Report - 'Old Joe' - The Birmingham University Clock Tower - May 2014

[Speed]

Credit for this has to go to clebby. We had been looking at it a fair few times and it just seemed like it would never be done. He checked it every day for ages and what do you know it paid off!

Old Joe is less than a mile from my house, It is the worlds tallest free standing clock tower and around these parts it is only surpassed in height by the BT tower in the city centre. It ticks every box when it comes to 'high stuff' for me. It is more than a tall building. It is a landmark, it has history, it has significance. It was one of the few tall building left in this country that i had any interest in conquering and it didn't disappoint!

Apologies for the lack of photos. I visited with a 'normal person' so we took some beers and concentrated on chilling in the belfry rather then doing the whole 'DOCUMENTING DECAY' bullshit.

​

The Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower, or simply Old Joe, is a campanile located in Chancellor's court at the University of Birmingham in the West Midlands of England. It is the tallest free-standing clock tower in the world, although its actual height is the subject of some confusion. The university lists it as both 110 metres (361 ft) and 99 metres (325 ft) tall, whereas other sources state that it is 100 metres (328 ft) tall.

The tower was built to commemorate Joseph Chamberlain, the first Chancellor of the University, although one of the original suggested names for the clock tower was the 'Poynting Tower', after one of the earliest professors at the University, Professor John Henry Poynting. The nicknames Old Joe, Big Joe and simply The Clock Tower are used by the student population and local residents.

A prominent landmark in Birmingham, the grade II listed tower can be seen for miles around the campus, and has become synonymous with the University itself. There is a superstition, taken seriously amongst some students of the University, that if they stand under the tower when it chimes, they will fail their exams.

Designed as part of the initial phase of the Edgbaston campus by architects Aston Webb and Ingress Bell, the tower was constructed between 1900–1908, and stood at the centre of a semicircle of matching red brick buildings. The tower is modelled on the Torre del Mangia in Siena. The original tower designs were amended due to Chamberlain's great admiration for the Italian city's campanile. On 1 October 1905, the Birmingham Post reported that Chamberlain had announced to the University Council an anonymous gift of £50,000 (the donor in fact was Sir Charles Holcroft). This anonymous gift was announced some two months later in the Birmingham Post as "to be intended for the erection of a tower in connection with the new buildings at Bournbrook at a cost estimated by the architects at £25,000. The tower, it was suggested, would be upwards of 300 ft (91.4 m) in height, and would not only form the main architectural feature of the University but would be useful in connection with the Physics Department and as a record tower. In 1940, Sir Mark Oliphant used the tower for radar experiments

​

 

[wellingtonian]

Nice one Speed..... Nice exploring companion too......

 

[PCWOX]

Exploring companion? Nah, fair play, this looks very decent speed. Nice one

 

[tweek]

Yes lad!

 

[clebby]

Nice.

He checked it every day for ages and what do you know it paid off!

Only when I was going to the library to actually do some academic work which must have been about four times this year! I reckon we just got lucky. Here's some poor quality night shots for anyone who's interested; went up with dweeb, Cat, and my housemate Louis who spent the entire evening complaining about how boring it was.

​

 

[Ojay]

Ridiculous, we'll have some of that, well done all

 

[Dark Prince]

Proper job lift as well, last one like this i saw was underground..... Was the up and down lever there??

 

[Seffy]

Well, now that's not too shabby! Good work dude.

 

[Oxygen Thief]

The tower seems to be fitted out to an extremely high standard, looks nice.

 

[Speed]

Proper job lift as well, last one like this i saw was underground..... Was the up and down lever there??

Ahh is that how it works! I didnt mess with it too much as the alarm was going off.

Its fitted out with some modern tanks and a few gantrys, auto winder for the clck and some modern safety stuff on this lift but otherwise it was like any old clock tower, there was even a little workshop up there for the clock engineer to use complete with vice, spares and a tin of 1950s green paint....

 

[Squirrell 911]

Looks mint that.

 

[Oxygen Thief]

Was the up and down lever there??

Ahh is that how it works!

Thank god we've got a fully qualified time served lift engineer on board. Would never have worked that out. Cheers for the info

 

[Wevsky]

You mean you know normal persons?blimey!!Good stuff mate views are sweet

 

[kevin arnold]

the place looks awesome! and that lift! last pic is a winner though

 

[m9]

Yeah! That's sick that!