Saving a Century The Victorian Society Exhibition comes to Birmingham Library

Woodman Arms, Curzon Street and Millenium Point - image by hartlandmartin on flickr

There’s a couple of weeks left to see an exhibition at the Birmingham Central Library which celebrates the work of the Victorian Society and the part it has played in preserving historic buildings.

The Victorian Society was formed in 1958. In 2008 it celebrated 50 years of campaigning to save some of Britain’s wonderful Victorian buildings from destruction. The exhibition describing this work has come to Birmingham for a limited time and can be seen at the top of the first escalator in the Central Library. ( click here for a map)

There are large posters describing the buildings that have been saved: country houses and smaller scale domestic buildings, public institutions, such as Libraries and Museums, churches, industrial and commercial buildings. Some very impressive and important landmark buildings feature, from the Foreign Office in Whitehall to Clevedon Pier in Somerset.

Clevedon Pier in Somerset - picture by gibsonplayer on flickr

Birmingham has had its share of losses but also has reason to celebrate – all of this is described in the exhibition. It’s certainly worth a visit if you’re in the centre of town and have the odd quarter to half an hour to spare, and there’s a very high quality brochure published by the Victorian Society to take home with you.

But hurry – it’s only on until the end of February so catch it while you can.