off. This sort of thing goes on all the time with large construction companies.
 
I read that the HS2 was a joint project and that the remaining company (forgot the name) will now have full control. Regarding Paradise circus, I think this must already be putting visitors off, seeing that bomb site as certainly put me off. I personally think 'Centenary Square' should be an oasis in the city, somewhere to relax, lawns, fountain, trees and flower beds, with pathways and plenty of benches
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top