Council’s planned 2.2m sq ft regeneration could be sliced to just 200,000 sq ft
Plans for a £1bn regeneration of central Birmingham’s Paradise Circus area could be scuppered by calls to list the city’s library, a key stakeholder has warned.
Gary Taylor, managing director of Argent UK Developments, said the listing of the 1970s-built Birmingham Central Library would have a “huge impact” on its 2m sq ft plans.
Birmingham city council has been working with Argent – owner of the Paradise Forum shopping centre – on a redevelopment that would replace the library, shopping centre, Copthorne Hotel, Birmingham Conservatoire and Chamberlain House office block.
The council proposes two 20-storey commercial buildings, three public squares, offices, housing, a hotel, leisure facilities and car parking. But the council and Argent claim that if the library were to remain, the amount of new space that could be created would be slashed to just 200,000 sq ft.
Taylor said: “The library sits right in the middle of our regeneration site, so it needs to be flattened for comprehensive redevelopment. If this building is listed, it will have a huge impact and could delay the scheme by three years. Our plans will be just a tenth of what we’d originally envisaged and we’ll end up with unsatisfactory, piecemeal redevelopment and partial refurbishment of other surrounding buildings.”
Birmingham council has two weeks to respond to the listing report. Council regeneration director Clive Dutton called the library a “blot” and said the council would seek permission to go ahead with demolition if the building were listed.
English Heritage last week recommended that the library be listed. Reiterating calls it made in 2002, the conservation body said the library was a “brutalist modern building that has defined an era of Birmingham’s history”.
The Department for Culture, Media & Sport will now decide whether to list the building.
EH said the library could still be demolished even if it were listed, as a listing was not a preservation order.
lisa.pilkington@rbi.co.uk
