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Wheel of Birmingham

Buildings and structures in Birmingham, West MidlandsTransportable Ferris wheelsUse British English from September 2011
Birmingham wheel UK
Birmingham wheel UK

The Wheel of Birmingham or Birmingham Wheel was a series of transportable Ferris wheel installations at Centenary Square in Birmingham, England. These have been landmarks in central Birmingham, visible from many parts of the city. The first opened on 6 November 2003, and its replacement opened on 21 October 2004, both being 60 metres (197 ft) tall. A third wheel, the Birmingham Mail Wheel, operated from 18 January 2010 until 22 February 2010, and was also 60 m tall.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Wheel of Birmingham (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Wheel of Birmingham
Centenary Square, Birmingham Ladywood

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Latitude Longitude
N 52.4789 ° E -1.909025 °
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Symphony Hall

Centenary Square
B1 2EA Birmingham, Ladywood
England, United Kingdom
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Birmingham wheel UK
Birmingham wheel UK
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Centenary Square
Centenary Square

Centenary Square is a public square on the north side of Broad Street in Birmingham, England, named in 1989 to commemorate the centenary of Birmingham achieving city status. The area was an industrial area of small workshops and canal wharves before it was purchased by the council in the 1920s for the creation of a grand civic centre scheme to include museums, council offices, cathedral and opera house. The scheme was abandoned after the arrival of World War II with only the Hall of Memory and half of the planned Baskerville House complete. After the war the scheme was revived in a simpler form however the council never managed to implement the design. In 1991 the square was redesigned to complement the new International Convention Centre with new paving, railings and lamps designed by artist Tess Jaray, a fountain and several sculptures. During the construction and opening of the Library of Birmingham on the square in 2013 several of the elements of the 1991 design were removed and a library amphitheatre was built into the square. In 2014 a design competition was held to redesign the square. Construction of the redesigned square began in 2017 and was largely complete in 2019. The square is used as a staging area for many of the city's main cultural events including the Frankfurt Christmas Market, Arts Festivals, Remembrance Day Services, New Year's Celebrations and during Christmas hosts a temporary ice rink and Ferris wheel.

A Real Birmingham Family
A Real Birmingham Family

A Real Birmingham Family is a public artwork and sculpture by Gillian Wearing, cast in bronze, and erected in Centenary Square, outside the Library of Birmingham, England, on 30 October 2014.It depicts two local sisters, each single mothers called Roma and Emma Jones, with their two children; Roma's son Kyan and Emma's son Shaye. Emma is depicted as pregnant with a second son, Isaac, who was born before the sculpture was unveiled. A small plaque laid on the ground in front of the work describes it. In a process begun in 2011, and coordinated by the city's Ikon Gallery, nominations for a "real" local family to model for the sculpture were invited. The Joneses were selected from a shortlist, by an independent panel, in August 2013.Wearing said: I really liked how Roma and Emma Jones spoke of their closeness as sisters and how they supported each other. It seemed a very strong bond, one of friendship and family, and the sculpture puts across that connectedness between them. A nuclear family is one reality but it is one of many and this work celebrates the idea that what constitutes a family should not be fixed. The £100,000 cost of the work was covered by a combination of public money and private donations. The casting was carried out in China. The project follows Wearing's 2008 work, A Typical Trentino Family.In November 2014 shortly after being unveiled, New Fathers 4 Justice activist Bobby Smith covered the statue with a white sheet and pictures of his two daughters. Smith commented, "They’ve depicted the normal family with no fathers... I believe kids are always better off with both parents in their lives."The statue went into storage in May 2017, to allow work for the redevelopment of Centenary Square to begin.

Hyatt Regency Birmingham
Hyatt Regency Birmingham

The Hyatt Regency Birmingham is a hotel on Broad Street in the city centre of Birmingham, England. Hyatt Regency Birmingham stands at a height of 75 metres (246 feet) 24 floors and has 319 guest rooms. The hotel has a blue glass exterior facade, and stands across the road from the International Convention Centre.The hotel was built, and is run by, Hyatt Regency Birmingham Ltd. This company is a public-sector/private-sector partnership between the Hyatt Corporation, Trafalgar House, and Birmingham City Council. The hotel cost £37 million to build, with £1.5 million of that being provided by the city, which also donated the building site, which was, according to estimates, worth £615,000 in 1987. In April 2002, the company (with the NEC Group as the third majority shareholder, after the demise of Trafalgar House) put the hotel building up for sale. In November 2002, the hotel was sold to London Plaza Hotels for £27.5 million, with Hyatt Regency Birmingham Ltd continuing to operate it. Birmingham City Council made a £5 million profit on the sale, from its 17.5% stake in the hotel, which it used to pay off debt. The hotel was specifically constructed to have close ties to the International Convention Centre, including a private-access bridge that joins the two. This easy to secure link was one factor in attracting the 24th G8 summit to the city, as well as the 2000 NATO Meeting of Defence Ministers.The Hyatt Hotels Corporation bought the hotel out of administration in 2012 for £27 million. In 2014, they made a £6 million investment into the hotel which included a new pub with a heated terrace which opens onto Broad Street - The Gentleman & Scholar Pub and Terrace. In 2016, the hotel was bought by a Middle East investment group (an affiliate of Sharjah-based Bin Otaiba) for £38.6 million. The hotel will keep its Hyatt Regency branding. The purchaser plans to spend approximately £2.7 million over the next three years on improving the venue. As a result of its links with the conference centre, the Hyatt is the base for the Prime Minister when the Conservative Party conference is hosted in Birmingham.