Tesco launches store with its own library
May 5 2008 By Bob Haywood
A TESCO store is to set to be built in an inner city area of Birmingham - with its own public library.
The supermarket giant has applied for planning permission for the new outlet on the site of the former Brookfields Shopping Precinct, in Ladywood.
The scheme - costing around £50 million - will also include eight shops and offices and six three-storey homes.
The store will have a built-in public library because the only building left standing - and still open for business -- on the cleared land is one of the city's lesser-known architectural gems.
Spring Hill Library opened in 1893 and is built of terracotta Victorian stone with a magnificent clock tower and is a Grade II listed building.
Under the Tesco proposals, yet to be approved, a glazed link will be built between the supermarket and the library, along with an external lift to form a dramatic new entrance.
The alterations will allow shoppers to pop in to loan a book without even leaving the supermarket.
The imaginative idea has been developed because demolishing or moving one of the few remaining terracotta Victorian buildings in the city is simply out of the question.
Because of its highly-protected planning status, the Tesco scheme will be very closely scrutinized by city planners.
Birmingham city centre was once awash with magnificent terracotta Victorian stone buildings, of which the Victoria Law Courts in Corporation Street is perhaps the most impressive survivor.
The Tesco proposals at Spring Hill also include car parking, landscaping, highway works and 'redevelopment of Birmingham Central Baptist Church to provide reconfigured and extended accommodation'.
Last night, a Tesco spokesman said public consultations about the Spring Hill plan will be a priority.
A city council spokeswoman said the planning application had only just been received and it was too early to say if the development is likely to be approved.
bob_haywood@mrn.co.uk
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Ham-let - William Shakespeare Chocolat - Joanne Harris Grapes Of Wrath - John Steinbeck Tea For Two - Cathy Maxwell Whisky Galore - Compton MacKenzie Great Eggs-pectations - Charles Dickens Fried Green Tomatoes (at the Whistlestop Café ) - Fannie Flagg Cider With Rosie - Laurie Lee Of Rice And Men - John Steinbeck Peyton Plaice - Grace Matalious
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