The Roundhouse, formerly Corporation Wharf, is a crescent-shaped building located in the city centre of
Birmingham, England.
Originally used as a local authority depot, stables and stores the building is now in the care of Roundhouse Birmingham, an independent charity created by the
National Trust and
Canal and River Trust. Roundhouse Birmingham delivers a year-round programme of walks and tours that launched in 2021. Tours include kayaking, cycling, walking and stand up paddleboarding.
The Roundhouse is a rare survival of a relatively unaltered 19th century complex of functionally related buildings dating from Birmingham's industrial and civic heyday.
The building is
Grade II* listed
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 Irel ...
.
History
A design competition was held by the
Corporation of Birmingham in the early 1870s for a depot to be located between the
Birmingham Canal and Sheepcote Street. The winning design was from Birmingham architect,
William Henry Ward William Henry Ward on 30 April 1872 was granted a USA patent for "Improvement for collecting electricity for telegraphing" (). He theorized that an "electrical layer in the atmosphere" could carry signals like a telegraph wire, and thus is sometimes ...
who was also responsible for designing many building in the city, amongst them
Great Western Arcade in 1876. The crescent-shaped building was constructed in 1873–1874 with the two gatehouse buildings fronting Sheepcote Street constructed in 1885.
Originally named Corporation Wharf the building was built as a local authority depot which took advantage of its strategic location adjacent to the
Birmingham Canal and the large railway goods depot for the
London and North Western Railway
The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom.
In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...
on the
Stour Valley Line.
The site was arranged to create a highly secure internal storage environment and an external working environment for open air storage, horses and maintenance. The design allowed horse-drawn carts to pass from the lower level outer yard through the enclosed core, via a tunnel and ramp, for the purposes of loading and stock control.
The building was in use by the City of Birmingham Engineers Department until the 1980s when it became redundant and the site was subdivided and sold. The site was acquired by
British Waterways (now
Canal and River Trust) in 2001.
In 2017, the Canal and River Trust and
National Trust secured enterprise funding from the
National Lottery Heritage Fund to conserve and repurpose the building. The new look Roundhouse housed was an enterprise hub containing a range of lettable spaces aimed at start-ups, cultural organisations and small businesses. Roundhouse Birmingham, a new enterprise and independent charity, acts as both custodians of the building, and operate a range of city tours and experiences from the site - kayaking, cycling, walking and stand up paddleboard tours are all available.
In 2022, a restaurant, Jonathans in the Roundhouse, opened on the refurbished site. However this then closed in 2023.
See also
*
Architecture of Birmingham
Although Birmingham in England has existed as a settlement for over a thousand years, today's city is overwhelmingly a product of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, with little surviving from its early history. As it has expanded, it has acqui ...
References
External links
National Trust - Roundhouse
{{Birmingham buildings
Buildings and structures in Birmingham, West Midlands
National Trust properties in the West Midlands (county)