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Some views from Paradise Circus.

Dishroom at One Chamberlain Square - umbrellas / parasols.



Congreve Street 2020. Seen behind a gate. Has not yet reopened. Might be a new car park opening near here soon.



But signs for the Clean Air Zone have gone up on the outskirts of the City Centre (near the Middleways). Although wont come into force until at least Summer 2020.
 
One more view from today. Paradise Birmingham near One Chamberlain Square towards Arena Central - Dandara and the Alpha Tower. You can also see the Centenary Way footbridge to Centenary Square from here.

 
One more view from today. Paradise Birmingham near One Chamberlain Square towards Arena Central - Dandara and the Alpha Tower. You can also see the Centenary Way footbridge to Centenary Square from here.

Ell is Dandara and theAlpha Tower a musical? But for those of us who are only envious of the fact that that every day you visit Paradise, could you identify which is which please? Once again thanks for your superb pictures. I can see the forum in fifty years time when the Ellbrown pictures rank in status with Shoothill et al.
Bob
 
Ell is Dandara and the Alpha Tower a musical? But for those of us who are only envious of the fact that that every day you visit Paradise, could you identify which is which please? Once again thanks for your superb pictures. I can see the forum in fifty years time when the Ellbrown pictures rank in status with Shoothill et al.
Bob

Dandara is the new residental tower block on the left, and Alpha Tower the office block on the right.

As seen in this 2018 photo of mine. They are on Suffolk Street Queensway (the Crowne Plaza hotel is behind them, it used to be a Holiday Inn a long time ago).

 
A third 'live' camera has been added on the paradisebirmingham website showing work on One Centenary Way.

It also looks like that work is still continuing.
 
I work right by these normally, but of course with the situation at the moment I'm working from home for the foreseeable future. Will be interesting to see what has changed when I go back - assuming any work will be done now.
 
I wont be able to get back to the city centre until lockdown ends. Only people living in the city centre would be able to get photo updates.

It's Your Build from Birmingham We Are would have updates.
 
I wont be able to get back to the city centre until lockdown ends. Only people living in the city centre would be able to get photo updates.

It's Your Build from Birmingham We Are would have updates.
Yes, those & essential workers passing through.
 
Note the plan for the Paradise site posted above on April 9th has actually changed, the new plan is below.

The "yellow" office block at the top of the image, Two Congreve Square, has been removed and has been replaced by a RESIDENTIAL tower called The Octagon.

For those interested in the colour scheme of the buildings in the image, the two building in RED are Phase ONE (already built and just being "finished off") - One Chamberlain Square and Two Chamberlain Square.

The buildings in GREEN are Phase TWO. One Centenary Way (an office block) has just started being built. And the other two buildings in phase 2 (Three Chamberlain Square and a hotel) will be added later (neither started yet).

The buildings in YELLOW are phase Three. None of these have started yet but my guess is the Octagaon residential block will be started first (though there is currently a building in its place).

I am sure the Coronavirus pandemic has affected the building of this site as the demand for office space must have reduced due to the worldwide economic situation. It may be that we don't see the rest of phase 2 started for a couple of years and phase 3 may not start for 5 years or more, but I hope not.

Remember the old "Madin" library complex was supposed to cover the whole site but stopped part way through which is why we finished up with a hotch potch of buildings on the site (like the Copthorne Hotel and the old Chamberlain House). I hope the same does not happen to the Paradise scheme.

Paradise.JPG

Here is John Madin standing over his plan for the whole site, though much of the building on the left was never built. Even the building on the right was not built as per this plan, note the huge "block" in the front right, which I assume was going to be a concert hall, which was not build in that position.

Note there was planned to be a link bridge over to Baskervile House (see lower left of photo), luckily that was never built.

City-architect-John-Madin-in-the-Birmingham-City-Centre.jpg
 
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Not only a contraction of business and the fact that many office workers are now working from home - and so much admin can now be done online - I get the feeling that built office blocks may find fewer businesses wanting office space plus there could be a question mark over those not yet built. This, of course, not only applies to Birmingham but other cities. If the city can attract government departments to move out of London and to Birmingham then maybe that could be a good thing.
 
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