Report - Central Library / Paradise Forum, Birmingham - March 2015

iamsilverfox · Mar 23, 2015

After seeing this pop up by a few members on here and it being pretty much on our doorstep, thought it would be rude not to have a look around. Visited with Thooooom and two other non members. Mixture of some phone pictures and some 35mm, not a fast enough film though. I was ill prepared!

Some history stolen off the mighty Seffy

Birmingham Central Library was the main public library in Birmingham, England from 1974 until 2013. For a time the largest non-national library in Europe, it closed on 29 June 2013 and was replaced with the Library of Birmingham. The existing building was due to be demolished early in 2015 after 41 years, as part of the redevelopment of Paradise Circus by Argent Group. Designed by architect, John Madin in the brutalist style, the library was part of an ambitious development project by Birmingham City Council to create a civic centre on its new Inner Ring Road system; however due to economic reasons significant parts of the masterplan were not completed and quality was reduced on materials as an economic measure. Two previous libraries occupied the adjacent site before Madin’s library opened in 1974. The previous library was opened in 1883 and was designed by John Henry Chamberlain featuring a tall clerestoried reading room, this was demolished in 1974 after the new library had opened.

Despite the original vision not being fully implemented the library has gained architectural praise as an icon of British Brutalism with its stark use of concrete, bold geometry, inverted ziggurat sculptural form and monumental scale. Its style was seen at the time as a symbol of social progressivism. Based on this, English Heritage applied and failed twice for the building to gain listed status. However, due to strong opposition from Birmingham City Council the building gained immunity from listing until 2016.

In 2010–11 Central Library was the second most visited library in the country with 1,197,350 visitors.

Not very confident that we'd get in we headed up anyway. Access was worryingly easy and we rushed around a little to be honest after some police presence was noticed. Maybe for us, maybe not, didnt want to hang around and find out. Might go back and get some better pictures, might not ha. Quite a fun little scramble and as all 'live' sites are, pretty exciting.

Anybody know what this is? Hadnt seen it in any other pictures, dont know if it was metering the air or if it was an alarm of some kind? Look like it had some kind of filter on the top however.