Birmingham Photo Gallery - City Centre Walk
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Victoria Square and the adjacent Chamberlain Square stand right at the heart of the city centre with Town Hall and the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery fronting it. The water feature was added in 1993, with the fountain able to release 3000 gallons of water down the steps in one minute.
The Chamberlain Memorial is a Grade II-listed fountain from 1880 to celebrate Joseph Chamberlain's achievements as mayor.
The Hall of Memory was unveiled in 1925 to commemorate the victims of World War I, including 12,320 local residents. The octagonal hall with domed roof has a Classical design.
New Street Station is a redevelopment from the 2010s that costed 750 million pounds. The 24m-high atrium brings in plenty of day light, with a stainless steel facade that looks like the building is wrapped in tin foil.
The Selfridges building is part of the Bull Ring shopping mall that opened in 2003, a huge retail-led rejuvenation project costing over 1 billion pounds. The outer skin is decorated with 15,000 spun aluminium discs, reflecting the sequins on a famous Paco Rabanne dress from the 1960s. Inside is a 270,000 square foot store.
Centenary Square is a wide public space fronted by a number of major civic buildings, including the Library, designed by Dutch architectural firm Mecanoo with interconnected rotundas and outdoor observation areas.
Similar to London, Birmingham has a few elaborately-decorated retail shopping arcades. Piccadilly Arcade originally opened in 1910 as The Picture House with an auditorium that could seat 750. It would close in 1926 and transformed into a retail arcade.
The Great Western Arcade's design was inspired by the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851. It was built in the mid-1870s over the Great Western Line from London, whose tracks were covered over and the arcade built on top.
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