Comment Ad screens would blight station
The enormous eye-shaped electronic screens on the outside of New Street Station were included by the architect Alejandro Zaera-Polo in his competition-winning design in order to show travel information to approaching passengers. But after completion they just show advertisements for commercial products. Private interest seems to trump public interest.
The proposed screens at Moor Street Station would be an eyesore, and offensive to the dignity of this public space. A line needs to be drawn against the assumption that ubiquitous commercial advertising is normal and acceptable, and an historic listed public building is a good place to start to draw it.
And now to an issue rather bigger. Parliament is going to have to vacate the Palace of Westminster for six years, while essential repairs and renovation are carried out on the 170+ years-old building. Temporary new homes for both Houses of Parliament, and all their ancillary accommodation, need to be found.
Several commentators have proposed that this emergency is an opportunity to redraw the south eastdominated map of England, by moving Parliament, or at least the House of Commons, out of London.
Birmingham has been suggested as one of the potential locations; centrally placed, and well connected to the rest of the country by road, rail and air, even before HS2. Some have even suggested that the move should not be temporary, but permanent.
Such a possibility seems incredible to many, but if it were to happen it would be the single most transformative event in the history of the city, and perhaps the country.
But where could those thousands of MPs, clerks, researchers, librarians and others be accommodated? There are two ways of doing it : either to create a new building, or to house Parliament in an existing building converted for the purpose.
The first is unlikely, given the expense and the necessary timescale. Possible locations for the second alternative are few. One might perhaps be a “meanwhile” use of the Wholesale Markets site before the Smithfield redevelopment starts.
If we had been here 15 years ago, there would have been a marvellous opportunity available – the vast empty Lucas works in Aston Newtown.
It had acres of floorspace in handsome red-brick buildings, and a huge auditorium which could have accommodated the House of Commons.
But it was expediently and shortsightedly demolished by the publiclyfunded Newtown South Aston City Challenge Company as an easy way of spending the company’s first £5million tranche of annual income.
If a more sensible regeneration policy had been pursued, and it were still here today, of course it would not be available to Parliament now, because I am sure that the buildings would today be full of small businesses, university departments, conference centres, exhibition spaces and so on.
The demolition of the Lucas works was an exception to the spirit of ambition that typifies Birmingham. I don’t know, but I hope that within the city council today there are people who believe that to relocate the House of Commons to Birmingham is not an unrealistic ambition, and are looking for a way in which it could be done.
Joe Holyoak is a Birminghambased architect and urban designer