Mrs P. and myself went to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery today to view the excellent Birmingham Seen exhibition, with paintings and photographs of the City over the last couple of hundred years. Looking at some of the beautiful old buildings that were swept aside for some of the monstrosities that sprang up in the 1950′s and 60′s, it seemed like such an act of vandalism. Talking of vandalism, it also contained images of ‘Birmingham Forward’ the striking and evocative fibre glass sculpture that stood in Centenary Square before some nutjob set fire to it.
Sadly, the destruction of the City in the name of progress looks set to continue as the revolting Central Library is replaced (on the site of the former ‘Forward’ statue) by a building which might manage the almost impossible feat by creating something even uglier.
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Thanks for ruining my day! I hadn’t seen that impression of the new library. I used to enjoy walking through centenary square.
It looks like it was designed by a seven year old with too much lego.
Hey Bob!
It only seems like yesterday when that statue was still standing on Centenary Square until some knobhead decided to play towering inferno with it.
Is that left-handed ‘Heil Hitler’ salute given by the main figure in the statue a sort of in-house joke? If so, could you please explain it to me?
and you didn’t pop in to the Edwardian Tea Room to say hello to Step while you were there!?
It’s true. I can’t beleive just how ugly that building design is!
Just goes to show that the Tories have not real taste or sense of style
Bob the tower blocks of the 60s are ‘socialism ‘ in architectural form. Tear up the old and replace it with new shiny euqual boxes so we can all all enjoy the paradise of parkland walks .Suprise suprise it does not work
I have been objecting to barbaric new developments my whole life and I do not recall any help from your team.
You are having your cake and eating it my old chum .You are the barbarian determined the change the cxountry into a car park for anyone who wants to set up tent amongst other wheezes .
When will you learn ?
Siany P. … we did, but he wasn’t there. Must have been at lunch.
newmania, so, were the rat infested slums they replaced an example of conservatism in architectural form? I don’t know, you’ll be pretending there is such a thing as society next. As Andy points out, that ghastly, obnoxious plan for a new library, looking like a mass of broken bed springs, is a product of a Tory/Liberal administration. You can’t have your cake and eat it, son.
so, were the rat infested slums they replaced an example of conservatism in architectural form?
Do you mean the desirable Victorian terraces changing hands for £500,000 a pop whose construction puts modern practice to shame ?I think if you are honest you would admit that it was the progressive left that championed continental modern influence while the derided Conservatives sought refuge in the tasty pastichery of mock Tudor suburbia . These odes to pastoral memory and allegiance are where everyone wants to live. Odd that you `d think they would prefer the multicultural high rise welfare heavens constructed by New Labour. Well no , and that’s why New Labour delay the boundary commission .
Its not called “ Respect for the past “ Labour , Bobnina , or “ Working with the grain” Labour” , its “NEW “ Labour .The conserve in Conservative is not a coincidence old sausage and waggling your walking stick will not make you any less wrong .
newmania, rambling aimlessly won’t act as a fig leaf to hide your embarrassment. We need no lessons on housing from the Tories. Are you seriously saying that Victorian terraces priced at £500,000 were bulldozed and their residents herded into multi-rise flats? If so you are even thicker than I imagined. As with most half-wit young Tories, you never lived it and your childish wet dreams of Thatcher have addled your soft brains.
The rat-infested slums with no inside sanitation were the Tory gift to the working class. High rise flats were no great paradise, but they had hot and cold running water and a toilet you didn’t have to share with half-a-dozen other families. Any decent council housing was flogged off cheap by the mad old bat and the likes of the corrupt Dame Shirley in order to try to shift rented accommodation into the hands of her Rachman-like friends in the private sector.
Where are these £500k Victorian terraces anyway? In the Great Wen, perhaps, but out here in the provinces, they don’t go for near that much (or even half that much).
Of course, the terraces cleared from slums in the 50s and 60s (often by Tory councils and under Tory governments, but let’s not let that influence your partisan claptrap, newmania) were not quite the same sort of houses that remain in the suburbs.
Mind you, I quite like the new design. I also don’t hate the old one (it’s certainly a good place as a respite from the driving rain when you walk into town from Ladywood).
That is one utterly hideous concept for a building. I thought the architectural blight on Birmingham that seemed prevalent throughout the last half of the last century was history. Obviously I was wrong…
Danivon… you’re just trying to provoke me on those two libraries. I will not bite, I know you’ve had a tough weekend.
Many of these ‘Victorian slums’ have become chic urban dwellings sporting minimalist features and down lighting . I sold one two years ago for the aforementioned sum .and the buildings are fine . From rats to Rattan whicker chairs in fifty years its amazing what capitalism can do .
Conservatives housed many more people after the war but to do so used contractors who cleaned up whilst at least delivering . The special stigma of the estate was undoubtedly accentuated by the poor quality but Conservatives never intended a despised underclass to be a permanent feature of our life . Labour have achieved that all on their own-some
Read ‘Estate’s by ( very left wing ) Lyndsey Handley One hates to subject the exotic fruit of ignorance to the chill wind of information but I am kindly soul at heart . Its an interesting subject .
Bob, really I’m not trying to wind you up – while I agree with you on quite a few things, I quite like modern architecture. Some of it, at least. I guess it comes of being brought up in a New Town.
And the result at the weekend? Meh. It’s just a culmination of weeks’ of poor games.
At least we don’t have Dave Cameron as a support though
Neither do we comrade. He just thought the name Villa was appropriate for a man of his upbringing.
If you think the new central library will be ugly, tell us what you think of The Public, Bob, that you and your chums promoted, supported and approved?
Not much, actually, little Becky, but I don’t make up my mind about things based on what other people think. I’ll leave that to you.
I think the new library will clash and jar whilst drawing the eye away from its even uglier neighbours.
Given Birmingham’s indulgence of modern hack architects it seems in keeping with everything from the 60s onward.
In five or six years time its maintenance will cost more than it is worth and another modern monstrosity will replace it.