Tributes to 'irreplaceable' Birmingham campaigner Joe Holyoak following death at 82

Architect, urban planner and campaigner Joe Holyoak has died at the age of 82.

Holyoak was active in the West Midlands for more than half a century and was a key figure in the campaign to save the Ringway Centre in central Birmingham.

He was known for his deep knowledge of Birmingham’s history and his tireless efforts to protect the city’s heritage, serving twice as the chairman of the Victorian Society’s Birmingham & West Midlands Group, from 1980 to 1987 and from 1996 to 2000.

More recently he was vice-chairman and chairman of the Victorian Society’s casework committee and a Building Design columnist.

VicSoc’s Birmingham chairman Stephen Hartland said Holyoak was “one of our great repositories of knowledge and wisdom”.

“Joe belonged to the generation of conservationists who witnessed the enormous destruction of historic Birmingham during the post-war decades and determined that the city’s architectural inheritance deserved better,” the society said. 

“Yet his conservationism was never simply about resisting change. As an architect and urban designer, he understood that cities must evolve; his concern was always with the quality of that change.”

Hartland said Holyoak combined his knowledge with a “wonderfully genial manner, a dry wit and an unfailing willingness to share what he knew”, adding: “At casework committee meetings, a building would appear on the agenda and Joe would frequently know its architect, its history, a previous planning application or some apparently minor detail which revealed its true significance. There was always something reassuring about asking, ‘Joe, what do you think?’ His answer carried the authority of decades of professional experience.”

Dav Bansal, who worked alongside Holyoak on design review organisation Design:Midlands, said: “Joe was much more than a respected architect and urban designer, he was one of those rare voices who truly understood Birmingham, cared deeply about its future and was never afraid to speak his mind.”

“His extraordinary depth of knowledge, his passion for heritage and his many years of experience gave him a unique understanding of the city and its ever-changing growth. Joe played an important part in shaping the story of Birmingham, including his contribution to the Highbury Initiative in the late 1980s, which helped transform the way the city thought about its streets and public spaces.”

Bansal added: “For me, Joe was part of the fabric of the city he cared so much about so his voice, wisdom and character will be deeply missed. Birmingham has lost one of its great architectural voices, but his influence will remain in the city he helped shape and in the many people he inspired.

“He will be hugely missed and very fondly remembered.”

Birmingham City University lecturer Mike Dring, speaking on behalf of Save Smallbrook, the campaign to save the Ringway Centre, said: “Save Smallbrook are devastated at the loss of our friend and colleague Joe Holyoak. 

“As an architect, teacher and activist, Joe was a lifelong advocate for Birmingham and its people. From his 1972 counter-proposal which saved the Post Office on Birmingham’s Victoria Square from demolition, to his belief in people-centred planning through the the Balsall Heath Neighbourhood Plan, Joe consistently argued on behalf of those marginalised in such debates through his design acumen and quiet wit. 

“We are thankful that he brought that experience to the Save Smallbrook campaign, a coalition of Brutiful Birmingham, Birmingham Modernist Society, Zero Carbon House, Birmingham Fair Housing and C20 Society West Midlands, where Joe was a long-term case worker and campaigner. 

“Joe was often to be found walking the streets leading city tours, sporting a bright orange campaign t-shirt and placard, speaking passionately about what makes Birmingham great - its unique architectural heritage, but more importantly its citizens. Joe leaves a formidable legacy. Perhaps the best way to honour him is for others to keep doing what he did so well - standing up for Birmingham.”

Architectural historian Andy Foster described Holyoak as “the biggest single influence for good planning in this city for over fifty years.” 

“I’ve lost a colleague in VicSoc and elsewhere who is simply irreplacable. In his eighties he seemed to be going on undiminished until ten days ago. I don’t know what I and others will do without him here,” Foster said.

Anna Parker, founder of Intervention Architecture, added: “Thank you Joe for your inspiring voice, for advocating community, for getting heard – you knew how to cut through. Thank you for being a champion and supporter to me, it mattered a lot. Your words and your actions. Birmingham has lost a great.

“When I last saw Joe, he told me “just keep doing what you’re doing here, no matter what”. Words that will stick with me. My thoughts with Joe’s family and loved ones.”