Farewell to
One of the region’s most contentious landmarks is being bulldozed. But for local historian the loss of Shirley’s old PowerGen offices brings back poignant memories of his time working there from 1970 to 1993
FOLLOWING decades of delay, what has latterly been known as the PowerGen site in Shirley is now being redeveloped and the distinctive buildings demolished.
The offices were built as the headquarters for the Midlands Region of the Central Electricity Generating Board and staff moved in from the CEGB’s office in Wake Green Road, Moseley, and various other sites during 1966.
The new office complex consisted of an eight-storey tower block, the three-storey low block and – next to the GPO Telephone Exchange – the distinctive welfare block. The latter housed a massive dining hall and social club.
Out of sight from the road was the large car park, tennis courts and an immaculate bowling green. Chauffeur-driven cars were kept in a garage.
For the first decade, the buildings looked superb and the architects, John Madin and Partners, won a prestigious award for the finished result.
In 1975, the premises of the Brewer and Turnbull removals company, on the Stratford Road, were demolished and what was named the east block was added to the complex, and linked to the existing low block by a covered footbridge.
The style of this new three-storey building matched well with the rest of the site. Staff moved in during summer 1976.
A three-storey car park had also been built to accommodate the extra cars of new staff now working at the site.
But the pleasing aspects of the tower block started to deteriorate in the early 1980s, when telecommunication structures began to appear on the roof.
And worse was to come a few years later. The air-conditioning was never able to cope with the solar gain from all of the windows, despite the extensive use of venetian blinds.
Staff would wilt in the heat and humidity. ‘Sick Building Syndrome’, a term we don’t hear much these days, was a reality.
The result was a modified air-conditioning system which required a pair of enormous ugly, cladded ducts fixed to the sides of the tower block.
Following privatisation of the CEGB, the site passed to the new company PowerGen in March 1991.
The writing, however, was already on the wall for the site.
Further office accommodation was needed for the new generating company and planning permission was not readily forthcoming.
The existing buildings did not lend themselves to modern usage. The installation of cabling needed for computers would be a problem – added to which, the air-conditioning was as bad as ever.
So, in 1996, the whole operation deployed elsewhere, most staff going to new offices at Westwood Business Park in Coventry.
Without doubt, local shops and businesses suffered because many hundreds of workers were no longer around.
The buildings had barely served for 30 years – and have remained empty ever since.
The police have used them for exercises and a film company did a night-time location shoot there, but the once elegant buildings have been a blot on the landscape of north Shirley for many years.
It was finally announced that the site will be developed for mainly residential use.
Asda also plans to build a petrol station there.
Two years ago, an unsuccessful