New Futures for Birmingham`s Historic Buildings

The Friday Photo: Blakesley Hall

Posted September 5th, 2014 by Sarah Hayes with No Comments

This week’s Friday Photo and my first ever Friday Photo, is of a building that’s very close to my heart; Blakesley Hall, one of the city’s last surviving timber-framed buildings. After working at Blakesley for nearly eight years, since the age of 20, I certainly ...

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Saving Spaghetti

Posted August 24th, 2014 by Matthew Vaughan with 7 Comments

Birmingham’s Motor Age: courtesy of English Heritage The inner ring road and the infrastructure of the Manzoni era (1930’s to 1960’s) is today widely held as the biggest error in post war planning in Birmingham, itself often held up as an example of ...

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Alpha Tower- A sculptural landmark.

Posted August 21st, 2014 by Katie Hughes with No Comments

There was good news this month when it was announced that the 28 storey Alpha Tower building at the bottom end of Broad Street/Suffolk Street has been given grade II listed status by English Heritage. This sculptural modernist tower which was built in ...

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Great Barr Hall

Posted July 24th, 2014 by Julie Webb with 5 Comments

Great Barr Hall is a grade II listed gothic revival mansion lying in 170 acres of historic parkland on the greenbelt between Birmingham, Sandwell and Walsall.  I grew up in the area and as a local resident I have always been interested ...

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Raw Beauty Conference

Posted June 30th, 2014 by Matthew Vaughan with 2 Comments

The most common rationale for the preservation of buildings of the recent past was voiced by Joe Holyoak in his opening remarks for this conference on Brutalist architecture in Birmingham on the 28th of June. He described these buildings as at present ...

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Beautiful Birmingham Terracotta

Posted June 23rd, 2014 by Katie Hughes with 2 Comments

Discovering Birmingham’s extensive collection of beautiful terracotta buildings. Red, bold, ornate and beautiful…these are some of the words which spring to my mind when I see the striking Victoria Law Courts on Corporation Street built in 1891. For me, it is the material which provides the ...

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Arts & Crafts Architecture in Birmingham VI: Bournville – the factory in a garden (suburb)

Posted June 18th, 2014 by Joe Turner with 2 Comments

I couldn’t continue my intermittent Arts and Crafts series without mentioning Bournville, the model village cum garden suburb that Pevsner describes as “perhaps the fullest expression of Arts and Crafts ideals” in Birmingham. On a personal level, I have a strong connection ...

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Walking the Lozells and Handsworth Heritage Trail

Posted May 24th, 2014 by Joe Turner with 3 Comments

On Saturday, along with a group of other BCT supporters and volunteers, I walked the Lozells and East Handsworth Heritage Trail. Organised by Legacy West Midlands with assistance from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the City Council, it aims to raise awareness ...

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Arts & crafts splendour: Winterbourne House & Botanical Gardens

Posted May 4th, 2014 by Katie Hughes with 2 Comments

Last Sunday volunteers and supporters of The Birmingham Conservation Trust were invited for a tour of Winterbourne House & Gardens which is situated in the University of Birmingham Campus. Winterbourne House is an Edwardian house built in 1903 for the Nettlefold family who were industrialists ...

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Arts & Crafts Architecture in Birmingham V: WH Bidlake

Posted April 19th, 2014 by Joe Turner with No Comments

William Henry Bidlake was probably the foremost Birmingham architect of the Arts and Crafts era. Yet, despite being known in his own time as “the man who rebuilt Birmingham” and being responsible for three of the city’s 22 Grade I listed buildings, ...

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