Save Smallbrook campaign vows to keep fighting for James Roberts’ brutalist groundscraper
A campaign group has vowed to keep fighting after losing its latest bid to prevent the demolition of Birmingham’s Ringway Centre.
On Tuesday the High Court refused the Save Smallbrook campaign’s bid for a judicial review of the council’s decision to approve a Corstorphine & Wright-designed redevelopment of the brutalist landmark.
The curved, six-storey city-centre office block was designed by James Roberts, who also designed The Rotunda on New Street.
Plans for developer Commercial Estates Group to build 1,750 homes in three residential towers of up to 56 storeys on the site were approved for the second time by Birmingham council in February.
> Also read: Council confirms demolition of Birmingham’s Ringway Centre after legal challenge
An initial approval the previous year was challenged by the C20 society, which forms part of the Save Smallbrook campaign collective with Brutiful Birmingham and Birmingham Modernist Society.
Save Smallbrook said in a statement that “we are disappointed, but this is just a setback”, and promised to continue campaigning. The group did not say what the next steps of its campaign would involve.
> Also read: Birmingham’s Ringway Centre decision is the right one for the city
The High Court’s refusal followed a similar bid by the group in June, which was also rejected.
The decision came on the same day that the court refused a full judicial review of Camden council’s decision to approve DSDHA’s plans for a 19-storey office tower near the British Museum.
BC Group’s 19-storey One Museum Street scheme was approved last year despite being opposed by Historic England, the Georgian Group, Save Britain’s Heritage and the London School of Economics.
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