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Ellis Street, BIRMINGHAM, B1 1HL

A fairly desperate concrete car park just outside the inner ring road.

The Sentinels are Cleveland Tower, to the left, and Clydesdale Tower, to the right. They are 32 storeys tall according to the Edinburgh University Tower Block site, which describes them as having 244 dwellings per block, and they were built by the contractor Bryant for the city council of Birmingham https://www.towerblock.eca.ed.ac.uk/development/sentinels . Cleveland Tower was completed in 1970, Clydesdale in 1971, according to Wikipedia, which describes their unusual social history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sentinels . The Sentinels were the highest housing blocks in the city until they were surpassed in 2019. Originally council flats, they are now owned by a housing association. The Sentinels are seen here from Blucher Street off Holloway Head, near the synagogue, a viewpoint which will presumably be lost once the construction in the foreground is completed.

The Holloway Head district of central Birmingham suffered heavy damage in the second world war and was redeveloped in the 1960s and 70s in an uncompromisingly modern style. This photo of the Ellis Street multistorey car park was taken from Gough Street, with Ellis Street branching off to the right. In the background can be seen the Sentinels, two 90m, 31-storey blocks of council flats designed by C Bryant & Son; Cleveland Tower was completed in 1970 and Clydesdale Tower in 1971. They have their own Wikipedia article here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sentinels , which describes their unusual history. Brutalism is defined by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) as 'a style with an emphasis on materials, textures and construction, producing highly expressive forms.' https://www.architecture.com/explore-architecture/brutalism . This style, popular with architects (though not with the general public) from the 1950s through to the 1970s, was characterised by the use of 'beton brut' (raw concrete), its surface exposed and textured with the patterns of the wooden shuttering into which the concrete was poured.

On the left is the Holloway Circus Tower or Beetham Tower, a 427-foot (130 m) tall mixed-use skyscraper, it is the second tallest structure in Birmingham. On the right are the Sentinels, two 90 metre tall residential tower blocks on Holloway Head. The two towers, called Clydesdale Tower and Cleveland Tower, are both 31 stories tall, they are the joint fifth tallest structures in Birmingham.

Two mighty thirty-two storey point blocks, Clydesdale and Cleveland Towers, built by James A. Roberts in 1968-71. Roberts was also responsible for the less dramatic car park a couple of years later. See also Image]

A disused showroom on Holloway Head, Birmingham.

Cleveland Tower, one of a pair completed in 1971/72, stands at 90 metres high. Behind it is the Beetham Tower, completed in 2005, which is over 120 metres high.

Located on the corner of Blucher Street and Upper Gough Street. This building dates from the 1950's and is used for serviced offices, of varying sizes.

"By J. Seymour Harris & Partners, 1954-55, good Festival of Britain style". It was a furniture factory, but now offers serviced offices for rent.