3.7.5
Plain English Version
There are the areas which were built as part of the Queensway construction and other road building in the 1960s.
Looking at “before” and “after” pictures shows how many good street connections and streets lined with fine buildings were lost. (There are some in the book “Birmingham Past and Present: In my Father’s Footsteps” by Mark Norton)
This has meant is that walking connections between the Core and the other parts of the city centre are poor – Ludgate Hill, Newhall Street, Paradise Circus and Digbeth High Street are examples.
Some of the buildings are uninteresting when seen from the ground and in some cases undeveloped sites still remain, as between Great Charles Queensway and Lionel Street.
Original Document
Firstly, there are the areas which were redeveloped as part of the Queensway construction and other highway constructions in the 1960s. Any examination of “before” and “after” pictures 1 demonstrates graphically how many good street connections and streets lined with fine buildings were lost. The concept of the walking street was replaced with the concept of the individual building accessed by car from an engineered highway. The legacy of this era is that the walking connections between the core and the other -parts of the city centre are poor – Ludgate Hill, Newhall Street, Paradise Circus and Digbeth High Street are examples – whilst the buildings themselves fail to address the streets and provide little interest at the pedestrian scale. In some cases undeveloped sites still remain, as between Great Charles Queensway and Lionel Street.