Paradise Birmingham

Demolition of the former Birmingham Conservatoire and Chamberlain House is set to start as preparations get underway for the next phase of the flagship £700 million Paradise site, Birmingham’s most important regeneration scheme.

The work coincides with the re-opening of Centenary Way on 11 November. This throughway, passing through the heart of the development and linking Chamberlain Square to Centenary Square and Broad Street, is one of the city’s busiest pedestrian routes.

Demolition work on the retained existing buildings has, until now, been confined to soft demolition, with contractor Carillion stripping out and dismantling the interiors. Demolition specialists DSM will now move in and deploy a 32 metre high (105 feet) Hitachi ZX670 high reach demolition rig to start pulling down the complex arrangement of buildings around Fletcher’s Walk. 90 per cent of waste from this stage of demolition will be recycled – some 19,000 tonnes, which is enough material to fill seven and a half Olympic size swimming pools.

This work is expected to run until early Summer 2018. As part of the demolition, one lane of Paradise Circus Queensway will be closed southbound from Sandpits to Suffolk Street Queensway from the 13 November until Summer 2018.

The demolition work will enable the re-opening of the main entrance to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery on Chamberlain Square. The public will also be able to see the ongoing transformation of Chamberlain Square taking place as part of the wider Paradise transformation.

Rob Groves, Regional Director at Argent, said:

“With One Chamberlain Square now clearly visible on the city skyline and Two Chamberlain Square following, work is steaming ahead on the enhanced public realm and these latest demolition works will support the next phase of development and represent yet another key milestone in this transformative project.”

“Paradise is without doubt one of the most complex regeneration projects we have worked on, not least due to its geographical position, requiring enormous patience and flexibility from businesses and local people in coping with the changes to pedestrian routes, for which we are grateful.

“With the Great Charles Street road improvements and new pedestrian crossing now complete, the Centenary Way route re-opening better connects Chamberlain and Victoria Squares to Centenary Square and Broad Street again. This really is a landmark moment for the development and indeed for the people of Birmingham.”

The first phase of the Paradise project includes 355,000 sq ft of Grade A office space – 90,000 sq ft of which has been let to PwC – aimed at meeting demand from the growing Business, Professional and Financial Services (BPFS) sector. Enhancements to the public realm in Chamberlain Square and One and Two Chamberlain Square will complete in Spring and Summer 2019 respectively.

Watch our progress on the Paradise Progress page.