Ringway Centre decision has had a lasting impact
WE were deeply disappointed about the decision to demolish the Ringway Centre on Smallbrook Queensway. But we are consoled that our campaign, with the widest media coverage of any campaign for a post-war building outside London, has had demonstrable impact. We firmly believe that the level of interest in Save Smallbrook has contributed to the current outrage over the closure of the Electric Cinema and the proposal to build yet another tower block on the site. Reflecting on the outcomes here are a few of our triumphs:
After much chivvying by Save Smallbrook of Birmingham City Council, the developers were forced to commission a whole life carbon assessment.
As far as we are aware this has never happened before. At the second Planning Committee meeting some members even referred to the carbon implications of the proposal, a factor up to now that has been completely ignored. The campaign has exposed the lip service that is paid by developers and Birmingham City Council to the issue of ‘affordable housing’. This, together with the smoke and mirrors application of the percentage requirements, is a genie that cannot be put back in the box. We welcome Birmingham Fair Housing Campaign as members of the Save Smallbrook campaign group.
The campaign has led to several meetings with West Midlands mayor, Andy Street, who is now considering developing a policy that brings together all of the issues we have been campaigning on, heritage, transition to net zero and retrofit, giving them proper weight in the funding of affordable housing to ensure that public money is used wisely. Birmingham City Council might take note of this. A documentary film of the
Ringway Centre and the campaign to save it has been completed and will be premiered during the Flatpack Festival in May this year.
The film exposes the myths that developers so often seek to perpetuate.
The fact that an alternative proposal for the Smallbrook site was not available was bemoaned by members of the Planning Committee.
Comment was made that if our counter proposal, which offered a vision for a repurposed and retrofitted alternative, was on the table, they would have voted for it. Plans for repurposing must be a requirement when such large buildings are threatened.
We are not the only campaigners in Birmingham sticking up for a Jim Roberts’ buildings and offering a repurposing option.
The precarious state of his Red Rose Centre in Sutton Coldfield attracted the attention of local campaigners ‘Our Town’.
Completed in 1974, it strikes a dramatic contrast with the Ringway Centre, finished in 1962. Its brutalist outline is softened with panels of red brick and rather than a single sweep
of building following the curve of the roadway, it comprises a series of cubes of varying height stretching between two busy roads.
The car park sports a tower and where the panels of red brick might become repetitive, they have been given texture with vertical pilasters creating patterns of light and shade as the sun moves across the building. The whole is given interest and texture by the use of granite panels.
The jewel in the crown is a substantial mural by William Mitchell above the entrance to the library telling the history of the town.
The Red Rose Centre, originally called the Sainsbury Centre, was once a thriving shopping precinct. It also comprises a multistorey car park and the town’s spacious library, which, despite the vacant shops, is still open, clearly active and popular.
The site is owned by Birmingham City Council. In 2021, Our Town presented them with an environmentally focused plan to retrofit the existing buildings. An increase in density was afforded by extending upwards on the main buildings.
Excitingly, the plan included repurposing the car park for residential use, with the possibility of a micro-brewery in the defunct service area under the building.
These clever ideas were well received at the time, but the area still awaits a development plan from the Council. Plans for the redevelopment of the Gracechurch Centre on the other side of Lower Parade have attracted pump priming funding from West Midlands Combined Authority.
We applaud forward-thinking developers who can see the potential for a mixed-use retrofit. We hope that they will also consider Red Rose.
Many of the challenges which face developers are common to both sites, including managing demolition. Retrofit has its complexities too, but can be achieved with a much smaller carbon footprint and in much less time.
Have people realised the 14 years of disruption required to complete the Smallbrook plan. This could be reduced to 2 or 3 years with a retrofit alternative?
Both campaigns have alerted local people to the significance of the built environment so easily taken for granted.
A recent success in Sutton has been the saving of the 1930s Empire cinema. There is no question that the astounding response to the cause of Birmingham’s Electric Cinema has been fostered by the Save Smallbrook campaign.
The time has come for citizens to be consulted prior to the submission of formal plans. It cannot just be the responsibility of a handful of campaigners.
Our hopes for the future lie in the words of John Cotton, leader of Birmingham City Council, promoting his new citizens’ commission: ‘In order to act differently, we will think and behave differently, incorporating views and perspectives from each part of Birmingham’.
In the meantime the planning permission is not signed off, affordable housing remains an issue, while Smallbrook remains standing we will continue to lobby.
We are not the only campaigners in Birmingham sticking up for Jim Roberts’ buildings