Former name(s) | Congreve St. to Livery St.:
Congreve St. to Newhall St.:
Newhall St. to Livery St.:
Livery St. to Snow Hill:
|
---|---|
Length | 0.3 mi (0.48 km) [1] |
Postal code | B3 |
northeast end | Colmore Circus 52°28′58″N1°53′50″W / 52.4827°N 1.8972°W |
southwest end | Victoria Square 52°28′49″N1°54′08″W / 52.48025°N 1.9021°W |
Colmore Row is a street in Birmingham City Centre in the centre of Birmingham, England, running from Victoria Square to just beyond Snow Hill station. It is traditionally the city's most prestigious business address. [2]
Colmore Row and its environs were designated a conservation area in 1971, which was extended twice in 1985. Colmore Row itself has 23 listed buildings, two listed at Grade I and two at Grade II*. [3]
Before this area of Birmingham was developed in the 18th century, Colmore Row was a country lane called New Hall Lane, connecting the roads from city centre to Dudley and West Bromwich and separating the farmlands of the New Hall Estate (built c. 1630) to the north from those of the Inge Estate to the south. [4] Development of the south of the lane started with the building of St Philip's Church (now St Philip's Cathedral) in 1708. In 1746, a private act of Parliament, Colemore's Estate Act 1746 (20 Geo. 2. c. 16Pr.), opened up the New Hall Estate to the north for development, with the first plots being let and developed from 1747 onwards. [5]
The road was renamed at this point. Initially, only the central stretch between Newhall Street and Livery Street was called Colmore Row (after the Colmore family, owners of the New Hall Estate). To the east, the stretch between Newhall Street and Congreve Street was renamed Bewdley Street. By 1777 the name of this section had been changed again, this time to Ann Street, after head of the family Ann Colmore. The short western stretch of road between Livery Street and Snow Hill, originally called Bull Lane, was renamed Monmouth Street at some point before 1839. [5]
When the western half of Ann Street was realigned in 1879 as part of the creation of Council House Square (now Victoria Square), both Monmouth Street and the remainder of Ann Street were renamed and integrated into Colmore Row.
The original buildings of Colmore Row were the brick and stucco Georgian houses typical of the late 18th century. The 120-year leases on these properties started to expire in the 1840s and 1850s, and between 1869 and 1900 all were replaced by the late Victorian commercial premises that still give the street its predominant character. [6]
After the Second World War, Colmore Row was to have formed part of the extensive Inner Ring Road system planned by City Engineer Herbert Manzoni. This would have necessitated demolishing all of the buildings between Colmore Row and Waterloo Street, but fell victim to increasing land values and awareness of conservation issues in the 1970s. The plans for the street included widening it to a width of 112 ft (34 m) with a central reservation of 14 ft (4.3 m) in width. [7] Ironically, the likelihood of forthcoming comprehensive redevelopment protected many of the buildings from being demolished to make way for office developments (see Colmore Business District), and today Colmore Row and the surrounding area has one of the most consistent 19th century streetscapes in Central Birmingham. [4]
In the 1980s Barclays proposed a redevelopment of 55–73 Colmore Row. The scheme involved the demolition of the entire building except for the façades and the banking hall of the listed building. The local planning authority called for greater retention of the building structure as with other schemes in the area. The agents submitted multiple planning applications to put pressure on the planning department. As the planning department failed to come to a decision on two planning applications in their time periods, the bank took the case to a government department. Barclays and local planning authority failed to reach any deal in negotiations, which eventually broke down. The government saw that the retention of the façade was satisfactory as it allowed the economic reuse of the site. The decision left the development and design framework for the area in a weakened state as the building subject to the decision was deemed to be of less national importance in respect to its local importance.[ clarification needed ] [8] The use of façadism on the building has since been seen as successful following the addition of Mansard roofs providing additional floorspace. [9]
This is a list of notable buildings on Colmore Row in order from west to east.
In addition to Snow Hill station, Colmore Row also hosts the city centre bus stops AB to AF - which together are referred to as "Colmore Row Bus Station" with the IATA location identifier code ZBC. [16]
Although Birmingham in England has existed as a settlement for over a thousand years, today's city is overwhelmingly a product of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, with little surviving from its early history. As it has expanded, it has acquired a variety of architectural styles. Buildings of most modern architectural styles in the United Kingdom are located in Birmingham. In recent years, Birmingham was one of the first cities to exhibit the blobitecture style with the construction of the Selfridges store at the Bullring Shopping Centre.
Alpha Tower is a Grade II listed office skyscraper in Birmingham, England. It was designed by the Birmingham-born architect George Marsh of Richard Seifert & Partners as the headquarters of the commercial television company ATV and part of the company's production studio complex known as ATV Centre, an adjacent shorter tower was planned but was never built. ATV closed in 1982, after which the building became offices.
103 Colmore Row is a 108-metre tall, 26-storey commercial office building located on Colmore Row, Birmingham, England. Completed in 2021, this building replaced the former NatWest Tower designed by John Madin and completed in 1975. In 2008, a plan by then owners British Land to demolish Natwest Tower and replace it with a taller modern equivalent was approved. This plan never progressed and in 2015 the building passed to the developer Sterling Property Ventures, who successfully applied to have the building demolished. Construction of the new tower began in June 2019 and completed in 2021.
The Jewellery Quarter is an area of central Birmingham, England, in the north-western area of Birmingham City Centre, with a population of 19,000 in a 1.07-square-kilometre (264-acre) area.
The Birmingham Assay Office, one of the four assay offices in the United Kingdom, is located in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham. The development of a silver industry in 18th century Birmingham was hampered by the legal requirement that items of solid silver be assayed, and the nearest Assay Offices were in Chester and London. Matthew Boulton and Birmingham's other great industrialists joined forces with silversmiths of Sheffield to petition Parliament for the establishment of Assay Offices in their respective cities. In spite of determined opposition by London silversmiths, an Act of Parliament was passed in March 1773, just one month after the original petition was presented to Parliament, to allow Birmingham and Sheffield the right to assay silver. The Birmingham Assay Office opened on 31 August 1773 and initially operated from three rooms in the King's Head Inn on New Street employing only four staff and was only operating on a Tuesday. The first customer on that day was Matthew Boulton.
Henry Richard Yeoville Yardley Thomason was a British architect active in Birmingham. He was born in Edinburgh to a Birmingham family, and set up his own practice in Birmingham 1853–54.
The Methodist Central Hall, 196–224 Corporation Street, Birmingham, England, is a three-storey red brick and terracotta Grade II* listed building with a distinctive tower at the northern end of Corporation Street. The design complements the Victoria Law Courts opposite, also in terracotta, and includes eclectic details such as the corner turrets resembling Indian chattris. It is located within the Steelhouse Conservation Area.
Corporation Street is a main shopping street in Birmingham city centre, England. Though it has a distinct southern terminus – the junction of New Street and Stephenson Place, adjacent to the entrance of New Street station – the location of its northern terminus is debatable.
Julius Alfred Chatwin FRIBA, ARBS, FSAScot was a British architect. He was involved with the building and modification of many churches in Birmingham, and practised both Neo-Gothic and Neo-Classical styles. His designs always included all of the carvings and internal fittings.
St Paul's Square is a Georgian square in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, England, named after the church at its centre. It is the last remaining Georgian Square in the city.
The Great Western Arcade is a covered Grade II listed Victorian shopping arcade lying between Colmore Row and Temple Row in Birmingham City Centre, England.
Edmund Street is a street located in Birmingham, England.
Newhall Street is a street located in Birmingham, England.
Holland William Hobbiss, was an English architect in the Birmingham area. He traded under the names Holland W. Hobbiss and Partners and Holland W. Hobbiss and M. A. H. Hobbiss.
The Elkington Silver Electroplating Works was a building on Newhall Street in Birmingham, England. It later housed the Birmingham science museum Museum of Science and Industry until the creation of Thinktank.
122–124 Colmore Row is a Grade I listed building on Colmore Row in Birmingham, England. Built as the Eagle Insurance Offices it was later occupied by Orion Insurance and was Hudson's Coffee House until late 2011, It is currently Java Lounge Coffee House.
Snowhill is a mixed-use development in the Colmore business district, known historically as Snow Hill, in Central Birmingham, England. The area, between Snow Hill Queensway and Birmingham Snow Hill station, is being redeveloped by the Ballymore Group. The £500 million phased scheme has been partly completed on the site of a former surface car park adjacent to the railway station and West Midlands Metro terminus.
Birmingham city centre, also known as Central Birmingham, is the central business district of Birmingham, England. The area was historically in Warwickshire. Following the removal of the Inner Ring Road, the city centre is now defined as being the area within the Middle Ring Road. The city centre is undergoing massive redevelopment with the Big City Plan, which means there are now nine emerging districts and the city centre is approximately five times bigger.
Bennetts Hill is a street in the core area of Birmingham City Centre, United Kingdom. It runs from New Street, uphill to Colmore Row, crossing Waterloo Street in the process. It is within the Colmore Row conservation area.
The Grand Hotel is a Grade II* listed Victorian five star hotel in the city centre of Birmingham, England. The hotel occupies the greater part of a block bounded by Colmore Row, Church Street, Barwick Street and Livery Street and overlooks St Philip's Cathedral and churchyard. Designed by architect Thomson Plevins, construction began in 1875 and the hotel opened in 1879. Extensions and extensive interior renovations were undertaken by prominent Birmingham architecture firm Martin & Chamberlain from 1890 to 1895. Interior renovations included the building of the Grosvenor Room with Louis XIV style decoration.
Birmingham has seen a number of significant changes in the last few years. Primarily, the structure of the Birmingham office market has seen an expansion and redefinition of its traditional prime office core. What was once centred round Colmore Row, Edmund Street and Newhall Street, over the last seven years the market has seen 850,000 sq ft (79,000 m2) of newly developed space at Brindleyplace and further space at The Mailbox. Additional schemes are also in the pipeline outside the traditional core, including Eastside and Paradise Circus.