Big City Plan Talk A Place To Talk About Birmingham’s Big City Plan

Original Document

This report also suggests policy-based options for the quarters that have experienced stagnating or declining economic activity including the Gun Quarter, Digbeth and the Jewellery Quarter, which include ideas for the expansion of business, creative industries and housing within these areas.

Original Document

The Gun Quarter for example lost approximately 25% of its manufacturing jobs in the 3 years from 2003 to 2006 and the trend is continuing. This trend is already very clearly demonstrated ‘on the ground’ in the city centre. There is a very strong contrast between the ongoing major office construction projects and vibrant shopping streets of the core, and the substantial swathes of under-used and vacant industrial premises within certain sectors of the city centre, particularly the Gun Quarter, Digbeth and even the Jewellery Quarter. Genuine manufacturing has become the exception rather than the rule and parts of the centre lack activity and vibrancy. Despite the retention of employment premises through protective policies, the evidence is that business start-ups in the city centre are low in relative terms given the supply of potential premises.

Original Document

The property requirements of the creative industries vary by segment, but the sector is well suited to making use of old converted buildings that can not be viably redeveloped for mainstream commercial use. As such a policy of limited intervention may best suit the needs of this sector. Creative industries’ location choices are more strongly related to economic processes than planning designations. The Big City Plan will therefore need to accept that there will be change over time. Indeed, it might be a sign of success if, in thirty years’ time, the creative industries were priced out of Digbeth and were colonising a new, less affluent area of the city in search of lower rents.

Original Document

The city centre comprises several areas of distinct character which were formerly largely industrial, such as the Gun Quarter, Jewellery Quarter and Digbeth. One of the clear trends from the economic analysis (see above) is the reducing level of manufacturing and the resultant stock of vacant and underused buildings within these quarters. Some of the more attractive building stock has been converted to residential use and there has also been some residential development. However, there is still a lot of vacant and under-used floor-space and some vacant sites and these could present a major opportunity for residential growth on brownfield land within a stone’s throw of the city core.

Original Document

How far and in what ways can we accommodate more housing within mixed use quarters and traditional industrial quarters like the Jewellery Quarter, Digbeth and the Gun Quarter whilst retaining small businesses and creative industries in those areas?

Original Document

Commercial leisure facilities and nightlife within the city centre have largely been concentrated along Broad Street and at Fiveways and around the Hippodrome and Arcadian Centre. More recently, the development of Brindleyplace, the Bullring and the Mailbox has helped to create a more thriving leisure scene with bars and restaurants within the heart of the city centre. Being part of major developments, these areas tend to host leisure and restaurant ‘multiples’. There is also a cluster of bars and clubs in the Digbeth area around the Custard Factory, and around Hurst Street.

Original Document

The city centre’s visual image and presence varies depending on the viewpoint. The image is at its most impressive where the centre displays a strong baseline of large buildings above which rise a number of landmarks, such as the BT Tower, the Beetham Tower and the Rotunda. This is particularly the case in distant views from the M6 Motorway; indeed, Birmingham is arguably in the best position of any UK city in having a dramatic presence close to a major national transport route. Other significant images are gained from several locations including the approach along the Aston Expressway and in nearer views such as from Highgate and Digbeth. Night time views of tall illuminated buildings are especially impressive on emerging into Navigation Street from the rear exit of New Street Station. On the other hand, the rail approach into New Street Station gives a poor image of the city – although the Eastside proposals will go some way to change this – and the taxi arrival experience from the station is unimpressive.

Original Document

Centro, in partnership with Birmingham City Council, has identified four metro routes that will radiate from the city centre:

• The existing Line 1 running between Snow Hill and Wolverhampton.
• The planned Line 1 extension heading through the city centre to New Street Station then heading along Broad Street to terminate at Edgbaston and later at Junction 3 of the M5.
• A route to Birmingham International Airport extension running along Digbeth High Street.
• A route to Great Barr, using the alignment of New Town Row.

Figure 4.1 shows the proposed future metro network developed by Centro in partnership with BCC. As well as the Line 1 extension referred to above, a one-way city core loop is proposed serving Eastside, Southside and Westside quarters. The route, running around the south of the Bull Ring and immediately north of the international markets, will greatly improve tram system capacity and improve public transport accessibility in these areas. This loop would be required to deliver the airport extension from Digbeth High Street. A further extension is planned out to Great Barr via New Town Row. A route along Sherlock Street is also shown, which would infill a route to the south.

An alternative to Metro for some routes would be to implement ‘Bus Rapid Transit’. While the transport and regeneration benefits of trams are well understood in many modern cities, the costs and practical issues surrounding their implementation are considerable, while they can have adverse impacts on other modes (e.g. on pedestrians in crowded streets). Bus Rapid Transit is an intermediate mode between buses and trams, with optional features such as better vehicles, enhanced priority through guideways, and less frequent stops than conventional buses. BRT may be a more cost-effective alternative to tram in certain locations/corridors. Centro have suggested routes to Bartley Green, Chelmsley Wood and (as a pre-metro) to Perry Barr.

Original Document

The urban structure of Birmingham city centre is uniquely characterised by distinct quarters around the core. The Big City Plan will use this urban structure as a framework for its proposals and policies.

The Core is at the heart of the city. It contains office space for international and national businesses, a varied retail offer catering to a supra-regional catchment area, leisure facilities, a major museum and art gallery and major library containing important arts, cultural and heritage collections, key tourist attractions, and top theatre and concert venues. It also contains the Colmore Row Conservation Area, major civic buildings and spaces, several listed buildings, and the main public transport interchanges.

Located around the outside of the historic Core are the distinctive quarters and neighbourhoods of Birmingham. These quarters are largely based on historic clusters of related business uses, some of which continue to this day. This distinctiveness must be maintained as it is part of the essential character of the city. At the same time the quarters must change and adapt to meet future needs and to support Birmingham’s global city agenda. Some of the quarters are more defined and historically established than others, and there are more opportunities for change in certain quarters than in others. Some will see transformational change and others a strengthening and enhancing of their existing character. Physical edges such as roads and canals form a natural boundary between the areas although it is important to ensure that opposite sides of roads and canals are treated consistently.

Although the defined city centre stops at the Ring Road, it will be important to consider how connections from the centre to the neighbourhoods outside can be enhanced. This particularly applies in the case of the important potential development sites outside the centre, such as Birmingham Wheels and Icknield Port Loop.

The spatial structure of the Big City Plan will be based on the following policy areas (see Figure 5.1):

• The City Core
• Southside
• Highgate
• Westside
• Ladywood
• Jewellery Quarter
• Gun Quarter
• Eastside
• Digbeth

Some of these policy areas relate directly to existing quarters and neighbourhoods – such as the Jewellery Quarter, the Gun Quarter, Highgate and Ladywood. Other policy areas are an amalgamation of quarters and neighbourhoods. For example, the Southside policy area includes the Chinese Quarter, the Gay Village and the Entertainment District around the Hippodrome. Westside includes Brindleyplace, the Convention Quarter, Attwood Green and Park Central and Broad Street as far as Fiveways. Digbeth includes the Irish Quarter. The individual quarters of course still exist, and will continue to do so. The structure, which is shown in Figure 5.1, will form the framework for a more detailed masterplan.

Later stages of this report set out the issues and options for these quarters and neighbourhoods. However, before discussing these in more detail, it is necessary to consider how the growth of the city centre and the expansion of central area uses should be dealt with. This is addressed in the following section.