This article is about the architecture of Birmingham, England.
Birmingham grew out of dozens of small villages, towns and farmsteads, particularly during the Industrial Revolution. The need to house the many industrial workers that flocked to the city from other areas led to many Victorian streets and terraces of back-to-back houses , some of which were later to become inner-city slums.
Although Birmingham has existed as a settlement for over 1000 years, today's city is overwhelmingly a product of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, with relatively little surviving from its early history.
St. Martin's Church in the centre of the Bullring was Birmingham's original parish church. A church has stood on the site since the 11th century. It was extensively re-built in the 1870s although retaining some original walls and foundations. Inside the church can be seen an effigy of Sir William de Bermingham - a medieval lord of the manor, dating from 1325. This is one of the few surviving links to Birmingham's medieval past.
Some of the city's older black and white timber buildings can still be seen today like 'The Old Crown' public house in Digbeth, the 'Stone' public house in Northfield and Stratford House in Sparkbrook.
Many Georgian, Tudor, Edwardian and Elizabethan buildings still survive dotted around the city. These include Bournbrook Hall (Bournville), Selly Manor (a Tudor manor house), Minworth Greaves (a medieval hall), the 15th Century "Saracen's Head" and "Old Grammar School" (both Kings Norton), Handsworth Old Town Hall (1460; an example of early cruck timber frame construction ), Soho House (Handsworth, 1766), and the 29m metre high Perrots Folly Ladywood which was built in 1758 by John Perrot and which was an inspiration to Tolkien. There is also Blakesley Hall in Yardley which was built in the 1500s.
The Victorian era saw an extensive building programme right across the city, examples of which can still be seen, with many churches and public buildings like the Birmingham Law Courts, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, the Town Hall and the City of Birmingham Council House. Many of the public buildings were built using red brick and terracotta. New Street and Corporation Street in the city centre have retained many of their fine Victorian buildings, providing an insight into how the city once looked.
Part of the legacy of a unique aspect to the Victorian era can be followed in Birmingham by the survival of the Green men of Birmingham or foliate heads which consist of many unusual human heads carved of stone with vegetation growing out of their faces and can be found at selected locations across the city.
Birmingham's industrial importance in World War II led to some of the heaviest bombing raids during the Blitz. This claimed many lives and many beautiful buildings too, but the destruction that took place in post war Birmingham was also extensive: dozens of fine Victorian buildings like the intricate glass-roofed Birmingham New Street Station, and the old Central Library, were destroyed in the 1950s and 1960s. These planning decisions were to have a profound effect on the image of Birmingham in subsequent decades, with the mix of concrete ring roads, shopping malls and tower blocks often referred to as a 'concrete jungle' or a city with no soul. The largest high-rise estate in Britain was constructed at Castle Vale with over 30 huge tower blocks in one small area. Birmingham has since learnt from this with one of the largest tower block demolition and renovation programmes anywhere in Europe, and the construction of new buildings, squares and green spaces.
Birmingham's grade I listed Town Hall closed to the public in 1996, for a £31 million City Council-initiated major renovation. The redbrick Victoria Law Courts in Corporation Street , built in 1887, and Curzon Street Station are also Grade I listed.
Many Grade II listed buildings also remain in the city, for instance the recently-listed, though empty, Grand Hotel on Colmore Row (1875, with additions in 1876, 1891 and 1895) and the popular 200ft-high Rotunda, a circular tower block at the South end of New Street. St Philip's Cathedral, built as a parish church, is in the heart of the city, and has glass by Edward Burne-Jones, The City of Birmingham Council House (see picture above) is also Grade II listed.
Some fine architects hail from the city such as Ken Shuttleworth, who sketched the original designs for London's 40 storey "gherkin" landmark, he worked on the Millennium Bridge, the new Wembley Stadium and Ken Livingstone's new City Hall. He is also working on Birmingham's £7 million new bus station in Digbeth.
More up-to-date architecture includes the award winning Future Systems' Selfridges building which is an irregularly-shaped structure, covered in thousands of reflective discs (see picture). Brindleyplace and Millennium Point are also examples of recent rejuvenation. Many new projects are planned for the city, including a new Library of Birmingham in the developing Eastside, Holloway Circus Tower (a 122 metre high skyscraper under construction), John Rocha's 'fashion first' Orion Tower (under construction) and Arena Central on Broad Street.
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