New Futures for Birmingham`s Historic Buildings

Moseley Road Preservation Society

Posted November 16th, 2008 by Birmingham Conservation Trust with 1 Comment
Moseley Schools of Art, Moseley Road. Image Courtesy of Brett Wilde

Moseley School of Art, Moseley Road. Image Courtesy of Brett Wilde

A new group has sprung up on the internet.  The Moseley Road Preservation Society is organising partly through the social networking website Facebook.  To see what they’re up to you will need to use (or create) a facebook account for the link here.

Terry Grimley recenly wrote in the Birmingham Post that the Number 50 bus route shows how the Moseley Road has declined:

In short, Moseley Road is a bit of a mess. Despite the fact that a remarkable number of distinguished buildings survive – just – along its length, it seems unloved and unregarded, and it certainly isn’t getting better. My point is this.

Whose responsibility is it to do something about it, to recognise that a street is more than the sum of its parts and that some co-ordinated action is necessary to uplift its environmental quality?

I know that local government is strapped for cash, but if it’s not the council’s job, whose is it?

Back in the 1970s the council lifted whole inner-city residential areas back from the brink with its innovative “enveloping” schemes, in which the external fabric of Victorian housing was renewed whole streets at a time.

The group is arguing that this area of South Birmingham needs special attention:

The Moseley Road runs from Bradford Street through Highgate and Balsall Heath until it meets Alcester Road at the Moseley B13 border and is just over a mile long

It has in total of 26 listed building in its short length although the 110 year old Friends’ Institute is very strangely is not one of them

This must make the Moseley Road one of the most listed and historical in the city

The city council and private landlords have let many of these buildings decay and there has been continuing problems with many of the listed historical buildings that that they own

The buildings under threat include the

Balsall Heath Library
Moseley Road Baths
The Old Moseley Art School
The Old Tram Deport
The Friends Institute
Plus the many derelict historical buildings down its length

Moseley Road Preservation Society aims to bring all this together

Our main aims are

Campaign to have the Moseley Road made into a Conservation Area or special regeneration zone

Bid for some of the £33.5 million cash coming into the area in the near future with the planned A34 Corridor Regeneration Scheme to be spent on the Moseley Road

Encourage the regeneration of Moseley Road which should act as a catalyst for the improvement of both the Highgate and Balsall Heath areas of the City to the benefit of all the local residents and future generations

Campaign for the reopening of the Camp Hill Station if the proposed Camp Hill Lline is itself is reopened to provide transport for the new Joseph Chamberlain College and access to new employment developments planned to the south and west of the city centre.

I don’t have any details of how to contcat the group other than through Facebook, although I’ve left a couple of  messages and hopefully details might appear in the comment section below.

The Image is courtesy of Brett Wilde. To see more of his fab pictures click here.

One Response to “Moseley Road Preservation Society”

  1. Barnard November 17, 2008

    Thank for the mention as they say Nick

    This is Barnard I am the person behind the
    Moseley Road Preservation Society

    This group in its infancy is born out of the Friends of Moseley Road Baths and the Friends
    of Friends group (Friends Institute)

    I and others have come to the view that
    Moseley Road should be looked at as whole
    although it sits at the gateway to the city
    on the edge of the “Big City Plan” it has
    been unloved for too long

    With all of its Victorian and Edwardian
    building falling into decay the time for
    action is now over due

    The latest problem it the closure indefinitely
    of the 110 year old Grade 2* listed Balsall
    Heath Library next to the Moseley Road Baths
    due to health and safety issues amid fears that parts of the ceiling may fall on visitors heads

    Although regeneration of the library together
    with the baths was proposed two years ago but nothing has happen since

    The Art school shown above is one if the
    buildings in need of some tender loving care

    The Facebook group has already three local councillors as members and a pubic meeting
    is planned in the near future to bring the
    group onto a more formal constituted
    Preservation Society

    A wordpress website will be available in
    the near future and any help with this
    together with hosting would be a great
    step forward

    You can email the group at moseleyroadsociety@googlemail.com

    Or if any one wants to write
    MRPS
    10 Hertford Street
    Balsall Heath
    B12 8NJ

    Or Phone
    07808 923 273

    And please join the Facebook Group at

    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=29538522486

    Thanks

    Barnard

    Reply

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