What is the link between Birmingham’s Great Stone Inn & the Bear Inn, Gloucestershire?

The Bear Inn in Bisley (above) is a sixteenth-century building that was originally the village courthouse and assembly room. The stone jail cells are still in place a few yards from the pub, down the hill on the left.

On Christmas Day a Gloucestershire reader – who lived in Birmingham for many years – was surprised to see this notice on the wall.

The Great Stone pub in Northfield Village (below) owes its name to a glacial boulder formed in a volcanic eruption some 450-460 million years ago.

Stonehenge historian Dr Rob Ixer, asked by English Heritage to discover the stone’s origins, said that it had travelled from Snowdon to Northfield on an ice sheet during the Ice Age 400,000 years ago.

The stone may be seen in the pub’s ‘pound’, (a home for stray animals in the medieval period).

A Blue Plaque bearing this information on the history of the boulder was unveiled in 2016.

Does anyone know how the links between the landlords and patrons of the historic inns in Northfield and Bisley were formed?

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Working to rebuild and reuse the former home of George and Elizabeth Cadbury

Bournville Village Trust has agreed to acquire and manage some of the 138 homes at the Manor House site, which is being developed by Crest Nicholson. Work on the site will also include plans to rebuild Northfield Manor House, off Bristol Road South, which was demolished after being severely damaged in an arson attack three years ago.

Northfield Manor House was the residence of the Trust’s founder George, and his wife Elizabeth, until her death in 1951. In 1953 it became a hall of residence for the university, but has been empty since 2007 as the University decided it was too expensive to upgrade.

It is not legally listed with English Heritage, but has an informal grade A status on Birmingham City Council’s local advisory list of historic buildings. The English Heritage website (no general access) records that a farm house, part of the Manor of Northfield belonging to the Jervoise family, was recorded as being on the site circa 1750. In 1809 the estate was purchased by Daniel Ledsam, a London merchant. It is believed that he made alterations to the house and was responsible for the current main building.

This picture came from coverage on this site in 2014.

Local historian Dr Carl Chinn urged the university to stop the demolition of the fire-damaged building and consult local people through community groups and their elected representatives over the future of this building. He advocated restoration of the building, in partnership with the community.

The University’s vice-principal, Professor Adam Tickell, said that the planning application had been revived and now included provision for the rebuilding of the manor house, despite the demolition of most of the structure.

The Manor House is to be rebuilt in the original style with Georgian and Arts & Crafts facades and the decorative details of the exterior of the building in stone and brickwork, render and timber. The form and proportions of the 18^th century manor will be retained but the interior will be divided into apartments.

 

 

 

 

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Shall we celebrate a reprieve for Madin’s fine building or mourn obdurate civic vandalism?

News on the grapevine is that an authority on celebrated concrete buildings is working out how to project images of the Madin library on to one of the fly towers of the National Theatre (below).

Public regret about the proposed wasteful and polluting demolition of the Madin Library will be re-energised as concern mounts about road closures and the subsequent disruption to motorists and bus users in Paradise Circus early in the New Year.

Alan Clawley (Friends of the Central Library) asks why the Paradise developers are in such a hurry to demolish the Central Library. He points out:

• plans for the first two office blocks have not yet been submitted,
• no tenants are waiting to move in
• and the developers are yet to comply with 55 conditions attached to their 2012 Outline Planning permission.

The only convincing explanation for this unseemly haste that occurs to him is that the Certificate of Immunity from Listing expires in January 2016 and there is every chance that supporters of the Library will succeed in getting it listed.

Rob Groves, Senior Project Director with the Argent Group which will develop 17 acres of Paradise – aka office, retail and hotel space – is well aware that English Heritage, the Twentieth Century Society, the World Monuments Fund and at least half the population want to see the Madin building retained and reused.

Clawley ends: “In the 12 years since I wrote my first letter to the Post about the Library public opinion has moved on. The Brutalist concrete Preston Bus Station that once faced demolition has been listed after a long campaign. Sadly for Birmingham’s architectural heritage, the developers of ‘Paradise’ still seem to live in a bygone era”.

Your vision of Paradise: office, retail and hotel space . . . ?

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Find alternative uses for Birmingham Central Library

Blue Phoenix invites readers to sign a petition asking Birmingham City Council to find alternative uses for Birmingham Central Library to preserve our history and one of the greatest remaining examples of brutalist architecture. You can read the full petition at http://www.thebluephoenix.co.uk/campaigns

Birmingham Central Library was the main public library in Birmingham from its construction in 1974. For a time the largest non-national library in Europe, it closed on 29 June 2013 and was replaced with the New Library of Birmingham.

This building is due to be demolished in 2014 as part of a regeneration project.

Designed by architect John Madin, the library formed part of an ambitious development project by Birmingham City Council to create a civic centre around its new Inner Ring Road system. However significant parts of the masterplan including the exterior being plated with marble were not completed as quality was reduced on materials as an economic measure.

Despite the original vision not being fully implemented the library has gained architectural praise as an icon of British Brutalism with its stark use of concrete, bold geometry, inverted ziggurat sculptural form and monumental scale. Its style was seen at the time as a symbol of social progressivism.

Based on this, English Heritage applied twice for the building to gain listed status and due to strong opposition from Birmingham City Council the building has gained immunity from listing until 2016, when we will have already lost this, one of the finest remaining examples of brutalist architecture.

This Central Library petition now has 760 signatures. The initiators set a target of 2,000 so keep spreading the word. Sign here: https://www.change.org/p/birmingham-city-council-find-alternative-uses-for-birmingham-central-library-preserve-our-history

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The future use of Selly Oak Institute

In 1894 George Cadbury opened the Selly Oak Institute, 648 Bristol Road, B29 6BJ.

Photograph by Elliott Brown

This Grade 2 listed building (English Heritage 216815, detail here) was ‘gifted’ to the ward by the Cadbury family for educational use, but apparently with no protective covenant. A detailed history of the area written by Francis Leonard is of general interest but, written for an Anglican audience, contains only a passing reference to the ‘Friends Institute’.

Detail from photograph by Elliott Brown

Plans were submitted to turn the Arts and Crafts building for student accommodation with 16 bedrooms sharing multiple bathrooms and living space. Selly Oak Community Partnership commented:

“We do not believe that this design will be attractive to students.

“The space will be shared with management offices but the size of the residences do not warrant a large management suite so we suspect there may be an intention to use this for professional services such as a letting agency. This would be class A2 use – not as described in the planning application”.

The magazine of the Victorian Society (July 2014) records the society’s objection to the plans: ‘as many of the interior features would have been altered, concealed or possibly damaged by the introduction of partitions and false ceilings’.

Permission has been refused and more sympathetic proposals are awaited.

 

Civic vandalism and a carbon crime?

The Planning Committee will consider Argent’s Paradise Circus Planning Application today

This will include the fate of the Central Library building, acclaimed by English Heritage and the World Monuments Fund which included Central Library on its watch list of significant buildings at risk.

On Tuesday, Alan Clawley (Friends of the Central Library) was interviewed on BBC Radio Lancashire about the campaign to save the Central Library. Graham Liver was broadcasting from Preston Bus Station, which – like the Library – has been nominated as a ‘building at risk’ by the World Heritage Fund.

Yesterday, architect and conservationist Joe Holyoak met James Bovill of BBC Radio WM to talk about the Alternative Master Plan and the Planning Committee meeting.

The carbon consequences of demolition – an issue raised in a June post – were not mentioned:

It was powerfully articulated at a public meeting about the future use of the building by consultant Martyn Park. This resident of Central Birmingham – like many – sees the library as an enormous asset not least for the financial and environmental cost resources involved in construction. Cement making alone is estimated to be responsible for 7-10% of global CO2 emissions.

In Architecture Week, Susan Smith pointed out that a lion’s share of the pollutants that cause global warming is attributable to ‘new-build’. American architect Edward Mazria calculates this share at 46% of U.S. carbon dioxide (CO2) output.

In July 2011 the International Business Times reported that Birmingham had exceeded its CO2 reduction target with a 155,059-tonne cut in CO2 emissions – so far, so good. Will Councillor Bore and his cabinet renege on this commitment?

Demolition entails pollution and waste and a net carbon loss

New-build is carbon intensive and demolition carries many wider environmental impacts, including air pollution and disposal of waste materials. As the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG)  – under the former government – realised, it is important to concentrate on refurbishment because there is so much “embedded energy” in existing buildings that, no matter how energy-efficient a new one might be, there will be a net carbon loss in knocking it down and replacing it.

However we expect the decision to be corporate-friendly, regardless of the body of public, environmental and professional opinion.

Petition: review Central Library decision

Alan Clawley, Friends of the Central Library, is leading a petition calling on the City Council to review its decision to demolish the Central Library building.

Petition

We call on the City Council to review its decision to demolish the Central Library building and urgently to commission a report that will

i) identify viable new uses for the building
ii) consider the financial, social, environmental and cultural advantages to the city and region of retaining the building for the public benefit

Background information

When reaching its decision more than a decade ago to demolish the Central Library building the City Council failed to consider

a) its potential use for purposes other than that of a library
b) the impact of demolition and subsequent re-building on emissions of greenhouse gases
c) the effect of a collapse in the commercial property market
d) the growing public appreciation of twentieth century architecture, the ruling by English Heritage in 2003 and 2008 that the Library should be statutorily listed, and the call for its protection by the World Monuments Fund in 2011

Any reader who wishes to add his/her signature should go to:

http://epetition.birmingham.public-i.tv/epetition_core/community/petition/1912#div_sigs