Saviour needed for landmark that welcomed Gandhi for dinner
AN ornate Victorian landmark which played host to Gandhi when it had a vegetarian restaurant could get a new lease of life if a developer is willing to take it on.
The grade II*-listed five-storey Murdoch Chambers & Pitman Building in Birmingham’s Corporation Street is currently home to ground floor cafés and takeaways with solicitors’ offices above.
But now the council is looking for a developer to take on a long lease and transform it.
Built in 1896, the building is in the ornate Arts and Crafts style with carvings depicting its early uses, showing diners at the Pitman Vegetarian Restaurant and workers at Dean’s Furniture offices.
Pitman’s restaurant, thought to be named after Sir Isaac Pitman, then vice-president of the Vegetarian Society, was expanded into a hotel by 1898 and was still open in the 1930s when Indian independence campaigner Mahatma Gandhi visited the city.
The building has 27,000 sq ft of space and is close to both the historic Birmingham Magistrate’s Courts and Methodist Central Hall which itself is set to be transformed into a new hotel. City council leader Ian Ward said: “Birmingham is proud of its heritage and Murdoch Chambers & Pitman Building are examples of some of the very best arts and crafts-inspired Victorian buildings in the heart of our city, which now need to be carefully preserved and brought forward into this century.”
Council development director Waheed Nazir added: “This is a fantastic opportunity for the right developer to transform these beautiful buildings into something really special while ensuring this is done respectfully, retaining and celebrating some of the superb 19th century features.”
Expressions of interest need to be submitted by noon on Friday, December 8.