Beetham Tower, Birmingham

Beetham Tower (also referred to as the Holloway Circus Tower or 10 Holloway Circus after its address) is a 121.5 metre (400 feet) tall mixed-use skyscraper in Birmingham city centre, England. It is named after the developers, Beetham Organization, and was designed by Ian Simpson. When it was completed in 2006, it was estimated to have cost around £72 million to construct. The entire development covers an area of 650 square metres.

Baskerville House

Baskerville House, previously called the Civic Centre, is a former civic building in Centenary Square, Birmingham, England.

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.

Balsall Heath Baths

The Public Library and Baths (grid reference SP078843) on Moseley Road, Balsall Heath, Birmingham, England form one of many pairings of baths and libraries in Birmingham.

History

Planning

During discussions, in 1890, to include the Balsall Heath district into the city of Birmingham, it was decided that public baths should be built as soon as possible for the area if Birmingham were to acquire the district. The Bill was passed and Balsall Heath was acquired by Birmingham on October 1, 1891. Immediately, the City of Birmingham Baths Department were instructed to find an appropriate site for the construction of public baths in the area.

The City of Birmingham Baths Department decided that it was useful to work in conjunction with the Free Libraries Committee to find a location. The Free Libraries Committee were also involved in a similar process in finding a site for the construction of a library in the area after they were instructed to construct a library in Balsall Heath following the absorption of the area by Birmingham.

Construction and opening

The Free Library opened in 1895 and has a clock tower. It was designed by Jethro A. Cossins and F. B. Peacock. The Baths were added to the south and opened on October 30, 1907, which was later than planned due to a delayed operation in boring a well on the premises. It was designed by William Hale and Son. There are separate labelled entrances for first class men, second class men, and women.

On November 21, 1908, the First Class pool was floored over and the floor space used for social activities. It was one of a number of public baths to begin doing so in the winter months as there was little demand for the use of bath during this time.

Recent history

The library is a fully functioning branch of the Birmingham Public Library. The baths, run by Birmingham City Council, reopened following extensive structural work during 2005. They stand directly opposite the College of Art. They were given Grade II listed status as a single entity in 1982 however this was upgraded to Grade II* listed status in 2004 by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Facilities

The baths building consists of two swimming pools, three rooms containing slipper baths, an upstairs committee room, an upstairs caretakers flat, a water filter room and a boiler house. The boiler house has three levels: ground contains the boilers, first floor contains the laundry room, second floor contain a gigantic cast iron water tank.

The building was built with three entrances which all led to a central booking desk. First Class Mens entrance led to Pool 1 and the First Class slipper baths room. Second Class Mens entrance led to Pool 2 and the Second Class Mens slipper baths. The First and Second Class Women's entrance led to the Womens only slipper baths room. Women were originally not allowed to bathe.

Originally all bathers were supplied with a towel and swimming trunks, hence the need for the laundry room on the first floor of the boiler house.

Pool 1 is grand in its detailing as it was used as a First Class pool upon opening. Pool 2 is plain and simple in it detailing and was the Second Class pool. Pool 2 did not originally have cubicles and bathers changed on benches around the side of the pool.

Future

The Second Class slipper baths were in continual use until October 2004. The entire building closed for emergency works in October 2004. Pool 2 re-opened in October 2005. Pool 1 is presently mothballed. A bid is due to be submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund in April 2007 to bring both pools and the slipper baths back into public use.

Argent Centre

The Grade II* listed Argent Centre (grid reference SP060873) is on the corner of Frederick Street and Legge Road in the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham, England.

Designed by J. G. Bland for W. E. Wiley, a pen manufacturer, it was built in 1863, and acquired the name Albert Works, possibly because it was opposite the Victoria Works of Joseph Gillott.

Despite the appearance of being a huge, solid building, it consists of long, narrow, multi-storey workshops only 16 feet wide, surrounding an open courtyard. This was a common arrangement at the time allowing natural light to reach workbenches from two sides. With floors constructed of hollow bricks tied with wrought iron it was fireproof, removing the need for insurance. The multicoloured brickwork decorates a design reminiscent of renaissance Florence. Recycled steam from the works engines went to a Turkish bath in the northern end of the building. Now flat-roofed, it originally had pyramids on each corner tower.

It was converted to offices in 1993.

Alpha Tower

Alpha Tower is a commercial building in Birmingham, England. It was built to a design by George Marsh of Richard Seifert & Partners as the headquarters of ATV. Now operated by the developers GVA Grimley, it provides office space for a number of companies and organisations, including Birmingham City Council, Birmingham Arts Marketing, and the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

It is a landmark and is a Grade A locally listed building. It was nominated for listed building status by The Twentieth Century Society in 2002 and the owners also applied for a Certificate of Immunity.

An adjacent shorter tower was planned but was never built. The site of the tower that was not built is now proposed as the location for another, but taller building called V Building as part of the wider Arena Central development which will redevelop the former Central Independent Television studios which are adjacent to the tower. V Building will be 147 metres tall.

The tower featured in the Cliff Richard film Take Me High for both exterior and interior shots.

17 & 19 Newhall Street, Birmingham

17 & 19 Newhall Street is a red brick and terracotta Grade I listed building on the corner of Newhall Street and Edmund Street in the city centre of Birmingham, England.

Originally having the postal address of 19 Newhall Street it was built as the new Central Telephone Exchange and offices for the National Telephone Company (NTC) and is popularly known as the Bell Edison Telephone Building - the NTC logo behind the wrought iron gates to the main entrance includes those names. It was also known as Telephone Buildings within the organisation. The Central exchange had 5000 subscribers and was the largest of its type in the country. The ground floor was let out to shops. The NTC was taken over by the Postmaster General in 1912 and the ownership transferred to the GPO. During World War I it was the Midland headquarters of the air raid warning system.

The Central Telephone Exchange relocated down Newhall Street to new premises (Telephone House) in 1936.

It is now occupied by Associated Architects, and Phoenix Beard (a firm of property consultants). It currently uses the address The Exchange, 19 Newhall Street, Birmingham, B3 3PJ, but the property occupies 17 & 19 Newhall Street and 103 Edmund Street. The basement, and entrance on Edmund Street, is occupied by a bar called Bushwackers.

The building was designed in 1896 by Frederick Martin of the firm Martin & Chamberlain.

1-7 Constitution Hill

The former H.B. Sale factory (grid reference SP067876), at 1-7 Constitution Hill, Birmingham, England, at the acute junction with Hampton Street, is a Grade II listed building. Extremely thin, with a tower at one end, this red brick and terracotta building is a remarkable sight end-on.

It was designed 1895-6 by William Doubleday and James R. Shaw for H. B. Sale, a die-sinker (who still occupy premises on Summer Lane within 100 metres of the original building). The original plans specified five stories, but only four were built. A fifth storey was added in the mid-20th century before planning laws were in force to protect the integrity of original structures and as a result, the fifth floor is not sympathetic to the 1895 building. The tower is original and is believed to be a memorial to Lord Roberts. Plans show three independent shops and offices at ground level. Each upper floor, measuring in the region of 900 square feet, was designed as a single workshop with an office in the tower. There was an engine room and dynamo in the basement.

The present owner also purchased the adjacent buildings numbers 9-11 Constitution Hill in the early 1990s in order to provide better access to the listed main body of the property.

Known locally as the 'Red Palace', at present, the building is only occupied on the top two floors. The lower floors have remained empty since the last tenant, a Chinese restaurant trading as 'China Village' vacated in approximately 2002. The basement floor was used as the kitchens serving the main restaurant on the ground floor and function room on the first floor. The building fabric has been deteriorating for a number of years and a significant investment is already required if the building is to survive long term.