Council sets out prospectus for 17ha mixed-use district around HS2’s Curzon Street station
Birmingham council has unveiled its vision to transform 17ha of central Birmingham into a huge mixed-use district which it claims would be one of the best connected places in the UK.
The Birmingham Heart prospectus envisages up to 5,000 new homes and 400,000sq m of commercial space in a cluster of towers next to HS2’s Curzon Street station.
The council said the transformation of the area, which is currently occupied by a series of “underutilised” office buildings, would be on a scale not seen since the 1960s transformation of Birmingham city centre.
Spanning eight investment zones, the plan is seeking to “completely reposition” the city’s commercial and residential centre to align it with the new Grimshaw-designed HS2 station, which is set to open in the 2030s, and create a new gateway to the city for visitors arriving from London.
It builds on the council’s builds Central Birmingham Framework 2045, developed with Arcadis and Howells, which set out a series of regeneration ambitions for the city centre including new active travel networks.
City Heart was one of five key zones set out under the framework when it was first revealed at UKREIIF in 2023.
A key part of the vision is the transformation of two axial routes to create new green thoroughfares which would be up to 30 metres in width.
The first of these routes would run from Birmingham Cathedral churchyard to the plaza outside Curzon Street station via Cherry Street, Union Street and Carrs Lane, which would be widened with existing blocks along the streets redeveloped.
This route would then continue to Eastside City Park, the Birmingham University Campus and to the city’s canal network.
The second axial route would run east-west, linking the Bullring and New Street Station in the west through the proposed 3.5ha Martineau Galleries site, which is set to be transformed into a major new retail district, to the lake on the campus of Aston University.
The council has also set out plans to reinstate Martineau Street, which was built by the Victorians but lost in the 1960s, and connect it to Albert Street to form a new diagonal route through the area.
Protected buildings on the site including the grade II*-listed Arcade, grade II-listed St Michael’s Catholic Church, grade II-listed Powells Gun Shop, Carrs Lane and grade II-listed Rotunda would be retained and integrated into the new street scene, the council said.
Images revealed this week show a speculative outline of how the new district could look, with no developments in the area yet designed or in the planning process.
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