Southside
Southside takes in key sites such as New Street Station, the Arcadian Centre, the Wholesale Markets, the Rag Market, the Ice Rink, the Hippodrome, and the existing Chinese Quarter and Gay Village, with their bars, clubs and restaurants. But at present it does not have the image, quality or excitement of big city nightlife.
Southside has one of Birmingham's last surviving courtyards of back-to-back housing, now restored and run as a fascinating museum by the National Trust.
The area has some other good urban features: the Beetham Tower (the Radisson Hotel) contributes to Southside's skyline; Crosby's Southside is a recent award-winning development on Hurst Street.
With its excellent transport connections and major arrival point about to be improved, this is the area that has the greatest potential to accommodate a major expansion of central area uses outside the core. The area offers the prospect of a vibrant district where a number of land uses could successfully co-exist, such as office, retail, residential, culture, entertainment, restaurants and markets. In order to achieve this the street structure needs to be repaired to create a place that is much easier to move through.
The redevelopment of the Wholesale Markets will provide the opportunity to remove barriers to movement, create new open spaces and open up routes to the area from Park Central, Eastside, Digbeth and Highgate.
