Curved front of the old Central Library comes down

Demolition crews have started pulling down the curved front of the old Central Library's lending library, the part of the building that faces the Town Hall. The work, which began on 28 January, follows the removal of the first concrete panels from the reference library before Christmas, and marks the beginning of the end for one of the most argued-over buildings the city has ever produced.

The library closed its doors in June 2013, when the new Library of Birmingham opened in Centenary Square. Since then the concrete building has stood empty at the heart of Paradise Circus, the site now being redeveloped by Argent.

An inverted ziggurat

The Central Library opened on 12 January 1974. It was designed by the Birmingham architect John Madin in the brutalist style, and its shape, an inverted ziggurat with each floor overhanging the one below, made it instantly recognisable. With the Rotunda and Alpha Tower, it became one of the city's best-known modernist buildings, and for a time it was the largest non-national library in Europe.

The building was really two libraries in one. The three-storey lending library, with its curved front, was designed for short, busy visits. Behind it, the eight-storey reference library was built around an open atrium, with its floors cantilevered out above a public square.

A plan never finished

Madin designed the library as the centrepiece of a much larger civic centre on the new Inner Ring Road. A school of music, a drama centre, an athletic institute, offices, shops, a pub, a car park and a bus interchange were all meant to sit alongside it, linked by high-level walkways.

Most of that was never built. Only the School of Music and a pub were completed, and the walkways were never finished. To save money, the council also chose a cheaper pre-cast concrete finish instead of the Portland stone or travertine marble cladding Madin had offered, a decision that did the building's reputation few favours.

Loved and loathed

Few buildings in Birmingham have divided opinion so sharply. Its admirers regard it as an icon of British brutalism, praising its bold geometry and monumental scale. English Heritage twice applied for it to be listed, and failed both times. The city council strongly opposed listing, and the building was given a certificate of immunity from listing.

It was also the third library to stand in this part of the city centre. The first Central Library opened in 1865 but was destroyed by fire in 1879. Its replacement, designed by John Henry Chamberlain and opened in 1882, had a tall reading room and stood until 1974, when it was demolished after Madin's library opened.

What comes next

The site is part of the Paradise redevelopment, which is transforming the 17-acre area between Chamberlain Square and Centenary Square into new offices, public squares and other buildings. Construction on the first phase began in January 2015, and the new office building One Chamberlain Square will stand partly on the old library's footprint.

For the many Brummies who studied, borrowed books or simply cut through Paradise Forum beneath the library, the sight of the machines moving in marks the passing of a familiar landmark.