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New Birmingham library plans

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Yes Liz it was 70s i worked on it as a young electrician don,t know where all the Town Hall people will get their new Free car parking when they demolish it there is a 2 floor car park underneath it i,m sure they will be provided with suitable accommodations and not have to pay the £50 a week car parking like us mere mortals.Dek
 
Didn't buildings last longer than this at one time,i'm sure they did,and the old one was much nicer.
 
guilbert53 said:
Yes, but then money and big business are the driving force for all major projects everywhere in the world. .
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guilbert53,

Bit late replying but I don’t seem to get the notifications of new posts as often as I used to. Anyway, I agree money and big business are the driving force for all major projects everywhere in the world, but that doesn’t make it right nor does it mean the decisions taken are necessarily right. The decisions are made according to projected costs and profits and not according to how it will affect local folk. And great though Matthew Boulton was I doubt he considered the workforce paid little and worked lots!

The canals that we now view as quaint were built by imported labour and the folk who worked on them led hard, uncomfortable lives while the canal builders and financiers got rich.

What I am trying to say is the wealth that is created should be more evenly distributed instead of wealthy employers telling us without them we wouldn’t have a job. Without us they wouldn’t have a business. Little has changed.
 
Re ,,,,,,Paul Higgins ,,,,What I am trying to say is the wealth that is created should be more evenly distributed instead of wealthy employers telling us without them we wouldn’t have a job. Without us they wouldn’t have a business. Little has changed.,,,,
So very true,the bosses at British Rail have just had enormous bonuses,why because the trains are running on time
 
Elizabeth Redmond said:
because the trains are running on time
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Hi, Elizabeth

Thanks for the support. However, I have to disagree with some of your comment.

Yes, the privately owned, loss making, taxpayer funded train infrastructure bosses continue to claim massive UNEARNED bonuses (who keeps the trains on time? The drivers, the porters, middle management and supervisors) but today I had to travel from Tamworth to Burton on Trent for a 1:30 appointment at the Queens Hospital, a ten minute journey. I took my push bike to cycle the five or ten minutes from the station. The train at 12:38 would have arrived at 12:49. Arriving at the station at just after 12:30 I had to wait while both ticket windows were occupied with people asking about train journeys and prices some days hence. After 5 minutes, one of the windows became free and looking at the clock I saw it was almost 12:38. Never mind, the trains are almost always two minutes or so late. By the time I bought my ticket, I had missed the train. Bear in mind the ticket staff saw me waiting, checking the video monitors (which weren’t working) and looking at my watch. It must have been obvious I had arrived to catch a train immediately. Never mind. The 13:07 would get me in at 13:19, giving me 10 mins to get to the hospital, which I knew I could do.

Why cannot ticket windows sell tickets and have an enquiries window for information that could be manned after current passengers have received their tickets and caught the train they wanted to?

Guess what? At 12:50, we were informed the 13:07 was delayed by 15 minutes. Then by 18 minutes. I ended up being 25 minutes late for my appointment.

So much for good time keeping bonuses! And ask yourselves, if you asked your boss for a bonus for being at work on time (most of the time), what answer do you think you’d get? Sure, I’ll pay you extra for something I already pay you for? how about a getting to work and doing my job bonus? It stinks.
 
Elizabeth Redmond said:
Didn't buildings last longer than this at one time,i'm sure they did,and the old one was much nicer.
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Very few of the buildings I worked in during the 60s and 70s are now standing. Many buildings I have seen go up often come down within 10yrs. The rates on unoccupied buildings are often responsible for this. Lets face it not much of the stuff built since the 50s is worth keeping. Modern interiors also go shabby very quickly.
I had a look in our local library, one of those multi-purpose units councils love but never succeed at being good at anything, and was surprised how few books there were. Most appeared to be what I would call coffee table books, all pictures and not enough writing to tax the brain. All appeared to be tatty. I used to read books by their weight before my 1st mrs died and spent hours in libraries and book shops. Now I hardly pick one up, just cannot concentrate now.
 
Looking at this cutting,from 1971, I'm not sure whether to note the awed mention of computers by thinking "it was a long time ago" or by " that was only yesterday"

new_library_1970s.jpg
 
ive just seen the pics of the new libary
all i can say is

oh dear lord what were they thinking were they smoking something at the time or drinking funny water
its horrid
it looks like boxes made out of chicken wire with plastic on the inside with lights shinning through it
its really horrid
 
couldnt agree with you more celia...especially when you compere it with the pic of the original library on post 85...and i am afraid they will never learn...

lyn
 
what i wont to know it how many chickens are they planning on keeping in there
sorry bad taste i know but it just reminds me of a chicken coop
 
i know its not funny celia but your last post made me laff...reminds me a bit of a brillo pad...
 
i know its not funny and i shouldnt really poke fun but it dose remind me of a chicken coop

i dont come into brum very often once a month or every cpl of months and ive got use to the libary being where it is and i know my round it
now we got to walk all the way to the rep to use the libary and no dought get lost inside it trying to find the records dept when we need to do family tree work or brum history ect
thats if there going to move the records to the libary

but my opinion and its just my opinion its a eye sore and it will stick out like a sore thumb
wish we could still use the old libary
at least it looked so much better and was built to last like all victorian buildings were
not like the new builds one strong gust of wind and it blows over
 
once again i agree with you celia...the new library in my opinion is just not in keeping the the others around it therefore distracting our attention away from the real historical buildings..those that will hopefully still be there long after the demolision of this new library...

lyn
 
Morning Frothy,I 'm not anymore, went to my granddaughters 21st in Overbury, and meandered back via Brum,hadn't got enough time to do all I wanted,
otherwise I would have arranged a mini-meet up,next time.
 
john knight said:
Morning Frothy,I 'm not anymore, went to my granddaughters 21st in Overbury, and meandered back via Brum,hadn't got enough time to do all I wanted,
otherwise I would have arranged a mini-meet up,next time.
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That's what I was thinking. I was going to have a sicky.
 
zzf00l said:
Does anyone know when they will be taking the rolls of barbed wire off the new library?
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my first reaction to the lastest pics were...god its now looking like a POW camp...showed the pic to my 26 year old son and he said ..i take it that the barbed wire stuff is a temporary thing and will be coming off..had to tell him no thats it almost finished...most of you know that since we saw mock up plans over 2 years back of how the new libary would look i personally didnt like the look of it...i like it even less now and was just thinking that unless they keep up the cleaning of this building its going to look a right mess in a few years time..and poor baskerville house is no longer a dominent and prominent feature along broad st...totally dwarfed by what i can only describe as a blot on the landscape...just my opinion but i also respect the fact that some people like it...
lyn
 
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I like both the 'Rep' and Baskeville House BUT not the new Library, in my opinion its a blot on the area, I would have preferred something more traditional in stone or brick which I think would have fitted in better, as I say thats my opinion no doubt others will disagree and thats has it should be. Eric
 
Well you know my feelings on the subject.... "A very impressive building in the flesh"
Nice photos again John :playful::encouragement:
 
If Prince Charles had his way all towns and cities would be preserved in Aspic. Thankfully the City Fathers have over the years seen the need to innovate. Sadly not always does this work but better than living in a buildings museum IMHO.
 
As a matter of interest, how well attached is the "barbed wire". I can see people trying to climb up the building using it
 
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