Tribute to man who tried to save Central Library
TRIBUTES have been paid to a passionate champion of Birmingham’s post-war architecture and Green Party activist who has died following a battle with cancer.
Alan Clawley, who was 74, is perhaps best known for his leading role in the campaign to stop the demolition of Birmingham’s Central Library, which was ultimately lost in 2015.
He became an authority on the life and work of Birmingham architect John Madin, who also designed the former Birmingham Post & Mail offices in Colmore Circus, BBC Pebble Mill, and the Chamber of Commerce in Harborne Road, and wrote a biography which was published in 2011.
More recently he spoke out against the conversion of another Brutalist landmark, the Ringway Centre on Smallbrook Queensway. Mr Clawley also published other books, including Batsford’s Birmingham Then And Now, and more recently, Library Story: A History of Birmingham Central Library.
He also wrote articles for the Birmingham Press website.
Fellow Birmingham architect Joe Holyoak said: “Alan was a kind of critic and commentator on architecture and the built environment, which Birmingham doesn’t have enough of. He was very critical of conventional forms of development, both in the public and private sector, and keen to promote alternative forms of development.”
Mr Clawley was trained at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, graduating in 1969 and worked mainly in the public sector. He moved to Birmingham in the early 1970s.
Mary Keating, who campaigned alongside him in the Brutiful Birmingham Action Group, said: “He was a highly principled man and a passionate champion for what he believed in.”
She said he not only believed it was fundamentally wrong to demolish buildings like the Central Library because of their architectural merit but as a green campaigner he wanted to see buildings reused in a sustainable way rather than cast aside.
Mr Clawley lived in Balsall Heath and was very active in the community. He was also a tenor in the Bir- mingham Festival Choral Society. An active Green Party member, he has stood for election to Birmingham City Council on many occasions and was on the ballot for Bordesley Green ward this week. His widow Hazel is a candidate in neighbouring Small Heath.
West Midlands Green Party spokesman Andi Mohr said: “Alan and his wife Hazel have been stalwarts of Birmingham Green Party since the 1980s.
“Alan was a ‘quiet colossus’; a thoroughly dependable man, the sort of person who just took care of the things that others wouldn’t volunteer for.
“He will no doubt be remembered for his dedication to the city’s Central Library, but also his commitment to the Small Heath housing cooperative through which he built his own home, and helped empower many others to do likewise. He will be very sadly missed.”
Mr Clawley died on Monday, April 30.