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Paradise development 2017

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ellbrown

ellbrown

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Edit. Please note there are a number of other related threads as follows

Paradise pre development 2014 - 2016

Paradise pre development 2014 -2016

The new Paradise development (note dropping of 'Circus' from title). Viv. https://www.birminghampost.co.uk/business/business-news/road-paradise-mapped-out-11-8306746?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk

Paradise Circus

Paradise Circus

Another part of Brum going. https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/36-atmospheric-pictures-paradise-circus-8437084
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk

Paradise development 2018

Paradise development 2018

Edit. Please note there are a number of other related threads as follows Paradise pre development 2014 - 2016 https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/paradise-pre-development-2014-2016.44640/ Paradise Circus...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk

Paradise development 2019

Paradise development 2019

Edit. Please note there are a number of other related threads as follows Paradise pre development 2014 - 2016 https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/paradise-pre-development-2014-2016.44640/ Paradise Circus...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk

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1 Chamberlain Square under construction. Seen from the new road layout of Paradise Circus Queensway from the top deck of the no 9 bus. During Storm Doris.



 
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The site from the Skyline Viewpoint at the Library of Birmingham level 9 on the 11th February 2017.

 
What are they actually building in place of the "brutalist" library - more offices?

Maurice
 
Thanks Lyn & Ell, much as I thought, but eleven years of construction doesn't sound very appetising! The progress drone in the link that Ell gives is interesting as well as a bit frightening. Can't say that I will ever see it, except via a drone view such as that. Neither do I think that many people will enjoy Phase One whilst construction is going on all around them.

Maurice
 
Apparently Easy Row is back. It might be the path that leads to the steps up to Centenary Way.

Otherwise there was the existing Easy Row Subway from Fletchers Walk over towards the Alpha Tower and Arena Central.
 
Paradise update from Chamberlain Square. Hoardings replaced by fences.



Steps still there more or less.







 
Lyn,

It's purely for the inquisitive, but I must admit that even building sites aren't as interesting as in my younger day. All precast stuff these days. Here in Crete we still shutter the reinforcing and pump concrete into it the oldfashioned way, but no one would dream of building skyscrapers in an earthquake zone.

Maurice
 
I have avoided Fletchers Walk for many years, mainly after what I thought was suspicious activity going on in the gents toilet which used to be in the subway under Paradise Street. Since the walk through Paradise Forum was closed, I have either stayed on the bus to Colmore Row or, if I was going to New Street Station, I would walk down Suffolk Street and along Navigation Street. However I had no choice one evening earlier this month, but having studied the map I realised that I should avoid the signposted route from Victoria Square because that would require a flight of steps up to the bridge. I therefore took the Fletchers Walk route as this is now a step free route (but not signposted as such).

I was surprised to see that the Hagley Road buses on their out of town journey have now reverted to Paradise Circus and the whole length of Broad Street. Looking at the traffic changes I am wondering why we have been diverted via the Jewellery Quarter for so long.
 
They recently reopened the bottom end of Broad Street near the new look Paradise Circus Queensway for buses access only. Called the Bus Gate.

 
ellbrown said:
Apparently Easy Row is back. It might be the path that leads to the steps up to Centenary Way.

Otherwise there was the existing Easy Row Subway from Fletchers Walk over towards the Alpha Tower and Arena Central.
Click to expand...

Ellbrown, Easy Row was one of the streets I missed most when they started to muck about with Birmingham. I've always had a 'thing' about steps. Nice steps always fascinated me when I was little and there was, I think, a Georgian house on the corner of easy Row which had a 'up and down' flight of steps with railings.
 
I am curious about the use of 'bus gate' - I do not see any gates. ;) Usually the description 'lane' is used. Is this another imported word I wonder?
 
Probably American. Perhaps invented by Trump, as he's always seeing things and happenings that aren't there
 
hi pen easy row has always been a sore subject for me...apart from the other lovely buildings they demolished the woodman pub has to be for me at least one of the most ornate and important buildings in the city centre to be swept aside.. without a care..i have an old pub book here that dedicates a whole section to it and although i know there are a few photos of it already on the forum when i have time i am going to scan all the pages and photos and post them..if the powers that be can get rid of a building like this then nothing is safe..at the moment the bartons arms in newtown holds the title of one of best pubs in the country but there is no doubt in my mind that if the woodman was still with us the title would belong to that pub

lyn
 
Lyn, how right you are! I'm sorry to say that I never went in the Woodman, I'm sure my Dad did but I don't even remember waiting outside for him. One of the strangest things to my mind happened to the Duke in Sutton. It's a lovely old pub and some strange soul ripped out all the original Victorian fittings and replaced them with .... Victorian fittings! Even in the loos the fittings are mock Victorian. Why I wonder?
 
Radiorails said:
I am curious about the use of 'bus gate' - I do not see any gates. ;) Usually the description 'lane' is used. Is this another imported word I wonder?
Click to expand...

There is a Bus Gate at the new QE Hospital which only buses and ambulances are supposed to use although I have seen car drivers using it. I suppose that you can call that a gate as it is an entrance on to the QE Campus. I Googled Bus Gate and found that there are many all over the country and many car drivers are being fined.

In Nottingham they even have a Bus Gate which is not on any scheduled bus route and 11,000 drivers have been fined for driving through it. The reason as I understand it is that it is a pedestrianised area but buses do use it for Nottingham Trent University students.
 
The "bus gate" before it was labelled as such in May 2016. This was from the steps heading down to the path that leads to Fletchers Walk.

 
This was where the roadway formerly of Paradise Circus Queensway was.





From the Discovery Terrace at the Library of Birmingham.



 
Looking at many of the redevelopment pictures on this Forum suggests a continual change in the city centre. As a child I saw that the bombing did alter many parts of the city but none of that was on the scale of redevelopment of the last half century it seems.
 
Ell's comment that his photo of the steps upto the bridge is where Easy Row used to be is about right. Remember that at the side of what we used to call the Civic Centre now Baskerville House was the Air Terminal which would have been above what is the Broad Street side of Paradise Circus.

This photo of the length of the staircase shows what I meant in a previous post about the step-free route from Victoria Square to Centenary Square not being signposted.
 
There used to be this, but was a few years ago (Christmas 2015).



This is the old version from 2011 (long before the redevelopment started)



This is the path to the steps in early 2015 before they altered it and added an extra set of steps.

 
Late May Bank Holiday Monday look at Paradise and 1 Chamberlain Square.



Current state of the steps



The old Birmingham Conservatoire awaiting demolition.

 
Are those steps in photo 2 ( of the post by ell brown) on the lines of a low amphitheatre? Shame about the power station in the background! ;)
 
Radiorails said:
Are those steps in photo 2 ( of the post by ell brown) on the lines of a low amphitheatre? Shame about the power station in the background! ;)
Click to expand...

They were just the steps up to the now demolished former Birmingham Central Library (1974-2013)

 
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