Snowhill
Snowhill is a mixed-use development in the Colmore business district, known historically as Snow Hill, in Central Birmingham, England. The area, between Snow Hill Queensway and Birmingham Snow Hill station, is being redeveloped by the Ballymore Group. The £500 million phased scheme has been partly completed on the site of a former surface car park adjacent to the railway station and West Midlands Metro terminus.
As part of the project, St Chad's Circus on the Inner Ring Road was levelled and reconfigured to create a new square adjacent to St Chad's Cathedral and a viaduct was constructed alongside the station for the extension of the West Midlands Metro into the city centre.
A 13-storey office building called One Snowhill was completed in 2009. Tenants are KPMG, Barclays and DWF. The 14-storey Two Snowhill was completed with ground floor retail space in May 2013. The 17-storey Three Snowhill was completed in 2020.
Site and setting
History
Campaigner for freedom of religious worship and author of The Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan died at the house of John Strudwick in Snow Hill on 31 August 1688.Located near to Colmore Row, the site was once owned by the Patton family who owned large areas of land to the north of the present city centre. The family began to establish road layouts and sell plots of land to builders in the 18th century. The site was one of these plots and it became the location of Oppenheim's Glassworks. This is the earliest documented glassworks in Birmingham. The glassworks were built in 1757 by Mayer Oppenheim, a London merchant who moved to Birmingham in the same year and who patented red glass in 1755. The building ceased to be used as a glasshouse after 1780/81. The site was later cleared to make way for the new Birmingham Snow Hill station. In 1970, Snow Hill station was redeveloped and the site became a surface car park and remained as such until construction work commenced.
Site
The four-acre site runs along the eastern edge of Birmingham Snow Hill station, which marks the western boundary of the site. To the north, the site is bounded by Great Charles Street Queensway and St Chad's Circus on the Inner Ring Road, and to the east the site is bounded by Snow Hill Queensway. To the south the site is bounded by Colmore Circus. It is located between the City Core and the Gun and Jewellery Quarters. The level of the site drops significantly from Colmore Circus to St Chad's Circus and also drops from Snow Hill Queensway to the railway station.Surroundings
There are a number of highrise buildings in the immediate vicinity including 1 Snow Hill Plaza, which is directly opposite the site. Other nearby highrise buildings include Colmore Plaza, on the site of the former Birmingham Post and Mail Building, and Colmore Gate. Shorter buildings include the three office blocks at the entrance to Snow Hill station, Lloyd House – the West Midlands Police headquarters, The Wesleyan building and 1 Colmore Square. Nearby are the Colmore Row and Environs Conservation Area and the Steelhouse conservation area. St Chad's Cathedral is a Grade II* listed building designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin.The area has close transport links. Snow Hill station is one of the three major railway stations in the city centre and provides through rail services to London Marylebone while the Jewellery Line provides services from Worcester Shrub Hill/Stourbridge Junction to Leamington Spa/Stratford-upon-Avon via Birmingham Moor Street. St Chads tram stop of the West Midlands Metro connects to Wolverhampton. The planned extensions of this line will take the West Midlands Metro on through the city centre to Five Ways and on to Dudley. National Express West Midlands bus services operate along Snow Hill Queensway and Colmore Circus. A coach station was planned for an undeveloped site opposite the rear of Snow Hill station, however, the plans were shelved and the existing Birmingham coach station was redeveloped instead.
Planning history
Development brief
On 13 May 2002, Birmingham City Council adopted the Snow Hill Development Brief for proposals on the site as Supplementary Planning Guidance to the Birmingham Unitary Development Plan. The brief set out planning and urban design guidance for developers interested in developing the site. It also provided a framework for the future development of the wider area around St Chad's Circus. In May 2002, the brief was adopted as Supplementary Planning Guidance to the Birmingham Plan for use in determining planning applications for the site. The development brief outlined a strategy which incorporated the extension of the West Midlands Metro light rail line and the conversion of Snow Hill Queensway to an 'urban boulevard'. In converting Snow Hill Queensway into an urban boulevard, St Chad's Circus would be levelled to enhance the surroundings of St Chad's Cathedral. The development brief also stated that the development must consist of a series of buildings as opposed to one monolithic building. The tallest of these buildings should be 12 storeys and step down, avoiding the use of false ground levels. An artist's impression of a potential design was produced for the development brief.Ownership
At the time of the production of the Snow Hill Development Brief, the site was owned freehold by Birmingham City Council and Railtrack. The brief proposed that the successful developer will be offered a long leasehold interest encompassing both freehold interests with vacant possession on completion. Ballymore and Hammerson purchased the site for £63 million in 2002. Anglo Irish Bank loaned approximately £220 million for the development.Planning applications
The first of the planning applications was submitted by agents Drivers Jonas on behalf of Railtrack. The outline planning application was submitted on 21 December 2001, although it was not registered by the Planning Department at Birmingham City Council until 30 January 2002. The planning application brief on the Birmingham City Council website said:Office and residential development, ancillary A1, A3, A4, A5 and D2 uses, car parking & associated highway improvements
The planning committee resolved to grant planning permission, subject to Section 106 and Section 278 agreements, in April 2005. Section 106 agreements were signed on 15 December 2007 between Birmingham City Council, RT Group and Anglo Irish Bank. The planning application was approved on 19 December 2005, nearly four years after it was submitted. Along with approval, Railtrack were given 47 planning conditions.
The applicant then made it clear that they intended to submit reserved matters planning applications for the four individual phases for the development. The first of these reserved matters planning applications was for the construction of an internal service road, covered car park, piazza deck and a tram viaduct. The planning application was submitted by GVA Grimley on behalf of RT Group Developments, a wholly owned subsidiary of Domaine Developments Limited, which is in turn a wholly owned subsidiary of Ballymore. It was submitted on 25 January 2006 and registered on the same day. The Birmingham City Council summarised the planning application as:
Reserved matters application for siting, design and external appearance, regarding provision of internal service road, covered car park, piazza deck & erection of tram viaduct
The planning application was approved on 9 March 2006.
The second reserved matters planning application was submitted by GVA Grimley on behalf of RT Group Developments. It was submitted on 9 May 2006 and registered by the Planning Department at Birmingham City Council on 27 June 2006. The planning application brief on the local authority's website said:
Reserved matters application for siting, design, external appearance and landscaping, in connection with the erection of a 12 storey office building with B1 A1/A3/A4 uses at ground floor together with associated landscaping
The planning application was approved by the planning department on 29 June 2006. The developers then sought to revise the masterplan to the site following property market changes, planning policy changes and changes in thoughts over the design of the scheme. The revised masterplan was approved by the council in July 2006.
The third planning application to be submitted was a detailed planning application indicating that the details of the proposal were different from what was approved in the outline planning application. It was submitted on 23 January 2007 by GVA Grimley on behalf of the RT Group, and was registered on the same day. The council's website summarised the planning application details as:
Detailed planning application for mixed-use development comprising 170 bedroom hotel standing 23 storeys in height and 332 residential apartments standing 43 storeys in height together with ancillary retail, leisure and conference facilities, landscaping and associated car parking
The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment were invited to comment on the towers. The planning application was deferred by the planning department on 24 July 2007 over Section 106 issues, which had been identified by planning officers prior to the agreement. These issues were later resolved and the planning application was approved.
Submitted on the same day as the third planning application, the third reserved matters planning application was submitted for an office building on Phase 4. The council's website summarised the planning application as:
Reserved matters application for siting, design, external appearance and landscaping for second office building, car parking and associated landscaping, pursuant to outline planning permission C/00393/07/FUL
A detailed planning application requesting permission from the council to modify condition C10 of the outline planning permission to extend the height of the office building to 15 storeys was also submitted on the same day. Both planning applications were approved on 20 August 2007.
Following this, another planning application was submitted for a glazed 'winter garden' between office buildings one and two. It was submitted on 6 November 2007 by GVA Grimley on behalf of RT Group, and was registered on the same day. The consultation process ended on 3 December 2007 and the planning application was approved on 11 December 2007.
The latest planning application to be submitted was to revise the planning application for the hotel and residential towers. The planning application sought permission for the hotel tower to be extended by in height and the footprint to be extended by to accommodate an extra 28 hotel rooms. The floor-to-ceiling heights will be reduced by. The total floorspace in the development was increased by to. The planning application was submitted on 25 February 2008 and registered on the same day. It was summarised on the council's website as:
Revisions to planning permission C/00391/07/FUL to permit a 43-storey residential tower and a 25-storey hotel tower together with ancillary retail, leisure and conferencing facilities, landscaping and associated car parking
On 10 April 2008, it was deferred for an agreement over Section 106 payments.Planning application number: C/01073/08/FUL, submitted 25 February 2008