Plans submitted for 14-storey city centre residential block

Plans to demolish a city centre building and replace it with a 14-storey residential block have been submitted to Birmingham City Council.

The current ten-storey Lionel House, on Lionel Street, would be demolished and replaced by 259 one, two and three- bedroom apartments.

Plans submitted by Bedfordshire-based Benchmark Architects, on behalf of Lionel House Developments, replace previous proposals for the site put forward in 2016 which were not favoured by the council.

Lionel House sits on the corner of the Jewellery Quarter conservation area, although, according to Benchmark Architects, does not fall into the area’s Neighbourhood Development Plan.

Benchmark’s proposals state: “The development plan calls for ‘design to be visible from a long distance to entice people into the Jewellery Quarter from the city centre’. Lionel House is set away from the Newhall Street corner but long views from Birmingham Library are possible towards Lionel Street and therefore should contribute to this agenda.”

According to the proposals, the existing Lionel House doesn’t make a “positive contribution” to the city, unlike adjacent buildings, including Telephone House, which “are of notable quality with a rich palette of materials”.

It adds: “The new proposals for Lionel House have taken influence from these buildings responding to the immediate context and proposing materials in keeping with the surrounding built form.”

Lionel House was built around 1970, and features a multi-story carpark and six floors of offices. The site was once home to the Lionel Street Iron Foundry, and is located near the BT Tower.