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

Original Document

Birmingham city centre should grow in population, economic strength and cultural diversity. The core and wider central area should house more major businesses and world class retail and cultural and recreational facilities. These central area activities will expand out of the core into neighbouring parts of the city centre.

Original Document

Central areas include (among many things) high value offices and commercial uses, a varied and large retail offer, high density city centre living, leisure, tourism and cultural provision. Traditionally these were contained within the Historic Core at the heart of the city, an area mostly bounded by the Queensway.

However, the city is not static and Birmingham’s growing role as a global city will require a wider area to accommodate these central area uses. In fact, this has already been happening for some time. The Queensway has become more permeable in recent years, and in the last 10 years central area uses have expanded to the west around Brindleyplace. Arguably, this process has been going on for almost 50 years if the large scale office development in the Fiveways area is taken into account. More recently, central area functions have begun to expand to the east.

The expansion to the west in the form of Brindleyplace has been very successful and is easily walkable from New Street. The Mailbox, Baskerville House and the leisure uses along Broad Street have also expanded the city’s central area functions westwards. The iconic Bullring development to the south has made a very positive contribution towards raising the profile of Birmingham. It integrates well with the retail offer in New Street.

During the life of the plan, there will be further expansion of the central area functions beyond the historic core. The Big City Plan will be the catalyst for expanding the scale and improving the quality of these functions. The next location for central area expansion is Eastside. The Masshouse development and Millennium Point have already started this process.

There is also huge potential to improve the built environment to the south of the Historic Core, beginning with the redevelopment of New Street Station. This transformational development will be fundamental to raising the profile of Birmingham as a global city. The proposals for New Street Station will be immensely beneficial to improving the arrival experience into the city.

In addition, the Wholesale Markets are a very large site close to the heart of the city. These two big opportunities will form the basis of a major transformation to the south of the traditional Historic Core. They form two poles of growth which can be used to transform the quality of the streets, spaces and transport links in the whole of the southern part of the city centre. To get the most out of these opportunities, New Street Station and the Wholesale Markets must be considered together.

Thus although the structure of the plan is based on the defined policy areas for the sake of convenience, central area uses will expand beyond the historic core into neighbouring areas of the city centre, and in particular into Eastside, Westside and Southside. The intention is that these areas will develop vibrant distinctive characters: for example the Gay Village and Chinese Quarter in Southside, leisure uses in Westside, the learning quarter within Eastside and food and specialist functions and markets in Southside.

In reading the following sections, therefore, it is important to bear in mind that, whilst the policy areas are defined by lines drawn on a plan, the activities within the city are changing and dynamic and the central area functions will not be confined by these boundaries. An important part of the Big City Plan will be to allow for the growth and expansion of Birmingham’s central area functions.

Original Document

Economic and cultural diversity – Birmingham’s city centre should become more diverse for residents or visitor in its architecture, public realm, cultural facilities, heritage, retail offer, services, especially for young and minority ethnic groups.

Original Document

To raise the city’s status, a number of factors need to come together. plan will need to provide opportunities for central area uses such as prime offices and shops to expand and for the city to continue to stage high level international events in modern, quality facilities. It will need to create the right conditions for the further development of the cultural assets of the city including developing the concept of the city itself as a gallery; the raising of the city’s academic and research profile; and for starting and growing central area businesses and niche, specialist activities. Less easily planned for, it must aim to create or foster the conditions that add human interest, excitement and diversity to the city. The central area will therefore expand further out of the core, and there will be a transition zone outside this area which will contain a mixture of city centre and more local activities, shown on Figure 5. 2. questions in the later sections of this report ask what can be done in the city centre to enable to realise the following ambitions as a global city:

• A world player in business and high value commercial operations
• A big international presence in arts and culture
• A leader in the development and application of digital technology
• A major seed bed for spin-off research, development and new enterprise from the universities
• A profitable and growth-oriented environment for clusters of emerging high technology and green industries
• A famed range of entertainment and leisure facilities
• Shopping and town centre services and environment commensurate with global city status
• supportive conditions for the strong development of creative and fringe use and activities
• Outstanding open spaces and public places
• An attractive city centre living environment for a diverse range of residents, especially families
• Outstanding accessibility, both physical and virtual, through high quality sustainable transport and user-friendly transport interchanges and high speed next generation telecommunication

Original Document

Birmingham is ranked the largest retail centre in the country outside of central London and has about 300,000 sq m retail floor-space. Retail provision within the city centre is focused around High Street, New Street, the Bull Ring and Corporation Street. In addition, the city centre has a high proportion of managed retail floor-space including the Bull Ring, the Pallasades, Priory Square, the Mailbox, Martineau Place and Pavillion Central. There are a number of planning permissions for further retail development in the city centre such as Phase 2 of Martineau Galleries (85,000 sq m approx), The Cube (7,800 sq m approx) and the Jewellery Box (5,500 sq m approx). In addition, the Birmingham New Street Station redevelopment involves the refurbishment of approximately 34,830 sq m of retail floor-space.

Original Document

Despite the recent success and pipeline development, Birmingham will need to continue to invest in the quantity and quality of its retail offer to maintain its leading position and respond to threats posed by its competitors such as the Merry Hill Shopping Centre in Dudley. The Regional Spatial Strategy requires Birmingham city centre to plan for an additional gross non food retail floor-space of 225,000 sq m between 2006-2021 and an additional 130,000 sq m between 2021-2026. This is a substantial requirement to accommodate, reflecting Birmingham’s ambitions as a global city.

Original Document

There are major issues about where such growth should be accommodated. One approach would be to consolidate around the opposite end of the High Street from the Bull Ring to create another magnet of attraction. Another would be to recognise the shift in gravity that has occurred as a result of the Bull Ring development and look at expanding the shopping area southwards.

Original Document

Birmingham has an excellent shopping offer in terms of mainstream fashion outlets and multiple retailers but independent and niche retailers are not strongly represented compared with some other cities. This results in a degree of blandness in the city centre’s shopping streets. A city of Birmingham’s size should have one or more areas of interesting specialist and niche shops. In some cities there are several of these areas each specialising in different things, such as fashion, furnishings or food. These shopping areas can cater for very upmarket shopping requirements or can provide affordable and interesting alternatives to the usual multiple shops. The Big City Plan provides an opportunity to think about how Birmingham can harbour and encourage these specialist areas and where they might go.

Original Document

What kind of additional shops and services are needed in Birmingham in the future to set it apart from its competitors and develop its global reputation?

Original Document

Where can shopping activity expand within the city centre and niche shopping areas for particular types of product be developed?

Original Document

How can the city develop a larger specialist retail sector?

Original Document

A young and diverse population is one of Birmingham’s defining characteristics and one that can be used to enhance the centre’s distinctiveness. A city centre for young people should be family-friendly; its open spaces should be safe during the day and into the evening; its cultural offering should include activities for children from toddlers to teenagers. At present there is not enough to attract families. The main city centre residential areas do not offer a good enough range of dwellings, schools, shops or local facilities, whilst the presence of unattractive and vacant industrial premises, a poor public realm and perceptions of insecurity are additional factors. The creation of an outstanding family city centre environment is an important way for Birmingham to distinguish itself among the core group of cities and to raise itself far above its current position on measurements of liveability.

Original Document

What living densities and populations are required to support local shops and facilities in the wider centre?

Original Document

Another possible approach would be to create the “Birmingham Boulevard” – the transformation of the A38 corridor into an attractive route not only for vehicles but for people to walk along, fronted by shops and building entrances and lined with trees to create a much more habitable environment.

Original Document

Southside is the main arrival location into Birmingham by national and international public transport (west coast main line, rail connection to airport and coach). It includes the area south of New Street down to and including the northern end of the Wholesale Markets. It takes in key sites such as New Street Station, the Arcadian Centre, the Wholesale Markets, the Rag Market, the Ice Rink, the Hippodrome, and the existing Chinese Quarter and Gay Village, with their bars, clubs and restaurants. But at present it does not have the image, quality or excitement of big city nightlife.

Southside has some good streets including one of Birmingham’s last surviving courtyards of back to back housing, now restored and run as a fascinating museum by the National Trust.

Southside has some other good urban features. The sinuous Ringway Centre, completed in 1961, catches the eye as it curves along Smallbrook Queensway and bridges Hurst Street. The Beetham Tower (the Radisson Hotel) contributes to Southside’s skyline. Crosby’s Southside is a recent award winning development on Hurst Street. It has also helped increase the number of shops in the area. The development built on a perimeter block principle has been successful in providing good enclosure, consistent street line and adding interest and variety to the area.

With its excellent transport connections and major arrival point, about to be improved, this is the area that has the greatest potential to accommodate a major expansion of central area uses outside the core. The area offers the prospect of a vibrant district where a number of land uses could successfully co-exist, such as office, retail, residential, culture, entertainment, restaurants and markets. In order to achieve this the street structure needs to be repaired to create a place that is much easier to move through. The redevelopment of the Wholesale Markets will provide the opportunity to remove barriers to movement, create new open spaces and open up routes to the area from Park Central, Eastside, Digbeth and Highgate. One possibility is to create a sizable city square, “Moat Square”, together with a lake or major water feature, on the site of the medieval moated manor house to draw people down from the Bullring and into Southside. This would further the theme of Birmingham as a “Water City”. The centre of activity in the area would be New Street Station, Hurst Street and Moat Square.

Original Document

Southside for specialist shopping. Niche retailing and leisure would be developed around Hurst Street, with smaller units reflective of the historic grain, including independent shops, cafés, restaurants and residential. Birmingham’s retail offer would be expanded to the south of the station which would create a retail loop from the Mailbox, through Southside, the Bullring, along New Street and back to the Mailbox.

Original Document

Jewellery Quarter: a specialist shopping and tourist destination. There would be a strong impetus towards encouraging specialist and niche retailing on the ground floors, particularly in the historic parts of the quarter. The range of shopping would go beyond jewellery to include, for example, niche fashion goods. A focus for retailing would be identified, with associated signage, parking and public realm improvements. The aim would be twofold: this would become Birmingham’s upmarket niche and specialist shopping area; and the initiative would encourage more people into the quarter to sustain the historic building stock and raise the national profile of the area. This option would work well with option 2, which would bring spending power into the quarter.