Birmingham New Street Signal Box

Birmingham New Street Signal Box is a railway signal box built in 1964, designed by architects Bicknell and Hamilton in collaboration with R L Moorcraft, the Regional Architect for the London Midland Region. The building features horizontal pre-cast concrete cladding units with a bold triangular profile, which are hung from a reinforced concrete frame. The boundary parapet wall along Navigation Street is made from facetted vertical pre-cast concrete units. It has continuous metal windows, and the walls on either side of the entrance doors are finished in vertical glazed tiling. The structure has a flat roof and contains staff and equipment rooms. It stands five storeys high above railway track level and four storeys above street level, with a single-storey wing at track level and various floor-to-floor heights. The signalling control room at the top level is surrounded by a projecting flat roof that has a deep down-standing fascia to provide shading for the control console. This building is unique, constructed on a challenging and congested site, and is noted for its dramatic architectural quality and strongly sculptural form.