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

Original Document

This report suggests a number of options for the core and each of the quarters. The four recommended major areas of transformation are:

• the opening up of the Southside area south and west of New Street Station and linking with the redevelopment of the Wholesale Markets to create a new vibrant area containing a mixture of central area activities, with a major focus at a new lake based on the site of the original moat;

• the completion of the Eastside regeneration, involving the reconfiguration of routes and spaces to create a coherent area of city centre and university, research and media related uses;
• the renewal of Highgate and its regeneration as an exemplar quarter for family living within walking distance of the core;
• the renewal of Ladywood as high quality residential neighbourhood with a mixture of homes, connected with Icknield Port Loop.

Original Document

The residential areas of Ladywood, Highgate and part of the Gun Quarter are dominated by 20th Century social housing stock and layouts at relatively low densities and have an inward-looking, self-contained feel that does not relate to the city’s core. As a general rule, their public realm and public spaces are not attractive, their housing stock is not ageing well, their layouts do not follow good urban design principles and they do not house a broad social mix. These areas are likely to require renewal or improvement.

Original Document

How might we improve the existing city centre residential areas in Highgate, Ladywood and the Gun Quarter?

Original Document

Public open space within the city centre is limited. The largest area of open space is Highgate Park, which has been subject of a Parks for People lottery bid following extensive consultation. There is potential, however, for the extension of Highgate Park to serve a growing residential population within the city centre. Other notable parks in the city centre include St. George’s Park and Sunset Park which forms the centrepiece of the new Park Central development. In addition, there are plans for a new park for Eastside, which will occupy an area of 3.2 hectares and will stretch from Park Street, past Millennium Point and through the Digbeth Branch Canal. Otherwise, many of the quarters outside the core have very little open space. The cemeteries in the Jewellery Quarter provide green space and have considerable potential for improvement. The potential of the city centre to accommodate more housing will require the creation of more open space and the improvement of existing open spaces.

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

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.