BCO Annual Conference Birmingham Brochure - Flipbook - Page 19
BCO ANNUAL CONFERENCE BIRMINGHAM 2024
T10
T11
STEAMHouse
Belmont Row,
Birmingham, B4 7RQ
Edgbaston Street, Birmingham, B5 5BB
City Centre Walk: Markets, Manufacturing,
& Listed Buildings
The walk will follow that march of the ‘City of a 1000 Trades’, past
the modern Selfridge’s into New Street, new in the thirteenth
century, to reach Victoria Square at the heart of the city’s civic
and municipal district. Flanked by the Town Hall, designed in the
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BCO 2024 Annual Conference BIRMINGHAM
Brought back to life in 2022 by Birmingham City University, the
reconstructed factory has been extended to house businesses and
collaborative activity with the University in STEAM subjects (Science,
Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics). The 100,000 sq.ft.,
five storey building is designed to drive business growth and overcome
commercial and societal challenges with STEAM thinking and solutions.
Delegates will find out more about this unique facility’s mix of space
including; commercial office space, production and workshop facilities,
co-working spaces and incubator facilities, as well as the community of
building occupants they support.
Outside entrance to St Martins in the Bull Ring,
Regarded as a prodigy of the Industrial Revolution, Birmingham’s
roots run deep. Starting at St Martin’s in the Bull Ring, this walk
takes in the origins of Birmingham in the midst of the ‘Dark Ages’
and its emergence into the glare of history with its beginnings
as a market town in 1166. Located on the slopes above the
floodplain of the River Rea, the town soon drew in metalworkers
making all manner of cutting tools.
Originally built in 1899 as the headquarters of the Eccles Rubber and Cycle
Company, in later years the Belmont Works factory accommodated the
production of linen clothing, bedsteads and pianos. Following substantial
fire damage in 2007, the building lay derelict in Birmingham’s Eastside area
for a number of years.
style of the temple of Jupiter Stator in Ancient Rome by Hansom,
it’s overlooked by the Venetian Palace-style Council House.
This and other listed buildings emphasise Birmingham’s late
nineteenth-century reputation as ‘the best governed city in
the world’.
Emeritus Professor Carl Chinn MBE Ph.D. is a social historian
with a national profile. He is well known locally for his humour
and infectious enthusiasm for the City and will act as guide and
raconteur to delegates interested in getting under the skin of
Birmingham as a place.