Welcome to Ladywood around Ladywood Middleway

While Ladywood includes much of the City Centre, in this post we will take a look at Ladywood around Ladywood Middleway. This is the suburban part not far from Edgbaston and Five Ways. Spring Hill Library is near the end of Ladywood Middleway, while Broadway Plaza is close to Five Ways (the former site of the Children's Hospital). 

 

The first recorded evidence about Lady Wood was back in 1565. It was named after the Lady Wood which was located between Monument Road and the Ladywood Brook. It stretched from Portland Road to Spring Hill. The wood may have been the property of a church. The wood was long gone by the mid 16th century.

The Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line

The Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line was built through Ladywood between 1769 and 1772 by the canal engineer James Brindley.

The canal was straightened by Thomas Telford in the 19th century and this led to Brindley's sections being cut off as loops. Today we have the Icknield Port Loop and the Soho Loop within Ladywood (and the Oozells Loop in the City Centre).

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The Birmingham to Wolverhampton Railway

The Birmingham to Wolverhampton Railway opened in 1852 and it passes through Ladywood. It is known as the Stour Valley Line. There used to be a station in Ladywood called Monument Lane. It opened in 1854, was renamed to Edgbaston shortly afterwards. Renamed back to Monument Lane in 1874. It was relocated in 1886 and it was closed down in 1958.

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St John's Church Ladywood

The Church of St John is located on Monument Road near Ladywood Middleway. It is a Grade II listed building. Originally built in 1854 in the Gothic style (or Decorated style) by S. S. Teulon, the Church of St John the Evangelist was built on the site of Ladywood House, on land that was leased from King Edward VI School.  The famous Birmingham architect J. A. Chatwin built additions to the church in 1881. It was also called the Anglican Church of St John and St Peter.  The building material used was coursed red sandstone with ashlar dressings. The Church of St John the Evangelist became the Church of St John and St Peter in 2000.

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Lench's Trust Almshouses

These Almshouses are on Ladywood Middleway near Five Ways. They were built in 1858 by J H Hornblower and Haylock in the Tudor style or Jacobean style. It is a Grade II listed building. It was built of red brick with stone dressings and tiled roofs. No 1 Hagley Road (Metropolitan House by John Madin) is seen behind to the left.  Broadway Plaza is to the right of this.  It was the site of the Children's Hospital until 1998).

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Below is the view from the Hagley Road of the Lansdowne House during April 2016 with developer Seven Capital. No. 1 Hagley Road was also getting refurbished at the time. You could see Lench's Trust Almshouses from Hagley Road before The Lansdowne got built.

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Ladywood Middleway view of Lench's Trust Almshouses, with The Lansdowne well under way behind. Seen during March 2018. A mixture of old and new architecture.

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Here is another view of Lench's Trust Almshouses during November 2019. 

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Spring Hill Library

Spring Hill Library is next to a large Tesco supermarket at Spring Hill on Summer Hill Road. Spring Hill Library is a Grade II* listed building built in 1893 by Martin and Chamberlain. It was built in the Gothic style with bright red bricks and terracotta dressings. 

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Welcome to Ladywood

Prominently located on Ladywood Middleway is this sculpture of Charles Blondin, a French tightrope walker.

In September 1873 he came to Birmingham, and crossed Edgbaston Reservoir on a tightrope! The statue was made in 1992 and placed on Ladywood Middleway. It was sculpted by the artist Paul Richardson in 1993.

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Broadway Plaza

The Birmingham Children's Hospital was on the Ladywood Middleway site from when it was built from 1910 to 1919, until they moved to Steelhouse Lane (the former Birmingham General Hospital) in 1998. Most of the hospital was demolished apart from the facade, and Broadway Plaza opened in 2003. It originally had a 12 screen cinema run by AMC, but Odeon took it over in 2012. It was transformed into the Odeon Luxe Cinema in 2018. There is also a bowling alley here. Originally BowlPlex, it is now the Hollywood Bowl. There is also a Travelodge hotel.

The architect of the Children's Hospital was F W Martin. At one point it was called the King Edward VII Memorial Children's Hospital. Only the facade was retained, the rest of the hospital was demolished. The facade became the entrance to the Broadway Casino, with Virgin Active to the left.

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This memorial stone was laid in April 1913 by H.R.H. The Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll.

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View below during December 2009 with Christmas stars up as Christmas decorations at Broadway Plaza.

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An early evening shot below from December 2013 with Christmas lights on the facade of the former Children's Hospital at Broadway Plaza.

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Kareo 6 Medical & Health Centre

Not much is known about this building. In the middle of the building is a Birmingham Forward coat of arms dated to 1934. Inscribed on it was Maternity & Child Welfare Centre. So that must of what it was originally built as back in the day.

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Ladywood Community Fire Station

Ladywood Fire Station is located on Icknield Port Road in Ladywood. It is not far from Monument Road. West Midlands Fire Service serves all of Ladywood plus the City Centre West from this fire station. 

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Ladywood Leisure Centre

The Ladywood Leisure Centre was opened in August 2019 on a site on Ladywood Middleway at the end of Monument Road. It replaced the old Ladywood Arts & Leisure Centre. The site was cleared by 2015 and it was built in 2019. It is similar in design to new leisure centres built in Northfield (2018) and in Stechford (2018).

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Photos taken by Elliott Brown.

Follow me on Twitter here ellrbrown.