The pace of change in Birmingham (photos)

This site’s been quiet for a while – a few job changes, a few relocations and various life events put paid to my prior efforts to focus on anything else. Nonetheless, I’ve kept an eye on what’s been happening – and it’s hard to miss the huge changes in the city centre. Gone is the old Birmingham Library, seen here at the left of the image from 2013:

And by 2017, the void created by its demolition:

The demolition of Paradise Forum (and the old Library and Birmingham Conservatoire) was a bit of a sad time. It felt like a piece of contemporary history was being bulldozed out of existence. But thankfully on places like Flickr, we still have a venue to see how cool these places looked, and how they defined the central city landscape. Here’s a video I shot in 2016:

If you look around, there’s still parts of historical Brum you can still find pretty easily. Not too far from the centre of town, the Holloway Circus roundabout (recently remodelled for traffic, thank god) has the flaking, deteriorating, unloved yet still wonderful Horse Fair mosaic (the only original 1960s mural still in its original site)…

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The stretch along Broad Street incorporating the forthcoming Paradise developments is going to change radically in the coming years. It’s evolving daily. As you walk around town, dodging roadworks, cranes and building sites, don’t forget to look around and enjoy what’s there. Chances are it will have changed radically again by next month. (Did you know the tram will eventually reach as far as Hagley Road? See also this previs of the eventual route along Broad Street and through to New Street Station).

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Have a read of the WMM site, and check out their regular Westside Weekly newsletter, it’s interesting!

While construction continues, enjoy this rare photo from the top of Alpha Tower, taken while I was up there for work in September 2015. Some of my older photos are in my ‘Birmingham’ gallery on Flickr.