Over the course of the last century, cities have changed profoundly.  Traditional notions of “the working day” and leisure time” have become outdated.  More people work, shop and play later into the evening and night than ever before.

Much of this activity takes place after dark, especially in our winter months of limited daylight.  More and more of us live out more and more of our lives under artificial light. The quality of these after-dark experiences is critical to the quality of urban life.

Birmingham’s core retail area has very little evening activity beyond the Bullring; few shops are open after 5.30pm, without even a once-a-week late shopping night. The streets become thoroughfares to hurry along, rather than destinations in themselves. They’re routes that get you to your train, to your bus… not places to linger, to explore, to shop, eat, drink and socialise into the evening. After dark, much of the area is generally dim, colourless, and unattractive. Existing lighting is old, poorly maintained and some streets can even feel unsafe. It doesn’t compare well with successful European city centres.

If Birmingham’s retail core is to be improved, let’s take the opportunity to sort out the evening, to use creatively, sensitively, intelligently designed lighting to make it a pleasant place to be after-dark.

What if the evening streets were well-lit, safe and attractive places, with the forgotten beauty of the architecture revealed through sensitive illumination. They could have lighting integrated into street furniture, artworks and signage, reducing clutter in the streets and making them places where people feel comfortable. Retailers open in the evening, with inviting, beautifully lit window displays and cafes, bars and restaurants would be buzzing with the city’s workers and shoppers?

What if the people came back to the streets after dark and spent some time living, rather than passing through?

How does this sound as a resident? How does this sound as a business owner?

Doesn’t it sound like the kind of vibrant evening that Birmingham deserves?

Birmingham’s Corporation Street was designed as a boulevard. Influenced by Haussmann’s work in Paris in the 1800s the aim was to have a road that clearly accommodated traffic as well as promenading; clear areas for both were created with wide footways, demarcated by a sensibly sized and spaced trees that provided a rhythm to the street and bounded a central area reserved for traffic. Birmingham’s boulevard connected the fabulous Victorian Law Courts designed by Sir Aston Webb and Ingress Bell in 1887 and New Street Station, which at the time was a far different building to the 1960s design that now occupies the site.

The Retail Birmingham Business Improvement District (BID) through its design strategy – Creating a Spectacular Shopping Environment – is analysing the current function of Corporation Street and the issues that are hindering its role as Birmingham’s primary north /south axis and frustrating retail activity on its western side.

Corporation Street Birmingham by Zander Olsen , Make Architects

The closure of a number of established shops can’t be solely attributed to the economic situation and our analysis is taking into consideration a number of other issues including the impact of the quantity of buses and the changes that would occur if the extension of the Metro system – effectively a tram – redirected them away from Corporation Street.

One of the key questions we have been asking is ‘How do people navigate from House of Fraser to Harvey Nichols and the canals beyond?’ So many people gave different answers which seemed strange when on a map there is an obvious route that would lead people around the edge of New Street Station. In reality, this route is a sequence of disjointed and unpleasant connections.

How do people navigate from House of Fraser to Harvey Nichols?

 One proposal to resolve this situation would be to extend Corporation Street, both in name and in aesthetic, to provide a seamless pedestrian oriented link, free from buses, between Old Square in the north to The Mailbox, the canal network and the city’s fastest growing residential area that sits behind this.

What do you think? With the forthcoming redevelopment of New Street station should we take this opportunity to improve its surrounding public realm too? And what is your view of the buses on Corporation Street. Should a tram replace them?

Great cities have great streets. Streets that help to orientate visitors; that provide a clear route to explore and move people from one side of a city to the other.

Great streets create a spine for many of the world’s most successful retail locations. New York’s Fifth Avenue, Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Oxford Street in London – these routes are renowned destinations in their own right, but they also provide a vital function for visitors and shoppers looking to find their way.

New Street in Birmingham should naturally take the role of our city’s spine. With great civic buildings to the west – the beautifully restored Town Hall and the impressive Council House, and Birmingham’s world renowned Bullring to the East, New Street should be a familiar and inviting route to visitors and a great exemplar of how a key anchor street in a world class city should look and feel. But it’s clear that for a wide variety of reasons, New Street isn’t providing this function.Having spoken to lots of people in the city I know I’m not alone in thinking  that Birmingham has lost its spine.

In September 2009 Retail Birmingham launched an ambitious project to set the direction for  the future development of Birmingham’s central retail area.

The six month design project, led by Make Architects, will provide an overarching design ambition for Birmingham city centre and identify key character areas for  development.The study will come up with a series of proposals for  improving the identity and connectivity of Birmingham’s retail district to create a spectacular shopping environment befitting of a great international city.

New Street is one of the major talking points that has emerged from our first stage of consultation. In fact, one of our consultees asked the question, “With a new New Street Station underway, can Birmingham afford to have an old New Street?”

What can Retail Birmingham, our partners and retailers do to ensure that Birmingham’s retail area gets its backbone back? And is tackling New Street enough? Which other critical routes do we need to address?

The debate continues…