Alan Clawley debates the city centre’s architecture.
As if to prove that they are not picking on John Madin by wanting to demolish his Brutalist Central Library the city planners have set their sights on Frederick Gibberd’s Corporation Square shopping precinct, otherwise known as Martineau Galleries. Under a headline ‘Forgotten quarter is set to rise again’ are several pictures of Gibberd’s cool white buildings. Unlike the Central Library, it is clad in white Portland Stone not concrete, but that makes no difference. Journalist Graeme Brown tells his readers imperiously, “The old 1960s Brutalist design will be demolished”. By using this deadly double cliché he can avoid any further explanation. His readers understand the message.
City planning chief Waheed Nazir is also pictured and calls for a ‘high quality’ development to replace Gibberd’s scheme. If he is aware of the quality of Gibberd’s work and his national reputation as an architect, he shows no sign of it here.
Fred Gibberd was a contemporary of John Madin and James Roberts. They all trained at the Birmingham School of Architecture. Gibberd went to London and made a national reputation and was given a knighthood for his contribution to architecture; Madin and Roberts stayed in Birmingham. Gibberd’s national status nevertheless appears to cut no ice with Birmingham’s planners. So far they have not tried to undermine his reputation as they did Madin’s, by claiming that he was no more than a good provincial architect. Perhaps that is because there has been no attempt to have the Martineau Galleries listed. If there were such a move we can be sure that the Council would use the same questionable tactics to justify its demolition that they used on the Central Library. In his definitive Pevsner Guide to Birmingham Andy Foster not only includes a photo of Sir Frederick’s shopping precinct, he describes it as “Birmingham’s best 1960s shopping development”, and “A cool Portland stone podium with carefully placed slit windows, over a recessed ground floor.”
Elsewhere Gibberd’s 1967 Roman Catholic Cathedral in Liverpool is well-known and widely admired. It is not threatened with demolition, even though it appears in Alexander Clement’s book entitled Brutalism (2011) and is unashamedly Brutalist. Unfortunately, Gibberd’s less famous but equally interesting public library in Nuneaton is under threat from the local council.
In order to counteract the usual knee-jerk reaction to 1960s Brutalism, Friends of the Central Library and the Twentieth Century Society have organised a day school on 28th June with the title ‘Raw Beauty – a new life for Brutalist buildings’. Speakers from Glasgow, Preston and London will join our own Andy Foster and Joe Holyoak in exploring how Brutalist architecture is making a comeback. It will take place in and around the Birmingham and Midland Institute. Places are limited, so book early on www.c20society.org.uk.