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Top Attractions in Centenary Square

Hall of Memory

The Hall of Memory in Centenary Square, Birmingham, England, designed by S. N. Cooke and W. N. Twist, is a war memorial erected 1922–25, by John Barnsley and Son, to commemorate the 12,320 Birmingham citizens who died in World War I. Built directly over a filled-in canal basin of Gibsons Arm, it was the first structure in an area purchased by the council for the creation of a grand civic scheme to include new council offices, the mayors residence, a public library, and a concert hall. The scheme was abandoned after the arrival of World War II with only half of the planned Baskerville House having been built. Made from Portland stone, from the Isle of Portland in Dorset, the foundation stone was laid by HRH The Prince of Wales on 12 June 1923 and it was opened by Prince Arthur of Connaught on 4 July 1925 to a crowd of 30,000. Construction had cost £60,000 and was funded through public donations. The four statues around the exterior are by local artist Albert Toft. They represent the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and Womens Services. The interior features three carved bas-relief plaques by William Bloye representing three tableaux: Call, Front Line, Return . These bear inscriptions: OF 150,000 WHO ANSWERED THE CALL TO ARMS 12,320 FELL: 35,000 CAME HOME DISABLED AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN IN THE MORNING WE WILL REMEMBER THEM SEE TO IT THAT THEY SHALL NOT HAVE SUFFERED AND DIED IN VAIN +*+ There is also a roll of honour illustrated by Sidney Meteyard. The hall was upgraded on 27 October 2014 to a Grade I listed building from its previous Grade II. During the Birmingham Blitz, on the night of 11 December 1940, all but the fine tower and classical west portico of St. Thomas Church, Bath Row, was destroyed by German bombs. The church was never rebuilt. The First World War Memorial colonnade, which had been built alongside the Hall of Memory in 1925, was relocated there when Centenary Square was laid out 1989. The gardens were re-designed as the St. Thomas Peace Garden in 1995 in commermoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II, as a monument to peace, and as a memorial to all those killed in armed conflict.

King Edward VII Memorial

The King Edward VII Memorial is a sculpture in memory of King Edward VII, located in Centenary Square, Birmingham, England. In 1910, the Birmingham Mail launched an appeal to erect a statue to Edward VII, in order to commemorate his reign. Over £5,000 was quickly raised and an area was allocated within Birmingham Childrens Hospital for its location. Albert Toft was commissioned to craft the statue but the project immediately ran into problems. The statue was to be over six feet tall, making it difficult to find a large enough piece of Carrara marble for its construction. Fortunately, this problem was overcome and the project was well underway through 1912. The statue was unveiled in Victoria Square on St Georges Day, 23 April 1913 by Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll. It stood next to a statue of Queen Victoria. However, soon afterwards these statues were criticised as being of "ill matched designs". The statue of Edward VII was eventually moved to Highgate Park when Victoria Square was remodelled in 1951. The statue was the subject of theft in the 1970s and 1980s, beginning with the theft of Saint Georges lance and then the three bronze groups in 1985 and 1986, none of which have been recovered. Following successful lobbying by The Victorian Society, Birmingham City Council agreed to restore the statue and resite it back in the city centre. On 12 June 2007, The Victorian Society launched an appeal fund to contribute towards the programme of works which raised almost £12,000, more than 10% of the final cost of restoration. After restoration by Cliveden Conservation in Bath, starting in 2009, a new sceptre and orb capital were made and the three bronzes were also re-made and the whole assembly reunited and erected on the original plinth, outside Baskerville House in Centenary Square.

Symphony Hall

Symphony Hall is a 2,262 seat concert venue in Birmingham, England. It was officially opened by the Queen in June 1991, although had been opened on April 15, 1991. It is home to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and hosts around 270 events a year. It was completed at a cost of £30 million. The halls interior is modelled upon the Musikverein in Vienna and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. The venue, managed alongside Town Hall, presents a programme of jazz, world, folk, rock, pop and classical concerts, organ recitals, spoken word, dance, educational and community performances, and is also used for conferences and business events. Symphony Hall, widely considered one of the finest in the world, was designed by Percy Thomas Partnership and Renton Howard Wood Levin, with specialist help from Russell Johnson of Artec Consultants Inc.. A particularly innovative feature is the halls acoustic flexibility. It has a reverberation chamber behind the stage and extending high along the sides, adding 50% to the halls volume, the doors to which can be remotely opened or closed. The U-shaped reverberation chamber area has a volume of 12,700 cubic metres . There is an acoustic canopy which can be raised or lowered above the stage. Dampening panels can be extended or retracted to ensure that the sound of the space is perfectly matched to the scale and style of the music to be performed. There are also reverse fan walls at the rear of the hall which provide further reflections of sound. All the walls and the ceiling are 200 millimetres thick and are made of concrete. The hall is built only 30 metres from a covered railway line. To prevent the transmission of vibrations, the hall is mounted on rubber cushions, as is the railway track. The hall is also shielded from heavy traffic on Broad Street by double skins of concrete. Large, low-speed air ducting cuts the ventilation noise. In 2001, a 6000-pipe symphony organ was installed, designed and built by Johannes Klais Orgelbau in Bonn and specially tailored to the halls reverberation chambers. This is now the largest mechanical action organ in the UK. Through its management company Performances Birmingham Limited, Symphony Hall alongside Town Hall has charitable status and through an Education/Community department carries out a number of projects for schools, community groups and families, working with around 12,000 young people and 6,000 adults each year.

A Real Birmingham Family

A Real Birmingham Family is a public artwork and sculpture by Gillian Wearing, cast in bronze, and erected in Centenary Square, outside the Library of Birmingham, England, on 30 October 2014. It depicts two local sisters, each single mothers, Roma and Emma Jones, with their two children; Romas son Kyan and Emmas son Shaye. Emma is depicted as pregnant with a second son, Isaac, who was born before the sculpture was unveiled. A small plaque laid on the ground in front of the work describes it. In a process begun in 2011, and coordinated by the citys Ikon Gallery, nominations for a "real" local family to model for the sculpture were invited. The Joneses were selected from a shortlist, by an independent panel, in August 2013. Wearing said: I really liked how Roma and Emma Jones spoke of their closeness as sisters and how they supported each other. It seemed a very strong bond, one of friendship and family, and the sculpture puts across that connectedness between them. A nuclear family is one reality but it is one of many and this work celebrates the idea that what constitutes a family should not be fixed. The £100,000 cost of the work was covered by a combination of public money and private donations. The casting was carried out in China. The project follows Wearings 2008 work, A Typical Trentino Family. In November 2014 shortly after being unveiled new Fathers for justice activist Bobby Smith covered the statue with a white sheet and pictures of his own 2 daughters.
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