35402
Anglepoise, a giant desk lamp sculpture by Holmes Wood Consultancy outside the Mailbox an upmarket shopping and office development on Suffolk Street Queensway in the Westside, Birmingham, West Midlands.
Originally the location of a railway goods yard with canal wharves off the Worcester and Birmingham Canal leading to Gas Street Basin, it was later converted into the Royal Mail's main sorting office building for Birmingham (hence its current name) which was completed in 1970, replacing the Victorian head post office in Victoria Square. The new building was designed by R. H. Ousman of the Ministry of Public Building and Works, who collaborated with project architect H. A. E. Giddings and with Hubbard Ford & Partners, who supplied E. Winters and R. Lee as architects.
When completed, it was the largest mechanised letters and parcels sorting office in the country with a floor area of 20 acres (81,000 m2) and the largest building in Birmingham. A tunnel was constructed between the site and New Street railway station allowing electric tractors hauling carts carrying sacks of mail to be driven directly to the office. The structure housed the largest electronic sorting equipment in the West Midlands to handle the post. It also housed the administrative teams moved from Victoria Square, including those for other Post Office functions, such as counter services.
In 1997 Alan Chatham, an important figure in the regeneration of Birmingham, found out that the sorting office was to be sold and he decided to establish his own development company, Birmingham Development Company, and purchased the building in 1998 for £3 million. He also paid a further £1 million for the surrounding waterfront buildings. Soon after purchasing the building, he sold the air-rights to Crosby Homes, providing him with further money for redeveloping the building.
The building was converted by the Birmingham Development Company to include two hotels with a total of 300 rooms, 15,850 sq. m (170,000 sg. ft.) of office space, 9,290 sq. m (100,000 sq ft.) of retail space and a similar area for restaurants and a health club. Crosby Homes constructed apartments above the space. The redevelopment of the sorting office involved demolition of all but the steel sub-structure. It cost £150 million overall and opened in December 2000. Following the purchase of two retail units by Harvey Nichols, the development was valued at over £125 million.
35402
Anglepoise, a giant desk lamp sculpture by Holmes Wood Consultancy outside the Mailbox an upmarket shopping and office development on Suffolk Street Queensway in the Westside, Birmingham, West Midlands.
Originally the location of a railway goods yard with canal wharves off the Worcester and Birmingham Canal leading to Gas Street Basin, it was later converted into the Royal Mail's main sorting office building for Birmingham (hence its current name) which was completed in 1970, replacing the Victorian head post office in Victoria Square. The new building was designed by R. H. Ousman of the Ministry of Public Building and Works, who collaborated with project architect H. A. E. Giddings and with Hubbard Ford & Partners, who supplied E. Winters and R. Lee as architects.
When completed, it was the largest mechanised letters and parcels sorting office in the country with a floor area of 20 acres (81,000 m2) and the largest building in Birmingham. A tunnel was constructed between the site and New Street railway station allowing electric tractors hauling carts carrying sacks of mail to be driven directly to the office. The structure housed the largest electronic sorting equipment in the West Midlands to handle the post. It also housed the administrative teams moved from Victoria Square, including those for other Post Office functions, such as counter services.
In 1997 Alan Chatham, an important figure in the regeneration of Birmingham, found out that the sorting office was to be sold and he decided to establish his own development company, Birmingham Development Company, and purchased the building in 1998 for £3 million. He also paid a further £1 million for the surrounding waterfront buildings. Soon after purchasing the building, he sold the air-rights to Crosby Homes, providing him with further money for redeveloping the building.
The building was converted by the Birmingham Development Company to include two hotels with a total of 300 rooms, 15,850 sq. m (170,000 sg. ft.) of office space, 9,290 sq. m (100,000 sq ft.) of retail space and a similar area for restaurants and a health club. Crosby Homes constructed apartments above the space. The redevelopment of the sorting office involved demolition of all but the steel sub-structure. It cost £150 million overall and opened in December 2000. Following the purchase of two retail units by Harvey Nichols, the development was valued at over £125 million.