It’s not over yet. The Save Smallbrook group is stepping up its campaign to rescue one of Birmingham’s most significant heritage buildings from demolition. We have instructed a top climate and heritage barrister to act on our behalf following the decision by Birmingham City Council to bulldoze The Ringway Centre.
Estelle Dehon KC is acting for Brutiful Birmingham, Birmingham Modernist Society, The Twentieth Century Society and Birmingham’s zero carbon house, who together make up the Save Smallbrook campaign group.
Depending on the outcome of our initial work, we will be launching a crowdfunding campaign to pay her fees.
Why this is happening
In September 2023, Birmingham City Council’s planning committee voted by a one-vote margin to raze the landmark Ringway Centre – a significant example of post-war commercial modernism – in favour of allowing three tower blocks, up to 54 storeys high, to be built on the Smallbrook site. See Full planning application REF 2022/08496/PA
Why this matters – climate change
It’s a move that flies in the face of the city’s commitment to play a leading role in tackling climate change and becoming a net zero carbon city. The carbon emitted through adapting the Ringway Centre to make it into an energy-efficient building (retrofitting) is a fraction of the carbon emitted through demolition and starting again.
We are concerned that insufficient weight has been given to the environmental impact of the planning committee’s decision and have suggested a more eco-friendly form of development. See the Counter proposal for Smallbrook Ringway.
By the developers’ admission, 187,219,000 kg of CO2 would be generated with these tower blocks, which is the same carbon emissions as an average UK car driving the whole way around the world 33,000 times. In our counter proposal, we could create 450 homes for a tiny percentage of that.
Why this matters – Birmingham’s heritage
We are also concerned by the seeming lack of regard for the city’s architectural heritage. The Ringway Centre, which has been described as the Regent Street of Birmingham due to its length and sweeping curve, was designed by Rotunda architect James Roberts (1962). James Roberts was Birmingham-born and trained at Birmingham School of Art.
His work demonstrates a particular take on Birmingham Modernism and has been described as “frivolous Brutalism”. It has also been categorised as carchitecture as the repetition of the concrete relief and the bullhorn uplighters are designed to be seen from a moving car. The building is locally listed because of its important contribution to the streetscape. The buildings on either side of Smallbrook form the most intact example of post-war design in the city.
Supporters
Our campaign to Save Smallbrook has significant supporters ranging from Brummie historian Carl Chinn to Guardian architecture correspondent Oliver Wainwright to Libby Harris of Birmingham Friends of the Earth. Architects, including Stirling-prize winners Haworth Tompkins, Caruso St John and Niall McLaughlin have also pledged their support.
To see the full list of architects and climate change campaigners who are backing our campaign, see the signatories of the Open Letter to Councillor Ian Ward and West Midlands Mayor Andy Street.
How you can help
Depending on the outcome of our initial actions, we will be asking our supporters for funds to take our campaign to the next stage.
Please email us if you would like to go on our campaign mailing list.
We will be using social media to spread the word so if you could retweet and repost that would be very helpful.
- Twitter: @BrutifulBrum
- Facebook: Brutiful Birmingham
- Instagram: @birminghammodernist
Our hashtag for our campaign is #savesmallbrook. Please use it.
Media coverage
There has been considerable media coverage of the campaign to Save Smallbrook. Here is a selection.
- Building Design: While Sheffield embraces its rich heritage, Birmingham once again shoots itself in the foot
- The Guardian: ‘If the Ringway goes, I’m leaving’ – the fight to save Birmingham’s brutiful masterpieces
- Birmingham Post: Democracy demolished as objections hit a brick wall (JPEG)
- Private Eye: Nooks and Corners (JPEG)
- Twentieth Century Society
- Architects Journal
- Building Design
- Birmingham Live: Battle over brutalist buildings in Birmingham as open letter sent to council
- Birmingham Live: Ringway Centre development will bring ‘bland and overbearing mass’ to Birmingham city centre
Similar sweeping facade outside Manchester Piccadilly station. Although not a great admirer of most modern buildings, I believe Smallbrook Ringway is quite a fine example (and different) of modern architecture.
Thank you Nicholas. That is really well put. We agree – of course!
Too many Brutalist buildings in Brum have been butchered. Instead of going with the revisionist flow, we need to assert our city’s very special place in the vanguard of Modernist building and explain why Brutal is beautiful and not the eyesore it is often claimed to be. For example, I don’t think many people understand Roberts’ vision for the Sentinels, the Ringway and the Rotunda- I didn’t until very recently. Also, people should be aware that many Brutalist/Modernist projects have been allowed to fail for lack of funding. If Paradise Circus had been properly developed, with the concrete meeting greenery, it could have become our Barbican. As more people opt for living in the city centre, it’s essential we don’t allow Birmingham’s obsession with moving ‘forward’ to be seen as a green light to the bulldozers. I was born in Derby; a lot of the citizens there deeply regret the eradication of historical sites in that city. I don’t want that to happen to my adopted city of Birmingham.