Jonathan Morrison
Anger at plan to build skyscraper over listed Birmingham landmark
Developer hopes to build 300 flats, a café and retail space over 42 floors above 80 Broad Street, a scheme that opponents have called ‘depressing’ and ‘unacceptable’
A proposal to build a 133.5 metre-tall skyscraper on top of a grade II listed building in Birmingham has been met with anger by architects and heritage campaigners.
The developer HJB Investments and the design firm Marrons have submitted the plans for a 42-storey residential block immediately above the former orthopaedic hospital at 80 Broad Street to Birmingham city council. They hope to create 300 flats as well as 1,117 sq m of community and retail space, including a fifth-floor café and rooftop terrace.
Non-listed parts of the existing building — last used as a nightclub, Zara’s Bar, which lost its licence in 2019 after a fight that led to petrol bombs being thrown — would be demolished.
Those in opposition of the plan have called it “an outrageous scheme” and a “preposterous proposal” (MARRONS)
Charlotte El Hakiem, Marrons’ planning director, said: “The proposed development has been designed to create a vibrant residential building in a prime location with an identity to add to Birmingham’s skyline. The former hospital building is currently in a state of dilapidation and disrepair and the proposal takes an innovative approach which allows the repurposing of the listed building, bringing it back in public use whilst creating a landmark containing much-needed homes and community space.
“The proposals represent high-quality design, which will lead to an enhancement of the quality and function of the site and its immediate environment.”
The building was originally built as a family home in the early 1800s and by 1815 was owned by Rice Harris, who established the nearby Islington Glassworks the following year. In 1842, 80 Broad Street became the new premises of a hospital for women and crippled children, which was renamed the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in 1955. It closed in the early 1990s.
While there are precedents for skyscrapers being built over historic buildings, such as the Torre Reforma in Mexico City, which incorporates a 1930s mansion at its base, the plans for Broad Street have attracted opprobrium. Historic Buildings and Places, a heritage organisation, described it as “an outrageous scheme … that would set a terrible precedent for listed buildings within the city”.
Ross Anthony, the group’s caseworker, said: “The tower entirely changes the way the building is experienced and its history is inferred. The tower and columns completely overwhelm and diminish its presence within the streetscape.
“This physically and visually harms its setting and significance and is contrary to the legislative, national or local policy requirements that are designed to protect and conserve our shared heritage for future generations to enjoy. The city council must not establish a precedent for the construction of cantilevered buildings over listed buildings.”
David Adshead, director of the Georgian Group, which campaigns to preserve buildings from the 18th and early 19th centuries, said: “It is clearly a preposterous proposal. Building over or around a listed building but not touching it directly is clearly a worrying new trend by which heritage protection can, without revision to current legislation, be circumvented.”
Tim Bridges, a conservation adviser at the Victorian Society, has filed a formal objection, writing: “In our view, these proposals as presented would cause substantial harm. As such, they are unacceptable and we object strongly to them.”
Even architects have been left appalled, with Robbie Kerr of Adam Architecture, the classical design firm, saying: “It’s not original or funny, it’s just deeply depressing that they would consider working with a historic building in this way. It beggars belief that someone can think about doing that. Surely they must be able to find a more creative way of reusing it?”
No date has yet been set for Birmingham city council’s planning committee to consider the application.
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