Home Blogs & Views Birmingham Mail Columnists The Stirrer
Dramatic twist in library saga
PRINCE Charles reckoned it looked like a place more suited to incinerating books than reading them, but Birmingham's Central Library at least has the approval of architecture watchdog English Heritage.
They want the building listed and if Culture Minister Margaret Hodge agrees, council plans to demolish it will go out of the window.
For all their huffing and puffing that needn't be a disaster.
Enterprising Moseley and Kings Heath councillor Martin Mullaney has already come up with a bold alternative plan to convert the most distinctive part of the library into a modern art gallery.
He'd seek permission to knock down the rest, while building a replacement facility across the road from the Town Hall as part of a pedestrianised civic square.
It's the kind of imaginative thinking the council missed out on in its haste to create a new landmark of its own.
The library may soon enjoy a surprise twist worthy of any of the authors on its shelves.
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