Bull Ring, Birmingham
The Bull Ring is a major shopping area in central Birmingham, England, consisting of open-air and indoor market stalls as well as a large indoor shopping centre.
The Bull Ring has been an important feature of Birmingham since the Middle Ages, when its market was first held, developing into its main market when the town grew into an industrial city. The current shopping centre complex, styled as "Bullring", forms the United Kingdom's largest city centre based shopping centre when coupled with Grand Central, to which it is connected via a pedestrian overpass, collectively branded as Bullring & Grand Central. The current Bullring opened in 2003, replacing a previous 1960s complex, and houses one of only four Selfridges department stores in the country.
The site is located on the edge of the sandstone city ridge which results in the steep gradient towards Digbeth. The slope drops approximately from New Street to St Martin's Church and is visible near the church.
Toponym
The area was first known as Corn Cheaping, a reference to the corn market on the site. The name Bull Ring referred to the green within Corn Cheaping that was used for bull-baiting. The 'ring' was a hoop of iron in Corn Cheaping to which bulls were tied for baiting before slaughter. The joining of the two words in the 21st-century development of the area to form Bullring caused controversy amongst some residents and others who were angry at the change of what was described as a "historic spelling".History of the markets
The market legally began in 1154 when Peter de Bermingham, a local landowner, obtained a Charter of Marketing Rights from King Henry II. Initially, a textile trade began developing in the area and it was first mentioned in 1232 in a document, in which one merchant is described as a business partner to William de Bermingham and being in the ownership of four weavers, a smith, a tailor and a purveyor. Seven years later, another document described another mercer in the area. Within the next ten years, the area developed into a leading market town and a major cloth trade was established.The area was first mentioned as "the Bulrynge" during a survey of the area, and the name Mercer Street is first mentioned in the Survey of Birmingham of 1553. This was a result of the prominence of the area in the cloth trade. In the 16th century and 17th century, Mercer Street rapidly developed and became cramped. In the early 18th century Mercer Street was known as Spicer Street, reflecting the growing grocery and meat trade that had begun to take over from the cloth trade. By the end of the century the street was known as Spiceal Street. Despite being overcrowded and cramped, many houses on the street had gardens as indicated by an advertisement for a residential property in 1798. Houses were constructed close to St Martin's Church, eventually encircling it. These became known as the Roundabout Houses.
On a map produced by Westley in 1731, other markets had developed nearby including food, cattle and corn markets with other markets located nearby on the High Street. This corn market was moved to the Corn Exchange on Carrs Lane in 1848. The Bull Ring developed into the main retail market area for Birmingham as the town grew into a modern industrial city.
The earliest known building for public meetings in the town with any architectural record is the High Cross, which stood within the Bull Ring. The last known construction work was in 1703; it was demolished in 1784. The cross was also known as the Old Cross, to distinguish it from the Welch Cross, and was also nicknamed the Butter Cross due to farmwives selling dairy produce beneath its arches.
A series of events in Birmingham's political history saw the area become a popular meeting place for demonstrations and speeches from leaders of working class movements during the 1830s and 1840s.
Bull Ring Riots, 1839
In 1839, the Bull Ring was the location of the Bull Ring Riots. The first riot occurred on 4 July 1839, after Mayor William Scholefield had read the Riot Act before a meeting of Chartists and then deployed 60 officers of the Metropolitan Police when they failed to disperse. There was widespread vandalism and destruction of property. The riots prompted fears amongst the town's residents at the council's inability to prevent or control the riots and led to speculation that the council was tolerant of lawlessness. Because of disorderly behaviour at fairs, in 1861 the area, along with Smithfield and Digbeth, became the only place in central Birmingham where fairs were permitted. In 1875, all fairs were banned from the town.The area around the market site developed and, by the Victorian era, a large number of shops were operating there. Immigrants set up businesses such as flower-sellers and umbrella vendors. The Lord Nelson statue became the location for preaching and political protests. Well-known preachers of the time were nicknamed Holy Joe and Jimmy Jesus.
Markets in the Bull Ring
In the late 18th century, street commissioners were authorised to buy and demolish houses in the town centre, including houses surrounding the Bull Ring, and to centre all market activity in the area. This was a result of new markets being established across the city in scattered locations creating severe congestion. Demolition of these properties began slowly; however, after the Birmingham Improvement Act 1801, the speed of demolition increased and by 1810 all properties in the area had been cleared as according to the 1810 Map of Birmingham by Kempson. During the clearance, small streets such as The Shambles, Cock Street and Corn Cheaping, which had existed before the Bull Ring, were removed. The Shambles was originally a row of butchers' stores, situated close to the road leading from the location where bulls were slaughtered.A wide area fronting St Martin's Church formed the marketplace. The Street Commissioners decided that a sheltered market hall was needed. They bought the market rights from the lord of the manor and, by 1832, all properties on site had been purchased, with exception of two, whose owners demanded a higher price. To fund the purchase of these properties, two buildings were constructed either side of the market hall and the leases sold at auction. Construction of the Market Hall, designed by Charles Edge, began in February 1833. It was completed by Dewsbury and Walthews at a cost of £20,000 and opened on 12 February 1835 and contained 600 market stalls.
In 1869, the fish market was completed on the site of the Nelson Hotel. The Dog Inn was located at the top end of Spiceal Street and the land above was owned by the Cowper family. The fish market was built upon Cowper Street, named after the family, on Summer Lane. In 1884, a sheltered vegetable market in Jamaica Row was also completed.
The trade of horses prospered in the area with over 3,000 horses for sale at its peak during the 1880s. However this fell into rapid decline; the last horse trading fair took place in 1911 with only eleven horses and one donkey in attendance.
A large amount of the area survived World War II; however, nearby New Street was heavily bombed. Shops sold tax-free products to encourage shoppers to buy them as it was difficult for the public to buy goods even a decade after the end of the war. Woolworths set up on Spiceal Street in the Bull Ring and became a popular shop, becoming the largest store on the street. The old Market Hall was gutted on 25 August 1940 by an incendiary attack, and remained as an empty shell, used for small exhibitions and open markets. No repair work was conducted on the building and the arches that housed the windows were bricked up.
Archaeology on the site
As the redevelopment of 2000 began, archaeological excavations were conducted on the site. Finds dated back to the 12th century; a ditch was discovered where the Selfridges store and Park Street car park are now situated. Archaeologists discovered that this was a boundary separating houses from a deer park in an area now occupied by Moor Street station. Rubbish discovered in the ditch was found to include fragments of misfired pottery with criss-cross patterns, indicating that pottery kilns had been located there in the 13th century. Many leather tanning pits dating to the 17th and 18th centuries were found on the Park Street car park site. These contained fragments of crucibles, pottery vessels in which metal was melted. The residues in these were alloys of copper with zinc, lead and tin. On the site where the Indoor Markets are now located, archaeologists discovered further leather tanning pits, these dating from the 13th century.Burials had also been discovered in the churchyard of St Martin's dating to the 18th and 19th century. Records of families were used to identify the bodies.
Four information panels providing information on the discoveries and history of the site are in the Bull Ring at St Martin's Square, Edgbaston Street, Park Street and High Street.
The first Bull Ring Centre
In 1955, shops began to close down as the redevelopment of the area was proposed. Plans drawn up showed the creation of new roads and the demolition of old ones and all the buildings on the proposed site. Eleven companies submitted plans for the new Bull Ring however, Birmingham City Council elected to go for the proposals submitted by John Laing & Sons which used substantial material from designs by James A. Roberts. Demolition began in the late-1950s beginning with the old fish market. Construction commenced in the summer of 1961.The outdoor market area was opened in June 1962 with 150 stalls within the new Bull Ring, which was still under construction.
Adjoining the lower level of the shopping centre was the Bull Ring Bus Station, which opened in 1963 and was used mostly by Midland Red and its successors.
In 1964, construction of the Birmingham Bull Ring Centre neared completion. It was a mixture of traditional open-air market stalls and a new indoor shopping centre, the first indoor city-centre shopping centre in the UK. It was opened by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh alongside Alderman Frank Price and Sir Herbert Manzoni on 29 May 1964 and had cost an estimated £8 million. The shopping centre covered and of the of retail space, Woolworths took 27 per cent. Shortly after opening, the complex was visited by Queen Elizabeth II.
The market area was submerged and had approximately 150 stalls with the majority selling food. It was split by a large road which connected to the inner ring road which was built from 1967 till 1971. There was direct access to New Street station and the market area could be easily accessed from Moor Street station. A multi-storey car park was also located within the complex with 500 spaces for cars. Access to roads by foot could be achieved through a network of subways. As part of the development, a nine-storey office block designed by James A. Roberts was built. This was attached to the multi-storey car park. The floors were of reinforced concrete, 12 inches in thickness. A bold illuminated sign by D.R.U. was located on the end wall, facing the city centre.
Jamaica Row and Spiceal Street had been demolished and removed during the development, being replaced by a submerged market area.
There were 140 shop units located on of room on a site. There were also 19 escalators, 40 lifts, 96 public doors, six miles of air ducting and of pipe work. The shopping centre was air conditioned and had music played to create an intimate atmosphere within the building.
The remains of old Market Hall were demolished in 1963 and replaced by Manzoni Gardens; an open space designed for shoppers to relax. In 1972, a statue of King Kong stood in the gardens for six months.
A mural of a bull was located on the side of the building as visitors entered via the road splitting the market area.
The 1960s' Bull Ring Centre had problems from the beginning and was very much a product of its era. At the time of its opening it was considered the height of modernity, but higher rentals within the shopping centre meant that traders turned away from it. The public were also less inclined to use the subways and escalators, which stopped working regularly. Also, it did not age well and soon became generally regarded as an unfortunate example of 1960s Brutalist architecture, with its boxy grey concrete design and its isolation within ringroads connected only by pedestrian subways. It was, by the 1980s, much disliked by the public and contributed to the popular conception that Birmingham was a concrete jungle of shopping centres and motorways.
In 2015, Historic England included the four bull ring murals, designed by Trewin Copplestone, which decorated the outside walls of the shopping centre, in a list of public works that have been lost, sold, stolen or destroyed.