The Rotunda given Grade II listed status

The Rotunda, the cylindrical tower that has overlooked the Bull Ring since the 1960s, has been given Grade II listed building status.

The listing, in August, protects the building as the area around it prepares for the redevelopment of the Bull Ring shopping centre.

An icon that was nearly lost

The Rotunda was designed by architect James A. Roberts as part of his plans for the original Bull Ring Shopping Centre. His design originally included a 12-storey circular office block, but this was revised to 25 storeys, abandoning plans for a rooftop restaurant and a cinema.

Construction of the 81-metre building began in 1961, and it was completed in 1965 at a cost of £1 million, during the post-war rebuilding of the Bull Ring. Because it sits close to a railway tunnel, its main load rests on a twin ring of piled foundations directly beneath its circular core.

The building was unusual in the way it was built. Much of it was constructed at ground level and then jacked up one floor at a time, which meant equipment for the plant room at the top could be installed at ground level.

From "dead building" to landmark

When it opened, the Rotunda was much derided and dismissed by some as a "dead building". But when suggestions were made in the 1980s that it should be demolished as the Bull Ring was redeveloped again, they were met with equal, if not greater, hostility from people in Birmingham.

The podium originally had shops and its own work of art, "The Rotunda Relief", a circular mural by John Poole in the Lloyds banking hall.

In 1974, a pub on the ground floor and basement of the building was one of the sites of the Birmingham pub bombings.

A familiar sight

For decades the top of the Rotunda has carried advertising. In the 1960s and 1970s it displayed signs for the property company MEPC and Double Diamond beer, and in the 1980s and 1990s for Coca-Cola. It has also had a digital clock showing the time from its top floors.

What listing means

Listing recognises a building's special architectural or historic interest, and means any changes to it need listed building consent. For the Rotunda, it marks a remarkable change in fortune for a building once seen as an eyesore.

The listing comes as work gets under way on a new Bull Ring shopping centre, which will transform the area around the tower. With its listed status secured, the Rotunda will remain a fixed point on the city's skyline whatever else changes around it.