Jewellery Quarter
The Jewellery Quarter has strong functional links with its past, retaining specialist jewellery manufacturing and designing as well as retailing. It also has a growing entertainment, commercial and professional business sector in the part nearer to the city centre around St Paul’s Square.
It has many high quality buildings set in an uncompromisingly industrial streetscape. It is protected by a conservation area and is a potential candidate as a World Heritage Site.
The centrepiece of the historic environment in the Jewellery Quarter is St Paul's Square. The quarter is also home to Key Hill Cemetery and the Church of England Cemetery on Warstone Lane. These are the only areas of open space in the quarter.
The Big City Plan should examine how the connections between the Jewellery Quarter and the city core can be improved and whether redevelopment of major sites presents an opportunity to improve pedestrian connections. Metro Line 1 runs through the Jewellery Quarter and provides connection from Snow Hill to Wolverhampton. A railway line also runs through the quarter from Snow Hill to Stourbridge and Solihull.
The Big City Plan will need to consider the opportunities for mixed-use development within the Jewellery Quarter. The existing unitary development plan identifies opportunities for mixed use development - the urban village proposal encourages the provision of space for small businesses as well as new residential development.
