Paradise (formerly Paradise Circus) lies in central Birmingham, between Chamberlain Square and Centenary Square - it is at the core of the city’s civic centre, and is home to the Town Hall, Central Library, and is next to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, along with other important city buildings.

Why was regeneration needed?

Paradise Circus Queensway was built in the late 1960s–70s as part of Birmingham’s Inner Ring Road - it was built within a roundabout, and dominated by elevated roads with the Queensway Tunnel underneath. The whole area was overtaken by brutalist architecture built in concrete, and made central Birmingham an unattractive space - rather than the vision of paradise that the named suggests.

At the centre was the Central Library which opened in 1974 (pictured below) and the Paradise Forum which were supposed to attract people into the city centre, however, pedestrian access was restricted with a mix of dark underpasses, footbridges and raised walkways, which made users feel unsafe.

It soon became clear that the brutalist design was an issue - the library and surrounding complex effectively split the city centre, and the unlit underpasses and ring roads attracted graffiti and rough sleeping. The environment was neglected and unwelcoming - in stark contrast to the grand historic town hall and museum and gallery buildings.

King Charles III even said about the library at the time 'it's a place where books are incinerated, not kept'.

Features of the regeneration

Planning and infrastructure

Outline planning was approved in 2013 and redevelopment began at the end of 2014, starting with re-routing roads and removing the inner-city gyratory system, including Paradise Circus Queensway. In 2015 the old Central Library was demolished in order to make way for a new library and public squares

New buildings and public spaces

The first phase of the regeneration involved building the new Central Library, two high quality office buildings called One Chamberlain Square and Two Chamberlain Square, and the fully landscaped Chamberlain Square (all pictured below). Three Chamberlain Square was then built (pictured at the foot of this page), followed by the redevelopment of Ratcliffe Square offering further space for offices, retail, leisure and public space.

The regeneration also features the Octagon, which is a 155m high 49-storey skyscraper with 364 apartments and is currently the tallest building in the city and the tallest octagonal residential skyscraper in the world.

Governance and finance

The whole project was delivered by Paradise Circus Limited Partnership, a public-private joint venture between Birmingham City Council and private investors, backed by Enterprise Zone status, meaning that it benefits from competitive business rates and public infrastructure funding of around £60 million. The whole regeneration cost £700 million.

Paradise today

Today this area bears no resemblance to its grim concrete past and is a vibrant public space - Chamberlain Square reopened in March 2021 with elegant new paving, seating, lighting, and direct pedestrian links to Centenary Square.

One of the stand-out buildings is the Central Library (also known as the Library of Birmingham - pictured below) - it is one of the largest libraries in the UK in terms of collection, with over 800,000 books and the biggest library in Europe in terms of physical size at nearly 21,000 sq m over 10 floors. It attracts around 2 million visitors each year, making it the 10th most popular UK tourist attraction.

The high-spec office space is home to major tenants such as Pricewaterhouse Cooper and Goldman Sachs, as well as upscale restaurants like Dishoom, and the rental apartments in the Octagon means that there is also increased footfall in the area day and night.

Both Chamberlain Square and Centenary Square offer retail, cafés, restaurants, hotel space, and outside space for a variety of public events.

Has regeneration been a success?

The Paradise regeneration project is widely regarded as a highly successful project - it has transformed connectivity in the area by removing the ring road, improving pedestrian links and bringing together two previously fragmented civic spaces.

It has also built lots of high-spec office space that has boosted the city economy and created thousands of jobs, and will lead to multiplier effect with further investment in the future - particularly as some of the public spaces and new buildings have won awards for their architecture.

It is also now a vibrant mixed-use area with work places, homes, hotels, retail, leisure and public spaces - a far cry from its past as a magnet for graffiti, rough sleeping and neglect.

However, some critics feel that the design of the new modern office blocks doesn't sit well with the existing architectural character, and many fans of brutalist design were not happy to see the old library destroyed and replaced by something so different.

It is also not complete yet, there are still retail and residential developments ongoing, and the whole regeneration project is not expected to be complete until 2030.