Birmingham Central Library now listed
The World Monuments Fund (WMF) has included Birmingham Central Library in its 2012 Watch List
What we’re good (and bad) at – a message to Birmingham City Council
No person, company, local council, or financial institution, even in ‘advanced’ post-industrial societies like ours, can be good at everything.
Birmingham Central Library – An open letter to Labour
Alan Clawley, in his capacity as secretary of the Friends of the Central Library has written to Birmingham’s Labour leader Sir Albert Bore
Still no alternative to the Private Finance Initiative
Alan Clawley explains how the PFI system defies economic logic.
Rings of Aluminium
“But it is just possible that what impresses the public about the new library is simply that it is very expensive”, reckons Alan Clawley
Keeping the lights on (with apologies to Private Eye)
“No more pylons – no more windfarms”. Alan Clawley wonders where the leccy is going to be coming from.
The Hole of Birmingham
Alan Clawley detects a hole where others see an amphitheatre in Birmingham
Birmingham Brass
Alan Clawley enjoys a bit of brass and wishes bandstands were better used.
The Welsh national culture
Alan Clawley has been to Wales and wonders if the English are missing a trick.
Tower envy in the city
Alan Clawley writes in defence of architect John Madin
The Birmingham Council myth machine
Here’s how the Council operates. First it decides what it wants to do. Then it fits the facts around its decision.
Birmingham’s hidden treasures
Alan Clawley has been delving in the warehouse that stores the hidden treasures of Birmingham’s remarkable past.
What’s in a name?
The name ‘Small Heath’ is well-known wherever you go and a surprising number of Brummies will tell you that they were born and brought up there
If cars were designed by architects…
Alan Clawley explores the difference twixt things that move and things that don’t.
Laying the blame II
Alan Clawley writes,”…. they are invariably inflamed by economic disadvantage and gross inequality”
Carbuncle Architecture
Alan Clawley asks, “Should the design of major buildings like The Public, The Cube or Birmingham’s new Library be left to a few elite architects and their patrons?”
Markets for sale
Birmingham City Council has had its eye on the 21 acres of prime development land occupied by the Wholesale Markets for some years. Bleak future ahead, reckons Alan Clawley.
The Master Planners
The Master Planner’s plans are oft foiled by circumstances beyond their control. Birmingham has suffered as a result.
‘Connectivity’ in Birmingham
The ‘connectivity’ argument will be exposed as the latest attempt by the council to justify the sacrifice of a sound and useful building, writes Alan Clawley
Enterprise Zone no help
The idea of giving business a helping hand to redevelop Paradise Circus by making it part of an ‘Enterprise Zone’ seems to have fallen flat, writes Alan Clawley
Paradise lost?
Alan Clawley raises questions concerning the redevelopment plans for Birmingham’s Paradise Circus
No. Not ‘all in it together’
David Cameron would like us to believe that the pain inflicted on us by the government after the banking crash will be more bearable if we believe him, writes Alan Clawley
Charity ends at the Council House
So what exactly is the point of merging the Millennium Point Trust and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery as announced this week?
Late accounting for Birmingham Council
Councillors should be scrutinising the process leading up to major decisions not reacting to decisions that have already been made when it is too late to change them.
Oh! What a lovely war
Alan Clawley’s been to the theatre and brings us a review of Joan Littlewood’s classic.
Small Heath Park Lodge: abandoned?
What would happen to a private individual who leased a property from a charitable trust and then let that property go to rack and ruin?
Appreciating architecture
“…a cultural divide exists between the arts and business communities in Birmingham over the appreciation of modern architecture”
Rethink Afghanistan
“In the face of failure war leaders never hesitate to invent new aims to justify keeping the war going,” reckons Alan Clawley
‘Handouts’ or ‘Investments’
Alan Clawley writes… ‘Surely state financial support should be used to underpin social and environmental objectives not to subsidise wealthy corporations’
Dental school move
“They only have to label the old building ‘Not fit for the 21st Century’, mention ‘asbestos’, ‘concrete cancer’, or bad plumbing, to win public sympathy…”