Baskerville House, previously called the Civic Centre, is a former civic building in Centenary Square, Built in 1938 (architect T. Cecil Howitt of Nottingham) it was the only component built from a grand plan for a new civic campus by Howitt which would have covered all of Centenary Square and the Convention Centre, and included the Masonic Hall (1926-7 Rupert Savage) (vacated Central Television building) and Birmingham Municipal Bank (recently TSB) building (1931-3 also T. Cecil Howitt) on Broad Street. World War II halted construction of Baskerville House (hence the rear brick wall, intended to be temporary), and after the war the use of Roman Imperial imagery on public buildings went out of fashion. A 1941 model of the proposed Civic Centre, designed by William Haywood FRIBA, Secretary of The Birmingham Civic Society, is displayed in the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.
Formerly City Council Offices, this grade II listed building remained vacant for several years after the City Council vacated the property in the spring of 1998. The initial refurbishment plan proposed conversion to a hotel, but the building has subsequently been completely gutted and extended two floors upwards to provide office space on 7 floors, and health club in the basement. Work started in August 2003 and was completed in early 2007 at an estimated cost of £30 million.
Baskerville House was built on the site of Easy Hill, the home of John Baskerville. A sculpture of the Baskerville typeface, Industry and Genius, in his honour stands outside the main entrance to Baskerville House in Centenary Square. It is by local artist David Patten.
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