Alpha Tower is a

Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

listed office skyscraper in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. It was designed by the Birmingham-born architect George Marsh of Richard Seifert & Partners as the headquarters of the commercial television company ATV (Associated Television) and part of the company's production studio complex known as ''ATV Centre'', an adjacent shorter tower was planned but was never built. ATV closed in 1982, after which the building became offices.

Birmingham City Council Birmingham City Council is the local government body responsible for the governance of the City of Birmingham in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. It is the most populated local council area in the United Kingdom ...

took a large tenancy of the building until they vacated in 2010. It is the sixth tallest building in Birmingham, and became the second tallest office building in Birmingham after 103 Colmore Row was topped out in 2020

Building and architecture

It is a Grade A locally listed building. It was nominated for listed building status by the

Twentieth Century Society The Twentieth Century Society (C20) is a British charity which campaigns for the preservation of architectural heritage from 1914 onwards. The society's interests embrace buildings and artefacts that characterise 20th-century Britain. It is for ...

in 2002, although the owners applied for a

Certificate of Immunity from Listing In England a Certificate of Immunity from Listing, generally known as a Certificate of Immunity (COI), is a document which guarantees that a building will not be statutorily listed (added to the National Heritage List for England (NHLE)) or be s ...

. However,

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

added Alpha Tower to

The National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

on 31 July 2014. According to English Heritage:

Ownership

Arena Central Developments sold the building to Catalyst's European Property Fund in 2008 for £42.5 million.

left tenancy in 2010 leaving the building 77% void.

Nationwide Building Society Nationwide Building Society is a British mutual financial institution, the seventh largest cooperative financial institution and the largest building society in the world with over 16 million members. Its headquarters are in Swindon, Englan ...

put the building into receivership in 2012 and put it on the market for £10.25 million in 2013. The building was bought for £14 million in February 2014 by Anglo Scandinavian Estates Group who are set to invest £9 million in a refurbishment of the building. The tower featured in the

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million ...

film ''

Take Me High ''Take Me High'' is a 1973 British feature film, directed by David Askey, written by Christopher Penfold and starring Cliff Richard in his final film role, with Deborah Watling, Hugh Griffith, George Cole and Anthony Andrews. Set and filmed ...

'' (1973) for both exterior and interior shots.

References

External links

BirminghamUK.comSkyscrapernews.com's entry
* * Office buildings completed in 1973 Skyscrapers in Birmingham, West Midlands ITV offices, studios and buildings Grade II listed buildings in Birmingham Skyscraper office buildings in England {{UK-listed-building-stub