‘Ludicrous’ plan to build skyscraper over Georgian Birmingham building rejected

Councillors in Birmingham have unanimously refused to grant planning permission for a controversial 42-storey skyscraper on top of a Grade-II listed former hospital.

The proposal for the city centre site included a large glass tower block, including more than 300 flats and a cafe and roof terrace, erected on top of a Georgian building that has stood there since the early 19th century.

At a planning committee meeting on Thursday, the plans for the 133.5 metre-tall building were derided by councillors and permission was denied.

“This is utterly bonkers. The idea you can stick a 42-storey tower block over a Georgian mansion is ridiculous,” said the Conservative councillor Gareth Moore. “The idea it was even dreamt up is quite frankly ludicrous.”

The Labour councillor Lee Marsham said the developers had “just plonked something on top of it and hoped that it works”, adding: “I think the broad aims of regeneration of that site is one we should be doing, I just don’t think this is it.”

Others objected to the fact the housing would have been comprised of mainly one-bedroom flats, failing to fulfil the council’s affordable housing criteria.

The plans were drawn up by the consultancy firm Marrons for Leicester-based developer HJB Investments, for a site which they described as in a “state of dilapidation and disrepair”.

Charlotte El Hakiem, Marrons’ planning director, said the proposal was an “innovative approach, which allows the repurposing of the listed building, bringing it back in public use whilst creating a landmark containing much-needed homes and community space”.

On Broad Street, a street lined with bars, clubs and restaurants, the building had most recently been used as a nightclub.

It was originally the residence of one of the founders of Islington Glassworks, located nearby, before becoming a hospital from the 1840s.

The developers said a precedent for their plans had been set by other buildings across the world, such as a 50-storey hotel in Sydney suspended above the listed former North Sydney 1895 fire station.

But the Birmingham plans sparked backlash among historians, conservationists and the city’s residents.

The Georgian Group described it as a “preposterous proposal”, with its director, David Adshead, saying: “Building over or around a listed building but not touching it directly is clearly a worrying new trend by which heritage protection can, without revision to current legislation, be circumvented.”