Architecture of Birmingham - Post-World War II Architecture

Post-World War II Architecture

Birmingham's industrial importance in World War II led to heavy and destructive bombing raids during the Birmingham Blitz. This claimed many lives and many buildings too, but the planned destruction that took place in post-war Birmingham was also extensive. At the end of war, Birmingham again began to expand and reached a peak in its population in 1951. This produced a demand for new housing to replace that lost in the bombing raids over Birmingham upon the housing needed to meet the requirements for the growing population. As well as this, the increased use of public facilities encouraged their reconstruction and improvement by the city council.

This public demand for modern buildings, combined with Victorian architectural styles falling out of favour, resulted in dozens of fine Victorian buildings like the intricate glass-roofed Birmingham New Street Station, and the old Central Library being destroyed in the 1950s and 1960s by the city planners. These planning decisions were to have a profound effect on the image of Birmingham in subsequent decades, with the mix of concrete ring roads, shopping centres and tower blocks giving Birmingham a 'concrete jungle' tag. The Public Works Department of Birmingham City Council established a city engineer and a city architect position within the department to aid the design and construction of new housing and public facilities in the city. Sir Herbert Manzoni was made city engineer of Birmingham and his work included the construction of the Inner Ring Road, Middle Ring Road and the Outer Ring Road, which necessitated the purchase and clearance of vast areas of land. As well as this, he designated large areas of land redevelopment areas and set about clearing large areas of slums. Several architects were made the city architect of Birmingham, with the first being Alwyn Sheppard Fidler who held the position from 1952 to 1964, when he walked out following disagreements over his design for the Castle Vale housing estate.

The architecture produced following World War II has been met with mixed reaction. Many of the buildings constructed in this period have since been heavily criticised whilst others have been praised and listed. The past decade has seen the loss of many postwar buildings and more are set to be demolished in the coming years, some controversially such as John Madin's Central Library.