It’s been a ‘brutiful’ trip through our city’s past
BRUTIFUL Birmingham’s journey has been a delight. When we began campaigning we never expected to find so much inspiration from the city’s post-war regeneration.
Hidden in plain sight, these buildings, artworks, spaces and vistas are so easily missed.
We have done some strange things on our travels, including spending a day exploring the circuses and underpasses that hide beneath Birmingham’s road system.
And what a treat:
■ Hockley Circus with its amazing William Mitchell sculptures;
■ The island at Five Ways with its sculpture by Alexander Mann;
■ Lancaster Circus with the sweeping curve of the flyover;
■ The view from Salford Park of Spaghetti Junction - a huge sculpture in itself.
Venture beneath the flyovers of Birmingham and new vistas open up, with a surprising sense of calm in the midst of all the traffic.
We have also been stunned by the quality of art in Birmingham’s public places and public buildings.
The William Mitchell panels on Quayside Tower, in Broad Street, and John Poole’s mural, now hidden inside the Zara shop in the Rotunda, are among the most exciting.
It was thrilling to find the John Piper mural in the Chambers of Commerce building, too.
The art to be found on the university campuses includes some real treasures as well, like Barbara Hepworth’s 1970 Ancestor 1 at Birmingham and John Maine’s intriguing Aston Crosses.
The mural artist, Kenneth Budd, has several pieces across Birmingham including Horsefair 1908 at Holloway Head and the JF Kennedy Memorial in Deritend.
The city truly is a free art gallery. We have also been bowled over by the architecture and the art of the churches built during the post-war period.
They impress with their sheer variety of design and glorious details like John Chrestien’s vibrant stained glass in Our Lady Help of Christians in Kitts Green and St Thomas More in Sheldon.
Post-war regeneration has given us a stunning collection of stained glass to rival the famous work of Burne-Jones in St Philip’s Cathedral.
More than any other style of building, these churches demonstrate the wonder of concrete when it comes to creating intricate and unusual shapes and awe-inspiring spaces.
We enjoyed the contrast between the Church at Carrs Lane, in the city centre, with its dark red brick, and the pale façades of the triangular Bethel Presbyterian Church of Wales in Holloway Head.
Look up and enjoy the crenelated design of the Carrs Lane roof and the ship’s prow of the Bethel Chapel.
Inside these buildings, we were particularly taken with the unusual design of the organ in the church space at Carrs Lane and the origami panel ceiling of the Bethel Chapel.
A day exploring Birmingham’s post-war churches will reward you with a very different sense of wonder from that generated by ancient cathedrals and gothic churches.
Post-war regeneration provided landscaped spaces for people moving from condemned slums to the new high-rise living, a welcome expression of the philosophy of the new welfare state.
In our travels about the city, we were delighted by discoveries like Chamberlain Gardens in Ladywood where the buildings were deliberately placed to retain existing trees and planting and the undulations in the land, providing mature landscaping which included a magnificent play area designed by the city’s landscape architect, Mary Mitchell.
Where there was little mature landscaping, new planting was provided.
Hidden within the now mature trees planted next to Curtis Gardens in Acocks Green is the statutorily listed play sculpture known as The Fish, created by John Bridgeman in 1960.
There has been delight in the smaller things too:
■ The curve of the façade of the House of Fraser building which faces Cathedral Square;
■ The clock on Temple Point on the corner of Temple Row and Bull Street;
■ The coloured panels on the BT Tower;
■ Lea Bank Business Centre, in Holloway Head, one of Birmingham’s original ‘flatted factories’;
■ The wavy canopy on Norfolk House with its surprising starry pattern of small circular holes;
■ The varieties of stone and the different textures of concrete.
Take a close look at the ‘tree-bark’ concrete surface of the Repertory Theatre’s façade next time you are passing.
And would you believe that it is possible to find fossils in the middle of Birmingham?
Take a look at the podium of the former Bank of England building in Temple Row.
Brutiful Birmingham is deeply saddened by the loss of the some of the iconic buildings of the post-war period, but there is plenty left to celebrate.
We no longer walk through our fascinating city head-down. We have discovered the pleasure that comes looking up to admire the details of the buildings which surround us.
At every turn Birmingham repays our interest with its wonderful mix of architecture.
We hope we have encouraged others to do the same. It is only through all of us being aware of what is happening to our cityscape that we will be able to demand a voice in the preservation of our heritage.
Next time we will be exploring the architecture of Birmingham Central Mosque. In the meantime, join us for our events next weekend as part of Birmingham Heritage Week. Go to www.eventbrite.co.uk and search for Flapper