Town Centre Development

The slums about the Town Hall shamed the citizens: land bought for re-development, site of Council House bought 1853. Colmore Estate leases were falling in, and the houses gave way to banks, offices, works, hospitals. The very small shopping area, chiefly Bull Street, was extended. Georgian property being replaced or re-fronted. Plate glass windows, department stores, shopping arcades - Central, Imperial, Great Western. Council House built 1874-9, Renaissance Corinthian, began new town centre: Victoria Square created by re-aligning Ann St., thenceforth Colmore Row. Mason College, from 1875, School of Art 1881, Midland Institute extended 1882, new Reference and Central Lending Library following fire, Chamberlain Memorial 1889. Tree planting from 1870's.

Act for acquisition of land for Corporation Street, 1876. 4½ acres of worst slums on and about Lichfield St. - 'rookery of crime and wretchedness.' New Street end begun 1878, street open to Cherry St. next year. Intentional slow progress to bring land onto market gradually. Street open to Aston St. 1882. 75-year leases. All sites taken, 1900. Victoria Law Courts 1887-91. No common style or plan for new building. Granite, terra-cotta, glazed brick, much used, and historical models - French, Flemish, Rhenish, Italian Renaissance, Gothic - reaction against flat, plain Georgian produced an 'architectural jungle' with a profusion of ornamentation. Terra-cotta resisted town's soot better than stone.

New market buildings opened as follows:- Vegetables (Wholesale) 1882-3, Fish 1885, Meat 1889, Smithfield Extension 1903. (All demolished 1973-4).