INFORMATION PACK - Weebly
Transcript of INFORMATION PACK - Weebly
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CONTENTS
BULLRING: KEY FACTS 5
CORPORATE 7
The Birmingham Alliance 7
DEVELOPMENT & CONSTRUCTION 8
Delivery team 8
Construction 8
Key construction statistics 10
Architecture and design - reconnecting the city 11
Spiceal Street 13
Interior design 14
Retail fit out - Checkland Kindleysides 15
Signage – Pentagram 15
Washrooms – Amalgam 16
Bullring: IT innovation 17
HISTORY 19
Archaeology 20
St Martins Church 23
RETAILERS 24 Retailers and tenant mix strategy 24
Selfridges 26
Debenhams 27
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CONTENTS
CUSTOMER SERVICE 28 Website 28
Customer Service Desk 28
In-mall Touchscreens 28
Plasma Screens 29
Personal shopper lockers 29
TRANSPORT 30
Moor Street Train Station 30
New Street Train Station 30
Birmingham International Airport – BHX 31
Communications and access 32
PUBLIC ART AND LANDSCAPING 33
Sculptural Light Wands by Peter Fink, from Art 2 Architecture 33
Glass Signature Piece by Martin Donlin 33
Bronze Bull by Laurence Broderick 34
Admiral Nelson 34
Swan Passage: 24-hour route railings by Anu Patel 35
Small scale community artwork project 35
Artists in residence 35
Meteorite by Cornelia Parker 35
Spiceal Street Public Art 36
Green Wall 36
Water Feature with Poetry by Simon Turner and Polar Bear 36
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CONTENTS
MARKETING 37
Catchment area 37
Marketing overview 37
RESEARCH OVERVIEW 38
Biannual visitor survey 38
Catchment survey 38
Focus groups 38
Research findings 38
DDA 39
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY 39
USEFUL LINKS 40
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BULLRING KEY FACTS
Bullring, together with Martineau Place and the planned development of Martineau Galleries, is
Europe’s largest retail-led regeneration project, representing an investment of over £1 billion.
The project was conceived and driven by The Birmingham Alliance, a partnership between Hammerson
Plc, Henderson Global Investors Ltd and Land Securities Group PLC.
Birmingham is currently the focus of £7 billion of new investment, of which Bullring represents over
£500 million.
Bullring provides 110,000 m2 of retail accommodation over three trading levels
Bullring incorporates 160 stores of which 91 were new retailers to Birmingham.
There are 28 Restaurants and cafes at Bullring.
The Centre has attracted a wealth of new brands to the City including Forever 21 (first ever European
store) Hollister, Jamie’s Italian, Browns Bar & Brasserie and Thai Restaurant Chaophraya.
The scheme is anchored by Debenhams and Selfridges.
The Centre has an average annual footfall of 38 million.
During December over 1 million shoppers visit the centre per week.
The development of Bullring has included the creation of 3,100 car parking spaces.
Bullring incorporates a diverse mix of architectural styles, from the traditional to the futuristic, forming a
new icon for the city.
Bullring’s design reflects the city’s historic street patterns and comprises a series of traditional streets,
squares and open spaces, enabling Bullring to connect seamlessly with the existing city centre.
Long-lost historic street names, going back as far as the 18th century, such as Spiceal Street, Swan
Passage and Jamaica Row are returning as part of Bullring.
For the first time in nearly fifty years, St Martin’s Church has been brought back into the heart of the city,
clearly visible from New Street / High Street.
The formerly derelict Edwardian Moor Street Station building has been restored in the style of a 1930s
Great Western Railway station and is now the gateway to Bullring from Marylebone and the shire
counties.
Over 8000 new jobs have been created as a result of Bullrings development.
The Birmingham Alliance invested £2 million in a major programme of public artworks for Bullring’s public
realm.
Over 7.2 million people live within an hour’s drive of the city, with some 4.3 million shoppers living within
Bullring’s 45 minute catchment area.
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BULLRING KEY FACTS
Birmingham has the largest professional / financial sector outside London, employing over 100,000
people with an annual output of over £2.5 billion.
Over half a million pounds a day was spent building Bullring.
At its peak, over 1,500 workers were on Bullring’s development site each day.
In November 2011 the new Spiceal Street Scheme opened redeveloping the St. Martins Square area.
The four massive steel trusses at the gateway to Bullring support the buildings above the Victorian railway
tunnels running directly below.
Demolition on site began on 30th June 2000, and was completed in March 2001.
Bullring incorporates a 19.5 metre drop in level from north to south.
Over 270,000 people visited Bullring on its launch Day (4th September 2003)
Since Bullrings launch, Birmingham has risen from 13th to 3rd in the Experian UK retail destination
rankings.
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CORPORATE
The Birmingham Alliance
The Birmingham Alliance is a partnership between Hammerson Plc, Land Securities, and
Henderson Global Investors Ltd which was formed in February 1999 to implement Europe’s
largest city centre regeneration project in central Birmingham. (In 2009 Land Securities
sold their share in Bullring to Future Fund.)
Through this landmark agreement which combined the partners’ respective city centre
developments, The Birmingham Alliance partners have fully aligned the objectives of the
Birmingham City Council and the people of Birmingham with their own commercial interests.
The resulting retail-led, and carefully phased redevelopment of 40 acres in the heart of the city
(equating to some 189,500 m2 of retail space) will, by completion have totally transformed
Birmingham’s retail standing, injected over £800 million into the local economy and created a
total of 8,000 jobs.
The first stage in the regeneration of Bullring was the opening, in September 2000, of a 5,500
m2 state-of- the-art Indoor Market housing 90 traders. The next phase, the £100 million,
17,000 m2 Martineau Place scheme, opened in November 2001.
The Birmingham Alliance Master Plan
Bullring is the second flagship phase and comprises 110,000 m2 of prime retail space over three
trading levels over a 26-acre site. The third and final phase, Martineau Galleries, will comprise
the development of a 14-acre site to accommodate the next phase of the regeneration of
Birmingham city centre. The scheme will provide a mix of retail, leisure, office, residential and
cultural uses. The development will commence only once the impact of Martineau Place and
Bullring has been assessed.
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DEVELOPMENT & CONSTRUCTION
Delivery team
Design & Management Contractor: Sir Robert McAlpine
Sir Robert McAlpine: Principal supply chain members
Detailed Design Architects: Chapman Taylor
Structural Engineers: The Waterman Partnership
Building Services Engineers: WSP Group
Structural Steelwork: Severfield Reeve
Concrete Framework: O’Rourke Ltd
Mechanical Services Installation: Emcor Drake & Scull
Groundworks: Parkstone Construction Ltd
Brickwork & Blockwork: Ben Barrett & Son
Civil Engineering over railway tunnels: Balfour Beatty Construction
Electrical Contractor: Hills Electrical Concrete
Flooring: Heyrod Construction
Lifts & Escalators: Otis Elevator Plc
Skyplane Glazed Roof Contract 1: Portal
Skyplane Glazed Roof Contract 2: Space Decks
Flooring: Stone Cladding International Mall
Ceilings & Bulkheads: Stevensons (Norwich)
Natural stone-faced precast panels: Trent Concrete
Demolition: Brown & Mason
Bullring’s construction has been carried out by Sir Robert McAlpine, one of the UK’s leading
building and civil engineering contractors, under a £250 million design and build, guaranteed
maximum price contract. The massive development has involved: the removal of some 200,000
m3 of material created from the demolition of the old 1960’s structure - much of it recycled;
the use of 90,000 m3 of concrete; and the installation of 15,460 tonnes of structural steelwork -
twice that of the Eiffel Tower.
The construction team responsible for Bullring was largely made up of the same individuals,
and supply chain, which had carried out the construction of the 74,500 m2 WestQuay
shopping centre in Southampton. This established team structure proved invaluable when
dealing with the additional complexities of the Bullring site.
Stretching over 26-acres, and incorporating a 19.5 metre drop in level, the construction site
presented a number of challenges. First and foremost, work had to be carried out in a busy city
centre location bounded by two major railway stations, and two key bus terminals. In addition,
public access had to be maintained across the site at all times, between High Street and New
Street to the north, the street and covered markets to the south.
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DEVELOPMENT & CONSTRUCTION
The principal challenges facing Sir Robert MacAlpine included:
• Complex civil engineering to lower the northern arm road by 3.5 metres over the West
Coast main line Victorian railway tunnels; while allowing the tunnels to be operational
throughout the construction process.
• Suspending the two buildings on Bullring’s northern perimeter over the road and railway
tunnels from four massive 120-tonnes, 50-metre long, steel bow-string trusses
• Creating different grid systems at different mall levels involving two major load transfer
structural levels.
• Detailing, co-ordinating, and integrating three mall levels across a 19.5 metre drop in site
level - running north to south - with an open street, St Martin’s Walk, cutting through the
centre.
• Providing public access across the site at all times - originally via a 230 metre long
temporary pedestrian bridge supported on piles 15 metres above basement level - with
all attendant safety considerations.
• Dealing with a congested city centre site with no free space
• Extensive co-ordination in order to deal with the requirements of 160 different retail units
• Responding to the different requirements posed by the wide variety of external elevations
and cladding material
• Designing and constructing a 7,000 m2 glazed ‘skyplane’ roof covering to the malls,
allowing for both building and thermal movements
During the 29-month long construction programme, a series of sectional completions delivered
retail units for fit-out. Over the course of the programme, substantial changes were absorbed
incorporating enhancements to the scheme as well as tenant specific requirements.
Following handovers, all achieved on or ahead of schedule, design changes, construction
modifications and interface support was provided to fit-out contractors. The on-site labour force
peaked at 1,500 during main construction, and over 2,500 during the latter stages of fit-out.
Sir Robert McAlpine also carried out the construction required for the refurbishment of the
adjacent Moor
Street Station.
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DEVELOPMENT & CONSTRUCTION
Key construction statistics:
• Concrete removed - old Bull Ring 65,000 tonnes
• Steelwork removed - old Bull Ring 12,000 tonnes
• Earth removed in excavation - 7,000 lorry loads 204,000 m3
• Concrete poured 216,000 tonnes
• Steelwork erected - 650,000 bolts 15,460 tonnes
• Tower cranes 11
• Peak labour force during construction 1,500
• Peak labour force during fit-outs 2,500
• Works packages 50 major 200 total
• Fall in level across the site 19.5 metres
• People using site bridge during market days 15,000
• Retail area 110,000 m2
• Retail outlets 160
• Car parking 3,100 spaces
• Selfridges store area 23,225 m2
• Debenhams store area 19,230 m2
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DEVELOPMENT & CONSTRUCTION
Architecture and design - reconnecting the city
Bullring marks a new era of retail-led regeneration for British cities. At 110,000 m2, and
occupying a 26- acre site, Bullring is not only one of the largest retail developments to have
been delivered in Europe for over a decade, it is also the first time a scheme of this scale has
been built in a city centre.
The nine level scheme sits right at the heart of Birmingham’s traditional and historic centre for
retail and trade. Bullring’s nine levels comprise three principal retail malls - with the upper level
containing a first floor, and the lower level containing a mezzanine - two levels of car parking
situated directly below the scheme, one level dedicated to the scheme’s centre management
suite, and plant and machinery contained within the remaining levels.
Birmingham’s historic street pattern was a major influence on Bullring’s design. The scheme is
composed of three axes, two of which form a natural extension to the city’s principal shopping
streets of New Street and High Street. Between the two, the third axis comprising St Martin’s
Walk, a new pedestrian boulevard, restores historic linkages to the city’s traditional markets
beyond St Martin’s church.
Original development drawings showing the re-establishment of Central Street and access
between the two train stations that service Bullring.
The Birmingham Alliance’s vision was to provide Birmingham with the best of continental Europe.
Bullring’s streetscape atmosphere has provided a feeling reminiscent of European cities.
Boulevards, squares, and the types of spaces which promote an active street life, have been
combined to set a new model for retail-led inner city regeneration. Bullring has revitalised an
historic city quarter, while creating an exciting new public forum for people to meet, eat, shop and
relax in a contemporary environment.
Designed by concept architects Benoy, with detailed design implementation provided by
Chapman Taylor, Bullring has been conceived as a series of malls, open spaces, covered streets
and public piazzas - with the two department stores, Debenhams and Selfridges, providing an
anchor on each side of the scheme.
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DEVELOPMENT & CONSTRUCTION
1950’s Street scene looking towards St Martins Church. Bullring re-opened this vista that
was lost in the construction of the 1960’s Bullring.
A key element of Bullring’s design is its permeability and the way in which new open spaces and
walkways throughout the three principal trading levels have been designed to link into the city
centre - and form an extension of Birmingham’s existing prime retail pitch. The natural gradient
of the site - falling some 19.5 metres from north to south - has been integrated into Bullring’s
design so that each trading level has access to a ground floor entrance, and allows for the three
retail levels to step down the slope either side of St Martin’s Walk.
The view to St Martins now Bullring has been completed. Launch Day Mardis Gras Parade
(2003)
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DEVELOPMENT & CONSTRUCTION
Externally, the slopes of St Martin’s Walk and St Martin’s Square give dramatic views of the
retail outlets and have been enhanced by terraces down either side of St Martin’s Walk,
culminating in a major viewing terrace at the end of the street overlooking St Martin’s
Church.
Bullring’s design also represents a radical departure from the enclosed, and ‘monolithic’ style
typical of shopping centre development. Its entire ethos revolves around knitting together new
building blocks so as to blend with the existing fabric, grain and scale of the city.
In terms of its physical presence, Bullring is made up of a number of individual city blocks, each
with their own proportions and styles, which emulate in scale those around them. The result has
seen the creation of a series of individual streetscapes. This approach has enabled Bullring to
connect seamlessly with the existing city centre, while creating a new forum for historic
landmarks such as St Martin’s Church, which has regained its traditional prominence through a
new piazza setting at the heart of Bullring.
Materials have been selected for their timeless properties and for their capacity to reflect an
appropriate quality to buildings of civic and cultural importance. Externally, these provide a
dignified backdrop for the historic landmark of St Martin’s Church - creating a civic setting in
the form of a grand square around it.
Spiceal Street
Spiceal Street opened on 24
th November 2011 and welcomed three new restaurants to the existing catering
mix at Bullring, Browns Bar & Brasserie, Thai restaurant Chaophraya and handmade Burger Co.
Spiceal Street Key Facts:
£7.5 million pound investment
In total 105 jobs have been created by the Spiceal Street development
Construction workers began work during March, taking 8 months to complete
Total development space of 20,000sq ft
In total 13 offers were received by restaurant operators for the 3 restaurant units
As part of the development Nando’s and Pizza Hut have extended their units by 54% and 20%
respectively
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DEVELOPMENT & CONSTRUCTION
One of the more dramatic features of Bullring’s design is its spectacular 7,000 m2 ‘Skyplane’
roof. This virtually invisible expanse of glass forms a ‘floating’ cover over Bullring’s seemingly
‘open’ malls, to give the impression of a natural extension of the city’s key shopping streets,
while linking them to the two department stores.
Whereas a traditional curved or ‘whale belly’ mall roof tends to unite facades across a mall,
Skyplane by over-sailing and visually detaching itself from them, allows opposite facades to
have different expressions and materials, again reinforcing this notion of a variety of different
city blocks below.
The street feel is further enhanced through the use of external materials within Bullring’s
interior spaces. Stone, metal, brick and glass have all been used to make up the different shop
fronts and surrounds.
Another dramatic feature - which provides a major structural solution - are the two pairs of
exposed steel, bow-string trusses at Bullring’s northern perimeter. The four, 50 metre-long
trusses suspend the buildings over the Victorian railway tunnels of New Street Station, running
below Bullring. The ‘bridge’ formed by the trusses also allows the existing retail frontages to
flow into Bullring, while creating a dramatic gateway to Bullring - giving scale and presence to
the New Street/High Street junction at the base of the Rotunda.
Interior design
Based on the understanding that the image associated with brand values is of paramount
importance to selling branded lifestyle concepts, The Birmingham Alliance has taken an unusual
approach to the design of Bullring’s internal spaces. Using a number of specialist consultants,
the scheme’s interior environment, from shop fronts to washroom facilities, has taken mall
design to a new level of sensory experience. The result is more typical of an exclusive world
class hotel environment.
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DEVELOPMENT & CONSTRUCTION
Retail Fit-Out - Checkland Kindleysides
Appointed by The Birmingham Alliance in early 2002, Checkland Kindleysides, one of the UK’s
top three retail design consultancies, has been acting as design guardian for Bullring’s retail
frontages. The appointment represented a first for the consultancy in being taken on board by
a developer. Checkland Kindleysides is best known for its work on developing the global
brand positioning for high profile brands such as the Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motors’
marques and Levis.
The brief was twofold. Firstly, to work with each retailer coming into Bullring and to
encourage them to design their stores to take maximum advantage of their location, and to
construct their fit-outs to the highest possible standards of workmanship. Secondly, to co-
ordinate the individual fit-outs to ensure an integrated retail environment.
Using a specially created ‘Vision’ document to inspire and advise, and then through a series of
workshops and individual sessions, the team worked with each retailer to help extend their
brand values and maximise their store offer. Focusing on shop-fitting, signage, shop-front and
window displays, each retailer has contributed to the creation of a stimulating shopping
experience unique to Bullring.
For retailers, the experience has proved an unprecedented opportunity to increase the visibility
of their brand message. The result has seen retailers develop a new strategy, using the real
estate investment in Bullring as a three-dimensional advertisement, to create an exceptional
‘shop window’ for their business.
Signage - Pentagram
Integrating Bullring’s physical design into Birmingham’s city centre has also been applied to
its signage strategy. Carried out by multi-disciplinary design consultancy, Pentagram,
Bullring’s comprehensive branded signage package addresses ‘gateway’ identification
signage for the scheme’s entrances and external areas; way-finding and information and
directory signage at key points within the scheme; and signage for each of the scheme’s
three car parks.
The concept created by Pentagram is minimalist in its approach. There is only one style of sign in
order to promote easy recognition. The free-standing, three metre high signs are placed at points
where a decision is needed and shows retail listings in a traditional format, together with stylised
mall level plans.
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DEVELOPMENT & CONSTRUCTION
Washrooms - Amalgam
Bullring’s washroom and toilet areas represent a new departure in the design of public facilities
within a shopping centre environment. The concept design, developed by London-based creative
consultants Amalagam, who have been responsible for high profile store designs such as DAKS
in London’s Bond Street, is funky, while adding a touch of glamour with a hotel-foyer type
environment.
Designed as an extension of Bullring’s main public spaces, the four toilet facilities are easily
recognisable from their distinctive life-size entrance murals, and are split between two
distinctive colour themes - from sharp and colourful to energize and stimulate, and soft and
neutral to soothe and calm - to suit individual moods.
Bullring Toilets Upper Mall West The interiors feature translucent glass wash troughs, photography behind the urinals, a choice of
individually designed ‘private’ cubicles, mirror ball light shows over changing tables to amuse
babies, family rooms with low height urinals, toilet bowls and washbasins for independent
youngsters, and back- illuminated mirrors in grooming areas to provide a flattering ambience,
with hotel style entrances adding a sense of occasion.
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DEVELOPMENT & CONSTRUCTION
Bullring: IT innovation
Bullring’s ‘e-factor’ - its IT, network and systems- is one of the most advanced to have been
developed for a shopping centre environment to date, with all retailers linked via HP thin-client
terminals, centrally hosted and managed by Bullring IT, with key content control available
to Tenants, Retail Liaison and Marketing.
Operating from a single converged integrated technology platform, Bullring’s communication
management systems include 30 Plasma Screens [including sound enabled lift lobby
displays] by RAM Vision, Passenger lift internal displays, Path Intelligence/ FootFall
pedestrian counting, FSI Facilities Management Applications and Public Wi-Fi Services by
BSB.
Bullring’s shoppers can also experience the ‘e-factor’; 29 free-standing in-mall electronic
touchscreens, placed in various locations around the shopping centre, provide access to a
range of information including: Bullring’s shops and facilities; way finder; details about sales
promotions and job vacancies; traffic updates; and a ‘What’s On’ guide listing events at local
venues.
From the retailer point of view, the combined IT package designed for Bullring provides a single
source from which each retailer is e-enabled. From their own dedicated terminals, retailers can
communicate with Bullring’s centre management as well as with customers through the in-mall
touchscreens and Website. Retailers will also receive information on the Intranet directly from
centre management including alerts, performance statistics, maintenance, health and safety and
events.
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HISTORY Britain’s second city has a long history as a leading centre of trade and market innovation. Its
earliest transformation, in the 1200’s, from an agriculturally insignificant village into one of the
greatest industrial cities in the world, earned it a reputation as ‘The city of a thousand trades’.
Birmingham’s importance has been forged and fashioned by its own people. It is not a site of
strategic defensive importance, and has no castle, port or river. The city emerged solely as a
result of its ability to craft, manufacture and trade goods.
The site of Bullring, beneath St Martin’s Church, has always been the city’s historic market
centre, and began life in 1166 when Birmingham was awarded a royal charter giving it the right
to have its own market.
By the 1950’s the old Bull Ring site seemed to have everything, from shops like Chapmans selling birds, the Army & Navy store and the largest Woolworths of its day.
1950’s Street scene looking from the spire of St Martins Church
In the 1960’s the market site became one of the country’s most celebrated examples of
revolutionary urban planning with the dramatic development of the old Bull Ring, at the time one
of the world’s largest enclosed shopping centres outside America, and at the forefront of
shopping centre design. The three symbols of the era were the circular Rotunda building, the
swathe of ring roads encircling the old market centre site, and at its heart the Bull Ring Shopping
Centre with some 32,500 m2 of supermarkets, shops and markets which opened in May 1964.
1960’s Bullring
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HISTORY
By the 1980’s, and despite its trading history, Birmingham had little to offer in terms of the
burgeoning growth of new generation retailers and department stores. The old Bull Ring
shopping centre was tired and jaded, and the city had only one department store - a retail offer
which was not on a par with Birmingham’s growing status as a leading centre for business and
culture.
The redevelopment of the 26-acre Bullring site by The Birmingham Alliance was another
milestone in the city’s history of innovation. The 110,000 m2 scheme has been cited as the
catalyst for Birmingham’s transformation into a world class retail capital - bringing modern,
retail space into the city with department stores for Debenhams and Selfridges, a total of 160
shops, cafes and restaurants, 3,100 new car parking spaces, new open spaces, walkways and
performance areas, and iconic new architecture.
Drawing on Birmingham’s historic street patterns, Bullring is made up of a series of traditional
streets, squares and open spaces, which once again link New Street and High Street to St
Martin’s Church, the open markets, Digbeth and beyond. Bullring provides a gateway to the east
side of the city where plans are in place to regenerate the area and create a public park and
learning quarter.
As part of the Bullring development, existing landmarks such as the old Moor Street Station and
St Martin’s Church have been cleaned and restored, and long-lost historic Birmingham street
names, going back as far as the 18th century, have been reintroduced. Plans for the Rotunda
building are currently being considered.
A new 24-hour pedestrian walkway next to St Martin’s Queensway has been called ‘Swan
Passage’ after the nearby ancient route of ‘Swan Alley’, which appears on the 1731 plan of the
city. Other names to reappear include Jamaica Row and Spiceal Street which first appeared in
1795.
St Martin’s is the oldest church in Birmingham. Historians believe there has been a church on
the site since at least the 13th century. The church is now to be known as St Martin’s in the
Bullring.
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HISTORY Archaeology
Archaeological digs were carried out as part of the Bullring redevelopment, in the historic
heart of Birmingham. The digs uncovered evidence of Birmingham’s medieval origins around
2 metres below the present-day ground level and it is now known that as far back as the
1400s Birmingham was a thriving medieval market and industrial town.
Edgbaston Street is one of the oldest streets in Birmingham. In medieval times it linked the
moated manor house (now underneath the Wholesale Market) with Parsonage Moat (by
Edgbaston Street carpark) and carried traffic to and from the busy Bullring market. This street
would have been a prestigious place to live, close to the Lord of the Manor, church and market
place, with trading facilities near the busy market and access to fresh water supplies to the rear.
Amazingly, a whole cooking pot was found less than 1.5m below the surface, an oven and a
domestic kiln were also found close by.
An archaeological dig on the site of the Indoor Market has shown that livestock were watered and
rested on the land extending from Edgbaston Street to the watercourse which joined the moated
manor house with Parsonage Moat, before being sold at the market. Slaughterhouses would
have been adjacent to the market and a 13th century tannery was tucked in behind the houses
and shops that fronted this main street. So there was a ready source of materials for the
tanners, not just of hides, but also of water from the watercourse, a succession of wells and
possibly a number of natural springs at Lady Well and at the top of Digbeth High Street. The
tannery is one of a series now known to have existed in the area of the Bullring and Deritend and
it is one of the earliest tanneries in the West Midlands.
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HISTORY
Making leather is only one of the industries in the area. The digs showed that glass, metal and
pottery were also being made close by.
Archaeological digs at Moor Street, underneath Selfridges and Park Street, on the site of Moor
Street multi- storey carpark, were in part of the Lord of the Manor’s deer park. A large ditch that
was the boundary between town and deer park in the 12th century was found. By the 13th
century, the park’s use for hunting gave way to the demands for land close to the Bullring.
As a result of the success of the markets, the Lord of the Manor abandoned the deer park. The
ditch was infilled and Moor Street and Park Street were created to provide additional building
land to encourage people to live and work in the town. The ditch was filled with debris that gave
clues to the medieval activities being carried out close by. Pottery was made here, and other
industrial processes may have included metal-working, horn-working, bone-working and textile
production.
Curiously, two burials were also found in the deer park at the Park Street site. It is not known
why these people were excluded from the nearby St. Martin’s churchyard – perhaps they were
criminals!
The creation of ‘The Row’, now Upper Dean Street, a busy bus-route through the city centre,
revealed the remains of the Lord of the Manor’s moat. This large ditch had been backfilled in the
19th century to create a new market area, sealing and preserving the original medieval layers.
Medieval settlement and market trading also extended north of the Bullring, along High Street
and Dale End and up to the 13th century Priory or Hospital of St. Thomas. The Priory was
abandoned in 1549 and although nothing survives today, historic documents suggest that it had a
church, hospital, graveyard, rabbit warren, and a clerk’s house.
Archaeological excavation of St. Martin’s churchyard, now St. Martin’s Square, was carried out in
advance of landscaping around the church as part of the Bullring redevelopment. Careful
excavation and detailed analysis of the remains has allowed a fascinating insight to the pattern
of life and death of Birmingham’s population during one of the most important periods of the
city’s growth and industrialisation.
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HISTORY
The excavation recorded 857 human burials, mainly dating to the late 18th and throughout the
19th century. The intensive use of the churchyard at this time meant that some graves were
disturbed after only a few years to allow for further burials. The majority of the burials were
originally in simple wooden coffins in earth-cut graves, but very few of the coffins survived.
Thirty-five brick-lined graves and vaults were also recorded. The brick-lined graves usually
contained one or more burials and were roofed with stone slabs or brick barrel vaults. More
elaborate vaults were square or rectangular in plan and contained up to twelve burials. The
excavation also provided an opportunity to record parts of the foundations of the medieval and
Victorian church, and the churchyard walls.
All of the named remains have been reburied within St. Martin’s Churchyard, whilst the un-
named remains have been reburied at Quinton cemetery.
The archaeological digs have shown that there has been a wide range of industries located in the
Bullring area since the 13th century. Together, these digs have made the most significant
contribution to our understanding of Birmingham’s historic development since the recording of
the moated manor house during construction of the Wholesale Market in the early 1970s. The
evidence has demonstrated that Birmingham was not only founded in the 12th century but that it
rapidly expanded into a thriving trading and industrial centre. It is clear that a quote from an
article in Industrial Great Britain, dated 1891, can also apply to Birmingham people from the 13th
century onwards:
“The spirit and enterprise of the inhabitants of Birmingham are well illustrated in the
number and variety of their occupations. They do not confine themselves to one
particular branch of business, but their energies overflow into nearly every
department of industry, and each succeeding year gives birth to some new and
important undertaking.”
23
HISTORY
St Martin’s Church
Celebrating Bullring's heritage forms a key part of the arts and public spaces programme. The
Birmingham Alliance contributed £1.9 million of ‘match’ funding to secure a full internal and
external restoration of St Martin’s Church to bring the 18th century landmark back into the
heart of the city.
Long cut off from the city by ring roads and uninviting walkways, the church now takes centre
stage in St Martin's Square. Originally designed by Alfred Chatwin, who also worked on the
Houses of Parliament in London, the church’s fully restored gothic splendour is revealed by
new feature lighting. To be known as St Martin’s in The Bullring, the church provides an
historic counterpoint to its dramatic modern neighbours.
St Martins Church
The restoration of St Martin’s Church was carried out by Sapcote.
24
RETAILERS Retailers and Tenant Mix Strategy
Bullring has transformed Birmingham’s city centre retail line-up, attracting some of the
industry’s most exciting flagship retailers to the city for the first time. Some 90 retailers
launched their trading presence in Birmingham, with almost 40 taking additional stores in
Bullring whilst retaining existing units in the city. The combination is a powerful endorsement
of retailer confidence in the scheme.
The design of Bullring has been critical to securing a vibrant and exciting tenant mix. Its open
street atmosphere - featuring a variety of architectural treatments to reveal a range of different
vistas - has appealed to a number of retailers not typically associated with shopping centre
environments; Office Shoes are amongst those who have made their shopping centre debut.
A key part of the tenant mix strategy has been to create a series of mini-pitches for retailer
categories by taking advantage of the design of Bullring’s mall pattern to cluster similarly
branded concepts together at key points throughout the scheme.
Building around the two anchor department stores of Selfridges and Debenhams, Bullring’s
mall pattern has provided an opportunity to group brands in a series of prime locations
across the scheme’s three trading levels. Each has been defined by a different design
treatment to provide a distinct personality in terms of retail mix: high street fashion and
catering at lower level; young fashion and lifestyle retailing at mid-level; and aspirational
fashion on the upper level. At each level, the retail mix has been carefully designed to
complement and lead into the store offer on the corresponding level within each of the two
department stores.
Selfridges’ £40 million store is the retailer’s fourth UK department store. The iconic curved
structure of the building, with its cladding of 15,000 spun aluminium discs, brings a dramatic
fashion statement to the city, both in terms of its futuristic architectural design and in its
choice of branded designer collections.
At upper level, known as ‘Level 3 Upper’, shoppers will be drawn into the scheme via two
covered streets created as a natural extension to Birmingham’s main shopping pitches of
New Street and the High Street. The continuation of New Street into Bullring towards
Selfridges is the city’s focus for aspirational fashion retailers. Reiss, Karen Millen, All Saints,
French Connection, and COS are just some of the upmarket names within this part of
Bullring.
25
RETAILERS
Bullring three principle trading levels
The covered street continuing as an extension from the High Street towards Debenhams
provides a focus for mainstream fashion multiples such as Gap, H&M, Top Shop and River
Island. In between, St Martin’s Walk - the open air pedestrian boulevard running from
Birmingham’s landmark Rotunda building to the new public piazza of St Martin’s Square -
provides the focus for catering operators.
At mid-level, known as ‘Level 2 Middle’, the scheme provides direct access from Moor Street
Station to the east and New Street Station to the west, which are linked by a new cross mall
running the breadth of the scheme connecting Selfridges to Debenhams. Here, the tenant
mix has been geared towards younger fashion and lifestyle retailing, with retailers such as
Mango, Oasis, Wallis, Warehouse, and Dune arranged closest to Selfridges, while mainstream
lifestyle operators such as Boots and HMV, have clustered towards Debenhams.
At lower level, known as ‘Level 1 Lower’, Bullring provides the only shopping level with a direct
under-cover link between Selfridges and Debenhams, and has a key entrance onto St Martin’s
Square. The traditional high street line-up, with an offer ranging from sportswear, music,
mobile phones, footwear, greeting cards, health and beauty and fashion, provides a powerful
draw into the scheme at this level, which also leads directly into two-thirds of Bullring’s car
parking.
26
RETAILERS Selfridges
Selfridges is the ultimate place for new brands, experiences and ideas. With a stylish mix
of ingredients ranging from furniture to fashion, beauty and food, Selfridges is the definitive
shopping destination, demonstrating that shopping is about entertainment, inspiration and
fun.
Selfridges, world famous for its innovative window displays, houses over one million
products in a vibrant environment of cutting edge chic and contemporary design.
Selfridges currently has four stores in the UK, the original store in Oxford Street, London and
two stores in Manchester - in the Trafford Centre and in Exchange Square in the city centre,
with their latest offering here at Bullring.
Always pushing the boundaries of retail innovation, Selfridges works with modern designers
and architects to create exciting state-of-the-art retail spaces, to reflect the style and
ambience of its ever-changing brand portfolio. Ron Arad, Future Systems, Adjaye Associates
and Foster and Partners are some of the extraordinary designers and architects who have
added unique qualities to Selfridges.
As a retailer, Selfridges is a pioneer with an outstanding ability to tap into the zeitgeist,
introducing new concepts such as the Technology Hall - a high-tech futuristic space with the
latest and best in technology, the Health and Wellbeing Area - offering both traditional and
complementary medicine and therapies, and Inside Space art gallery – bringing the best in
contemporary art.
Nowhere is Selfridges’ intuitive and ground-breaking approach to design and retail more
evident than in the stores’ major promotions, which are pure retail theatre.
Major successes include the month-long Tokyo Life promotion in 2001 - a festival of
Japanese consumer culture, 23½ days of Bollywood in 2002 – the biggest celebration of
Bollywood film culture ever which generated over £10 million in PR coverage alone, Body
Craze – Selfridges’ month long spectacle exploring and exposing our fascination with the
human body and more recently Project Ocean- a conservation project focusing on
sustainable sourcing of fish
Selfridges has a strong association with the arts having sponsored numerous exhibitions and
established close links with distinguished galleries such as The Serpentine. It is also the first
ever store to wrap its exterior with the world’s largest photographic artwork, ‘XV Seconds’ by
acclaimed contemporary artist Sam Taylor Wood in 2000.
Selfridges’ commitment to retailing has attracted many awards including:
Drapers Record - Store of the Year Award
Glamour Magazine - Most Glamorous Department Store Award
Best Multiple Retailer (Drapers Awards 2008);
Best Retailer (Visit London People's Choice Awards 2008);
Store of the Decade (Retail Interiors Awards 2008),
Best Department Store in the World 2010.
27
RETAILERS
Debenhams
Debenhams Britain’s favourite department store, unveiled its largest ever new store at Bullrings Launch in
2003. The 19,230 m2 flagship ‘concept’ store brings Debenhams back to Birmingham after a 20
year absence and promises a ‘unique’ shopping experience, focusing on exceptional customer
service delivered with style, theatre and animation spread over four floors.
At Debenhams there’s plenty to choose from, spanning fashion, home, entertainment and a
whole range of services designed to make your shopping experience as enjoyable as possible.
As well as famous international labels and concessions, Debenhams’ unique own-brands span
women’s, men’s, childrenswear and home. Designers at Debenhams offer outstanding value
and quality, with famous names designing exclusive ranges, including J by Jasper Conran,
Butterfly by Matthew Williamson, Rocha by John Rocha, H! by Henry Holland. Core-brands
include Maine New England’s relaxed casual, sports and golfwear ranges, Red Herring’s funky,
young collections and a whole host of accessories for the whole family.
If you’re looking for stunning items for the home, then look no further. With designer names
including J Home by Jasper Conran, Rocha John Rocha, and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s
range of Kitchen Wear, you’ll be spoilt for choice. In addition there’s a whole host of
essentials for every room in the house and electrical goods from lights to DVD players and
plasma screen TV’s.
Debenhams’ extensive services include two personal shoppers - offering free expert advice with
no obligation to buy in a private consultation room, four treatment rooms, Wedding Service,
disabled facilities and spacious changing areas as well as Debenhams’ store card and Nectar,
Britain’s biggest reward-card programme. In addition, there’s Café Venue for light refreshments
and a restaurant, offering a full, tasty menu with parent friendly facilities, including free baby
food with any adult meal purchased, bottle warmers, stay warm plates, high chairs and free
baby wipes. No wonder Debenhams is officially Tommy’s, the baby charity’s, most parent
friendly department store 2003.
Debenhams have won a number of awards in recent years including:
Fabulous Magazine- Best One Stop Shop
Prima Magazine – Best Accessories
Lorraine (ITV) – Best Department Store
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CUSTOMER SERVICE A number of customer service initiatives, incorporating the latest technology, have been created
for visitors to enjoy the Bullring experience to the full. Others provide a rapid response to
support shoppers in the event of lost children and lost property.
Website
Launched in August 2003, Bullring’s consumer website: www.bullring.co.uk was designed to
provide shoppers with an interesting and varied source of information, even before they make
their journey to Bullring. Along with sections on Bullring’s history, development and facts and
figures the website provides a comprehensive store directory with the ability to search by a
particular store, product or brand. For those with limited time, the website has the ability to
plan individual shopper routes which can be printed out, so that shoppers can use their time at
Bullring most efficiently. The website also provides details on opening times, car parking, and
events plus travel information, including travel maps.
Customer Service Desk
Located on Bullring’s ‘Level 2 Middle’, the desk is manned by a dedicated team of Customer
Service Assistants to provide help on a range of services, from store location, car park help
and lost property. Also available are mall guides and details of local train, bus and coach
information and timetables.
In-mall Touchscreens
22 touchscreens located throughout Bullring allow customers to browse shops on the
interactive store directory, view event listings, keep up to date on special retailer offers and
promotions, and obtain details of public transport information, as well as the latest career
opportunities available at Bullring.
Bullring Touchscreens
29
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Plasma Screens
27 x 60 inch plasma screens situated throughout the centre provide a vibrant and
continuous display of retailer promotions, special offers and Bullring events.
Transport Information
Details of local train, bus, and coach information and timetables are available from the
Customer Service Desk, as well as via the in-mall touchscreens, and via Bullring’s consumer
website. All sources are linked up to the city’s travel information network to provide the latest
travel news, including traffic updates.
Personal Shopper Lockers
18 lockers located near to the entrance from Moor Street Station, at ‘Level 1 Lower’, are
available for shoppers to store their purchases. These can be accessed during opening
hours, and are large enough to store motorbike helmets.
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TRANSPORT
Moor Street Train Station
As part of the development of Bullring, the defunct Edwardian station of Moor Street adjacent to
the scheme has been refurbished and renovated by The Birmingham Alliance, and is to be
brought back into use as the gateway to Bullring and Birmingham from London Marylebone via
commuter towns such as Solihull, Warwick, Leamington Spa, Banbury and High Wycombe.
Architects, Simons Designs, have recaptured the flavour of Moor Street Station, in the style of the Great
Western Railway, as it would have been in its heyday in the mid 1930s..
The restored platforms of the old station were once again connected to the rail system in
2005, when Network Rail’s re-signalling programme was completed. The original ticket office
was re-opened after 16 years, and is operated by Chiltern Railways, enabling passengers to
access the station’s existing lines via the fully restored building.
Opened in 1909, Moor Street Station was built to alleviate congestion at Snow Hill, and
provided a spur terminus on the old London-Birmingham GWR route from Paddington, dealing
mainly with southbound suburban and holiday traffic. It was also the northern terminus for
North Warwickshire Line services between 1909 and 1987. The station was completed in 1910
and a goods station opened in 1914 to deal with market produce.
The original Moor Street Station was closed in 1987. The two platforms which also opened
that year have remained operational.
The Birmingham Alliance and Chiltern Railways have gone to great lengths to ensure that the
station and the various railway paraphernalia is authentic or features exact replicas of original
railway equipment, such as the water towers, water crane and entrance canopies.
Moor Street Station fully restored
31
TRANSPORT
The redevelopment of Moor Street Station has involved:
• The reinstatement of two railway tracks
• The refurbishment of the old station buildings to the original design
• The rebuilding of the original ticket office
• The reintroduction of shops
• New waiting room and rest rooms
• New taxi rank and drop-off zone
• Pedestrian crossings leading directly to Bullring
• Run-around and watering facilities for Shakespeare Express Service steam locomotives.
The former Booking Hall entrance from Snow Hill has been incorporated into the new
entrance canopy, faithfully reproduced to an original Great Western Railway design.
Chiltern Railways continue to run trains on the two existing operational tracks, while a
renovated Great Western Railway steam locomotive occupies a ‘dormant’ track as an evocative
reminder of the great days of steam travel, with a replica Great Western Railway water tank
and tower also installed. A number of Great Western Railway styled lamps have also been
reintroduced onto the station platforms.
The magnificent wrought iron gates that originally led into the booking hall concourse at
Snow Hill Station and which feature the Great Western Railway initials, have been donated by
the Birmingham Railway Museum to form the entrance way of the new taxi rank.
The construction team involved in the redevelopment of Moor Street Station included:
Sir Robert McAlpine as design and management contractors; Gardiner & Theobald as quantity
surveyors; The Waterman Partnership as civil and structural engineers; WSP as building
services engineers; Montagu Evans as planning consultants and Wragge & Co as legal
advisors.
New Street Train Station
New Street is Birmingham's busiest local and national railway station in the region. The
station is at the heart of the national network and is a key hub for Virgin trains.
New Street is conveniently situated just outside Bullring and close to other city centre attractions.
Over 140,000 passengers use New Street every day, more than double the number it was designed to cater for. Due to this Work started on the gateway project in April 2010
The Gateway project will transform Birmingham's New Street station to create a stunning 21st century transport hub for Birmingham and the West Midlands.
The project will also bring major economic benefits, helping economic growth by creating new jobs and stimulating regeneration. The project is due for completion in 2015
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TRANSPORT Birmingham International Airport - BHX
In 1984 the new passenger terminal facilities were opened at Birmingham International
Airport. Further extensions to the passenger terminal facilities followed, but in 1991 a
second passenger terminal was opened and named 'Eurohub'.
Birmingham International Airport is just minutes from Birmingham City Centre by direct train link to New Street Station and is also well served by the regional motorway network.
Communications and access
• Motorway access provided by an excellent road network linked to all major
motorways via the M6, M42 and M5
• Flight connections to major European cities from Birmingham Airport
• Direct access to two main line train stations - Birmingham New Street Station to the west and Moor
Street Station to the east - both within two minutes walking distance
• Rail links via Intercity to New Street Station
• Rail links via the Chiltern Line to Moor Street Station
• New bus and taxi link road beneath Bullring, providing cross-city transport between New Street and
Moor Street Stations
• Bus interchange at New Street Station for the 45, 45A, 47, 61, 62A and 63A bus routes into the city
• Pedestrian access, connecting Smallbrook Queensway and New Street Station with
the junction of New Street and High Street, will form part of the new 24-hour route
connecting New Street and Moor Street Stations
• Pedestrian access via St Martin’s Walk connecting New Street and High Street to St
Martin’s Square and the markets
• Dedicated city bus - Centrebus 77 - serving all the main market and shopping areas,
with stops directly outside the Indoor Market, St Martin’s Market and the open market
running every 12 minutes from 7.00 am to 7.00 pm Monday to Saturday.
• 3,100 new car parking spaces: 900 in the Indoor Market; 1,000 directly below Bullring
with access to all shopping levels; 1,200 adjacent to Bullring in a new multi-storey car
park near Moor Street Station which is connected to Selfridges via a new bridge link
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PUBLIC ART & LANDSCAPING The Birmingham Alliance has invested £2 million in a major programme of public artworks
for Bullring’s public realm. The programme, which was designed to attract the creative
talents of artists and designers from across the country to contribute to Bullring’s new
public spaces, was developed by arts consultants Free Form Arts Trust.
Under the aegis of The Birmingham Alliance, and working with Bullring’s management team
and architects, Benoy, Free Form created a programme which has brought new landmark
artworks to the city centre to enrich the key public spaces within the scheme, and give
expression to its rich cultural heritage. The results are set to position Bullring as a leading
European city destination.
Sculptural Light Wands by Peter Fink, from Art 2 Architecture
A landmark beacon visible from across the city centre, the Light Wands act as ‘three graces’ to
the Rotunda building, mediating the impact of its height. Designed to announce Bullring’s
entrance at Rotunda Square - at the junction of St Martin’s Walk, New Street, High Street and
Swan Passage - the Light Wands take the form of three coloured carbon fibre masts rising 20,
25 and 30 metres in height to resemble glowing plant like structures, with the tallest of the
three wands aligned to the spire of St Martin’s Church.
Each of the three masts is ringed with a stainless steel sheath at its base, with the masts
themselves composed of advanced carbon fibre material. With the engineering of the masts
carried out by Technica and the manufacturing by Advanced Marine Structures, the technology
provides very strong, lightweight structures and is more typically employed in high performance
yacht manufacturing.
The wands feature rotating ‘leaves’ of stainless steel which limit the degree of gyration in the
upper parts of the mast to a gentle swaying action. Internally lit in shades of orange, pink and
green, the wands echo the lighting theme used in the water sculpture in St Martin’s Square to
animate the structures at night.
Glass signature piece by Martin Donlin
This vibrant contemporary glass design marks the New Street Station entrance to Bullring.
Visitors pass under a massive 120 m2 glass mural so vivid it is visible both day and night. The
installation is the work of one of the UK’s most exciting architectural glass artists, Martin
Donlin, who won the competition to find the most inspirational design.
Donlin’s glass artwork takes the form of an abstract interpretation of Bullring itself, made up of
bold images in blues, greens, reds and yellows. Brilliant colours have been achieved by screen
printing the images onto transparent and opaque enamels, visible both inside and out. A closer
inspection reveals delicate hand painted detail. The glass manufacturing was carried out by
Space Decks.
34
PUBLIC ART & LANDSCAPING
Bronze Bull by Laurence Broderick
Sculptor Laurence Broderick's five tonnes bronze bull stands as a 2.2 metre high symbol of
Bullring's significance to Birmingham. The twice life size sculpture - which takes the form of a
massive bull turning in motion - greets visitors as they enter the main gateway to Bullring, just
off Rotunda Square.
Commissioned both to herald Birmingham's regeneration and its history, it reflects the
characteristics that are synonymous with the bull - courage, strength, trade and the market
place.
As a symbol and icon of civic pride, the bull has been adopted by the people of Birmingham as
a 21st century mascot and is one of the most photographed landmarks in the country One of
the largest bronze animal sculptures in the UK, the piece is modelled on the Hereford Bull, an
animal with strong historical associations with Birmingham.
The bronze casting of the bull was carried out by Gloucestershire-based foundry Pangolin Editions.
Admiral Nelson
A five tonnes bronze statue of Nelson, dating from 1809, has been restored after 40 years of
neglect on the outskirts of the old Bull Ring. Commissioned in memory of Nelson’s visit to
Birmingham in 1802, the statue is the earliest known public work by Sir Richard Westmacott,
one of the Victorian era's most famous sculptors, and is also the first sculpture of the admiral
created in the UK in tribute to his death after the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Reinstated to take
its historically prominent position within the Bullring site, the bronze is located on the mid-level
terrace overlooking Spiceal Street and St Martin’s Square, on a newly created Portland stone
plinth. Restoration work was carried out by Shropshire based firm Eura.
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PUBLIC ART & LANDSCAPING Swan Passage: 24-hour route railings by Anu Patel
Swan Passage reinstates an historic pedestrian walkway and provides a new 24-hour pedestrian
route connecting New Street Station to Moor Street Station. While providing an important link
across this section of the city, the walkway also presented the opportunity to create a visually
exciting experience with the creation of bespoke railings to clearly define the walkway. Designed
by talented local artist Anu Patel, the strong design and bright colours of the railings are a
response to the vibrant multicultural life of this 24-hour city. Images appearing on steel panels
at intermittent intervals along the route tell Birmingham’s ‘stories’ from rural settlements,
moving through to contemporary industries, cultural life and commerce.
Small scale community artwork project
Two text-based installations were designed by Free Form to engage Bullring visitors in a journey of discovery and to literally express young people’s part in their city’s future.
Free Form co-ordinated the creation and installation of these community-based art projects to engender a sense of ownership, involving local school groups through creativity and learning.
Managed by Birmingham artist Lenora Minto, working alongside Free Form artist Isabella Lockett, they devised a series of workshops with school children to generate images and words describing the development of Bullring. These have been made into bricks and installed as a craft trail within the fabric of the buildings.
Over 650 bricks were crafted to encompass the site, and themes depicted included: ‘Made in Birmingham’; Birmingham firsts; quotations and poems about the city, the history of the Bullring site and its heritage; and facts and figures about the site.
The works of local poets, Alison Solomon and Simon Pitt, winners of the artist and writer competition held as part of the programme, are carved in the stone pilasters along St Martin’s Walk. UB40 were approached to choose the lyrics from ‘Sing Our Own Song’ which appear adjacent to the water feature in St Martin’s Square.
Artists in residence
As a unique record, artists Faith Pearson, Lee Lapthorn, Sheilagh Jevons, Alicia Dubnycki and architect James Utting from Benoy were commissioned to record the process of Bullring’s construction. Each artist has approached the commission in a different way; from model making, fabric prints, photomontage, and paintings in watercolours and oils. Adrian Ensor has also carried out a unique photographic record of Bullring’s construction progress.
Meteorite by Cornelia Parker
On the night of 26th March 2000, international artist Cornelia Parker fired off a rocket from Birmingham’s Rotunda containing powdered meteorite that had fallen in China in 1516. Two plaques in St Martin’s Square mark the site of the rocket’s landfall.
36
PUBLIC ART & LANDSCAPING
Spiceal Street Public Art
‘Timbre’ is a 13.5m structure, which stands adjacent to the Browns Bar & Brasserie. It was
designed by Birmingham-born artist, Wolfgang Buttress and was inspired by the concept of the
sound-waves created when a tree is cut down and falls to the ground. Wolfgang created the
sculpture with a stainless steel core, which incorporates a spiral created from the copper
reclaimed from the roof of the Spiral Café which previously stood on the site.
Water Feature
Birmingham-born Simon Turner, a published page poet, and Steve Camden (aka Polarbear), a
popular spoken word performer, co-wrote a poem, which takes inspiration from the character of
the area and the city. The poetry has been engraved into the granite stone of the water feature,
which was unveiled 24th November 2011.
Green Wall
Spiceal Street’s Green Wall is situated between Browns Bar & Brasserie and Chaophraya
facing up towards St. Martin’s Walk. A total of 560 plants in 8 different varieties have been used
to create the green wall.
37
MARKETING
Catchment Area
Within the 60 minute drivetime there are 7.2 million people, 4.3 million of these are within the
45 minute drivetime. The total annual spend within our catchment area, on non-food product
categories is £7.7 billion per annum.
Marketing Overview
The role of the Marketing Team at Bullring is to establish brand positioning and to create a
brand that is well recognized and first choice for the consumer and retailer alike.
In practical terms this achieved with the use of:
• Advertising: television, outdoor media, radio
• Electronic media: website, touchscreens, plasma screen network
• PR
• On-site events
• Research
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MARKETING
Bullring undertakes a series of research initiatives throughout the year Biannual Visitor Survey This happens in January and July and involves an on-site survey of 2000 visitors. The survey covers a
number of topics that include travelling to and from Bullring; duration of shopping visit, money
spent, shops visited, eating and drinking, motivations to visiting, customer service levels and
advertising.
Catchment Survey
Again this is conducted twice a year and involves 2000 telephone interviews with households
within Bullring catchment area. This survey examines consumers attitudes towards Bullring
and the other regional shopping destinations in the Midlands area.
Focus Groups
Focus or discussion groups are vital and provide an insight into consumers thoughts about
Bullring. These can provide an extended discussion forum that truly allow members of the
group to express their opinions about Bullring and shopping in general.
The findings of these groups and other research can then be used to refine the marketing
strategy ensuring success.
Research Findings
• 70% of visitors are female
• 64% of visitors have children in their household
• 46% of visitors travel to Bullring by car
• 26% of visitors travel to Bullring by bus
• 20% of visitors travel to Bullring by train
• 31% of visitors visit at least once a month
September 2010 Bullring Visitor Survey
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DDA
The Disability Discrimination Act requires service providers to ensure that people with
disabilities have reasonable access to the services provided and that service providers
do not unreasonably discriminate against people that have a disability.
Bullring works with a number of external consultants to continually review services we
provide ensuring we are compliant to the DDA. We also work with our retailers
encouraging them to comply to these important regulations.
The act covers all elements of the business including access, policies, procedures,
training, health and safety and the website.
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
Bullring has an environmental responsibility and has recently introduced an Environmental
Management System (EMS.) This has been accreditation to the ISO 14001 standard, out
of which the EMS Working Group was created.
This group discusses topical issues, monitors Bullrings performance and implements new
processes where appropriate.
Various subject are discussed and these include
CO2 emissions
Energy consumption
Waste
Electricity
Water
Gas
Spillages
The Environmental Policy gives the overall direction to the business in terms of its
environmental agenda. This policy details 4 main objectives:
To substantially reduce of carbon footprint
To maximise the efficient of our use of natural resources
To reduce waste and increase recycling
To prevent pollution and contamination wherever possible
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USEFUL LINKS For further information about current events or vacancies at Bullring please visit the
website www.bullring.co.uk or alternatively contact our Customer Service team via email
For further information about Birmingham please use the website links below Birmingham East Side Regeneration – Digbeth
www.east-side.co.uk Birmingham Chamber of Commerce
www.bci.org.uk
Marketing Birmingham www.birmingham.org.uk
Birmingham Universities
www.bham.ac.uk www.uce.ac.uk
Birmingham Information Resources
www.birminghamuk.com Birmingham NEC Group
www.necgroup.co.uk Birmingham City Council
www.birmingham.gov.uk Centro
www.centro.org.uk Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
www.bmag.org.uk Birmingham Arts www.birminghamarts.org.uk
Birmingham Disability Resources Centre
www.disability.co.uk Mac Birmingham
www.mac-birmingham.org.uk Birmingham 101 – online magazine
www.birmingham101.com Virtual Brum
www.virtual-brum.co.uk IC Birmingham
www.icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk