Monthly Archives: November 2009

Birmingham Eye — Download our commentary

No commentary on the Birmingham Wheel this year? None when myself and Danny Smith went on — so we recorded our own. Listen here, or download to your mp3 player and listen when you’re going round on the ferris wheel yourself: Birmingham Eye Commentary by bins

Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands: December 2009 – Russ L

"Nuts to New Year. This is the West Midlands, not Scotland"

The 4am Project would like to invite you to a very special 4am photography event in Birmingham. This event is going to be held at the Bodies Revealed Exhibition at the Custard Factory, and there are 100 FREE tickets for this event! Please visit EventBrite to register for your free ticket(s). “BODIES REVEALED the incredible exhibition about the amazing and complex machine we call the human body. Using real human specimens, painstakingly prepared and respectfully displayed, BODIES REVEALED lets visitors of all ages explore deep within the human body.” What is the 4am Project? The 4am Project, a worldwide community experience, aims to capture a time of day that many people rarely see. Brainchild of UK photographer Karen Strunks, and building on the ever growing phenomenon of social media, the 4am Project is an exercise in global solidarity to encourage the sharing of visual imagery that reflects the world we live in. Utilising Flickr, the web space for sharing images, photographers around the world will be leaving the cosy confines of their beds to create a shared online gallery that illustrates the strange and wonderful life that goes on while we sleep. How to take part: You can get...

A blank canvas

When the ‘City of Culture bid’ was announced, Minister of Fun Martin Mullaney had a list of cultural high spots (it was mostly engineering) and we did too including “Crossroads the Opera” and “Stan’s Cafe’s 24 hour recreation of Take Me High”. But what of your ideas? The Council are asking via website run by Fierce — Canvas Birmingham.

Bolt-on fix for New Street 'eyesore'

"BIRMINGHAM’S New Street Station will not be demolished when work on a £600 million makeover gets under way, it has emerged. In order to save money and keep disruption to passengers at a minimum, it has been decided to bolt on a stainless steel and glass façade to hide the existing 1960s grim concrete walls." Proof of what we've all suspected, it's cosmetic.

Old Joe is unwell – Peter Lewis

Old Joe, the clock on the tower at Birmingham University, is not well. But even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day.

Central Library for and against

My highlighting: The Twentieth Century Society: “The Twentieth Century Society is tremendously disappointed by the Minister’s decision not to follow the advice of her advisers and list Birmingham Central Library. EH advice on listing is not often overturned and this is a key case in that regard. Minister Margaret Hodge has made no secret of her personal dislike for post-war buildings and has here failed to understand the basic premise of heritage protection in England. Listing Birmingham’s impressive brutalist library would not prevent renovation work, or even a well-designed radical makeover. Libraries need to be flexible as the services they provide will continue to evolve. We believe not only that the Central Library is historically and architecturally significant, but that it is capable of being adapted for the needs of 21st century Birmingham. What listing would do is make sure that proposals took into account the historic interest of these structures rather than seeking to change or even demolish them. One of the key strengths of our heritage system is that listing is decided purely on the basis of architectural or historic interest. This then allows a detailed analysis of economic viability and wider social issues to follow. This ...

Brumcast – Celebrating 10 years of Capsule Part 1

Capsule is 10 years old this December and as part of the celebration there are two special Brumcast shows — this is the first one.

As expected this time last week, the DCMS have not listed Central Library. Meaning that the council have a window of half a decade in which to knock it down and replace it with soulless offices, chain cafes and thinly walled apartments. At least that’s what Brindleyplace (why no space!) mark two says to me. This went against English Heritage advice: “In offering the Government our expert advice, we examined all aspects of its architectural interest including: whether it fulfilled its brief; whether it was a particularly good example of a public library; how well it survives; how it compares to other listed buildings of a similar type; and how influential the building has been. In our view, these tests were met.” Like the Rotunda before it, Central Library is a real building with real history and merit. Think of those buildings that have been senselessly destroyed before in the name of progress. We can’t let fashion spoil our history. But what can we do? I’ve said before how it doesn’t need to be a library, and how clearing clutter from around it would improve the area immeasurably. Is it a single issue we can rally around? Do we...

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