Former ATV Headquarters - Alpha Tower

Designed by George Marsh and opened in 1973, the 328ft Alpha Tower at the junction of Broad Street and Suffolk Street was built as the flagship headquarters of the ITV regional televison franchise company ATV (Associated Television) who held the Midlands region broadcasting franchise from 1956 until 1982 when it passed to Central Television.

The 200,000 sq ft of office space contained within Alpha Tower formed part of the hub of the ATV television network adjoining their ATV Centre studios on Broad Street, a connection walkway to which was built from Alpha Tower following its completion. Sadly with the demise of ATV in 1982, and of its successor Central Television during the 1990s, Alpha Tower was gradually abandoned.

However, Alpha Tower now sits at the heart of the £400m Arena Central development project being undertaken by Miller Developments and Bridgehouse Capital which aims to clear the area and create a central square around which will be yet more offices, restaurants and ‘living space’ etc etc. The good news, for once, is that – despite the best efforst of Alpha Tower’s owners at the time – in 2002 Alpha Tower was granted Grade A locally listed status and thus its future was assured inspite of all around it facing the bulldozer.

Birmingham and Midland Institute - Margaret Street

The Birmingham and Midland Institute was founded in 1854 with a mission “for the Diffusion and Advancement of Science, Literature and Art amongst all Classes of Persons resident in Birmingham and the Midland Counties” and operated from a purpose built building in Paradise Street – a short distance from its present-day location – which was swept away with the redevelopment of the City Centre in 1965.

The Instituter’s present-day home on the corner of Margaret Street and Cornwall Street, as seen above, was built in 1889 and designed by Jethro Cossins, F. B. Peacock & Ernest Bewley (the former two also designing the nearby Birmingham and Midland Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital).

The work of the Institute is varied but basically falls into the educational category of providing lectures, seminar rooms for hire and maintaining a 100,000+ book and 300,000+ record library for the use of its members.  It also publishes a BMI Journal containing educational and scientific articles periodically. For those of you wishing to find out more about the working of Institute itself, please visit the Birmingham and Midland Institute website.

The building is now Grade II listed which, as can be seen elsewhere in the City, isn’t a cast-iron guarantee that it won’t be majorly reconstructed – or have it’s guts ripped out to leave just a facade into which something far more bland will be built – but with the BMI still in residence and their appreciation for the history of the City along with their stated aims it is fairly certain that as long as they are there, the building will remain in the great condition it is in today.

Birmingham Ear and Throat Hospital - Edmund Street

Opening in 1891, the  Birmingham & Midland Ear, Nose & Throat Hospital in Edmund Street is one of a handful of what we would now call ’sepcialist’ hospitals that were constructed around the City Centre during the 19th Century.  Designed by Jethro Cossins and F. B. Peacock, the building today cuts an impressive figure as can be seen above.

The hospital closed in 1989 with a move to concentrate all medical treatment into a small number of large hospitals in the suburbs – Queen Elizabeth, East Birmingham etc.

I remember going there myself for some allergy testing in 1976 and it was incredibly antiquated then and a warren of tiny, high ceiling rooms:  I don’t whether or not their wards were operational at that time – or if indeed they took in-patients at that time, or whether, as it seemed, they just ran a series of clinics and day-patient procedures:  any further information would be greatly appreciated.

Whilst an impressive building, its interior was far from suited to being a modern hospital and accommodating the equipment and data systems needed for treatments today, not least due to its fairly restrictive size.

It is good to see that the building now enjoys Grade II listing status so will hopefully be around for many years to come albeit in a somewhat reduced form as it does now have a glass office edifice rising from the middle of it which, apparently, was designed to complement “beautifully the listed facade of [the] cherished building” – according to E.H.Smith who supplied the ceramic glazing tiles for the ‘One Eleven Edmund Street’ development within the facade of the hospital under the guidance of Glazzard Architects in 2001.

I, on the other hand, have a very different opinion of the ‘complementary’ nature of the construction . . .

Birmingham School of Art - Margaret Street

A striking and impressive structure, the Birmingham School of Art building in Margaret Street was commissioned in 1877 to house the then-independent School in a purpose built environment designed, with typical Gothic overtones, by John Henry Chamberlain (a contemporary of, but no relation to, celebrated Mayor Joseph Chamberlain).

During the 1970s the building became co-opted by Birmingham Polytechnic’s Faculty of Art and Design and later encompassed BOurnville Art College too however, the building – following the abandonment of polytechnics and the more recent name change of the former UCE – the building is now home to the Birmingham City University School of Art and is quite rightly Grade I Listed.