I think the people of Birmingham were "sold a pup" when the old science museum was closed down. - It was free to enter and its location was the ideal "link" between the city centre and the Jewellery Quarter. To my mind, its replacement, the "ThinkTank" at Millennium point (which contains only a fraction of what was in the original Science Museum) was a con by developers to get the council to jump-start their East Side development. It didn't work, and that whole area of Birmingham was semi-derelict for 20 years. It's only in recent years, with the land being snapped up by Aston University for student accommodation and the promise of the HS2 station being built next door that the area has sprung back to life. But that very success will probably doom the ThinkTank. It seems incredible to me that Birmingham Council does not actually own the ThinkTank building, it only rents it. The lease is up in 2029. No doubt the owners will get much more money from some big corporate company seeking to relocate some of its staff from London to less-expensive Birmingham once HS2 is in operation. What then? - Especially in light of Birmingham's financial woes.
One of my favourite days out is to the National Museum of Computing next to Bletchley Park. One of its star exhibits is the oldest original (rather than replica) computer anywhere in the world. - The Harwell Decatron "W.H.I.T.C.H." computer. - It actually belongs to Birmingham Museums, but it took someone from the National Museum of Computing to recognise it in storage, arrange for it to be loaned and repaired to working condition. - It just goes to show that Birmingham Museums simply does not know the value or worth of the things donated to it over the years.
www.tnmoc.org
Here is a link to an article in the Architect's Journal back in 2021 when they advertised for a "Masterplanner" to sort out the coming mess...
Birmingham Museums Trust is seeking a masterplanner to test ideas for a new city, science and industry museum [Deadline: 13 September 2021]
www.architectsjournal.co.uk
On principle, I've never visited the ThinkTank, but I did enjoy going to the big IMAX cinema that used to be housed in the same building (I used to work not far away). I was always puzzled by the lack of visitors to ThinkTank while their website was always boasting of how popular the place was. So one day I asked one of the security guards about it. - He said, they boast about the number of visitors, but that includes all the bussed-in schoolkids who get in for free. The actual number of paying visitors is a lot less.