Category: News

Are you ready to put your hand up too?

Such a great afternoon and evening at Stirchley Community Market today – we gathered 75 hands which include ideas about history and heritage-related activity they would like to see at the Baths as part of a Heritage Lottery funded programme, statements of support for the funding application and some lovely memories.

A few local people below who have contributed their hands already!

Put your hands up if you support the HLF application!

This means, we now have enough hands to stretch thumb to finger around about a third of the Baths as we begin our community art challenge this Saturday. Phew!

If you are one of the lovely people we spoke to above – then thank you! If you haven’t had the chance to contribute a hand, idea, message of support – please pop along to our event at Stirchley Library on Saturday 10.30am-3pm as we try and create a community SHOW OF HANDS around Stirchley Baths – come and help us get enough hands to fill 60m of washing line!!

(I’m sure Stirchley Library staff won’t mind if you drop a hand off before the event if you can’t make it on Saturday!)

Right, best get on with some more laminating!!

Architect Mark Sloane on the plans for Stirchley Baths

Mark Sloane

Mark Sloane from Acivico drew up the plans for the community hub at Stirchley Baths following community consultation and involvement.

The plans (which were approved by Birmingham City Council’s planning committee in March) were a real challenge – how to preserve the building’s historical features while making sure the building is fit for its new purpose in the 21st century?

Mark talks about how the swimming pool – although boarded over for the main hall of the community hub – will still be a central feature, as will lots of other features. For example, the reception kiosk, where people would have paid to swim or to take a bath, will be maintained and restored.

Mark Sloane

As well as conserving the building’s heritage, Mark says the plans also incorporate elements from the original plan for the Baths that were drawn up in the 1900s. A second cupola, much taller than the one that stands at the entrance to the building, was lost at some point in the building’s history, as was a clock. Both will be recreated as part of the community hub project. And both would never have been discovered if it wasn’t for the original, century-old plans (which we hope to get on to the site for you to have a look at very soon).

You can listen to the interview

listen to ‘Architect Mark Sloane on the plans for Stirchley Baths’ on Audioboo


We talked about the new plans for the community centre while looking at hard copies, with Mark giving a guided tour of sorts of what’s planned! Here are the plans we looked at:

Stirchley Baths Site Plan
Stirchley Baths Site Plan
Stirchley Baths Ground Plan
Stirchley Baths Ground Plan

You can also download them as PDFs

Proposed Ground Floor Plan (PDF)
Proposed Site Plan (PDF)

Planning permission for Stirchley Baths project: report in the Birmingham Mail

The Birmingham Mail has reported on planning permission being granted for the Stirchley Baths community hub.

Birmingham City Council’s planning committee unanimously approved the plans on 21st March. You can read reporter Paul Suart’s article HERE.

The article mentions that the project now depends on funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Our Stage 2 bid will be submitted in June, with a decision from the HLF in September. A ‘yes’ will see building work getting under way in November, with the new community hub planned to open in November 2014.

Karen Cheney on the Stirchley Baths community hub project

Karen Cheney

Karen Cheney is the Service Integration Head for Selly Oak District, based at the district offices in Pershore Road.

Karen is heavily involved in the project to bring the building back into use as a community hub. She says it’s been a long and complicated process but that, with a successful Heritage Lottery Fund bid (we’ll get the decision in September), this exciting project will be up and running.

Karen also speaks in the interview of the importance of local people getting involved in the project – not just for the HLF bid but for the future sustainability of the community hub.

Planning permission granted for Stirchley Baths community hub

Great news today – the plans for Stirchley Baths have been approved by Birmingham City Council’s planning committee!

There’s still some way to go (a successful Heritage Lottery Fund bid) before work can start on transforming the building into a community hub, but planning permission is a huge step in the journey.

Here are the remaining key milestones in the project:

Until April 2013: development of the Stage 2 Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) bid

June 2013: Our HLF bid for £1.3 million will be submitted

September 2013: HLF decision

And if successful…

October 2013: A three-year programme of heritage and history-related activities gets under way

October/November 2013: Building work starts on site

October/November 2014: Stirchley Baths community hub opens

Now we have planning permission we really need to show the Heritage Lottery Fund that the community is behind the project.

We have a great event on Saturday 6th April where you can physically back the bid by taking part in a community art challenge at Stirchley library…

More information about that event HERE

And please get in touch to share your memories of the Baths, and if you have ideas or want to get involved in shaping the heritage and history-related activity plan, which aims to celebrate the building’s past while looking to its future.

Get in touch by emailing stirchleybaths@gmail.com or using Facebook or Twitter

Here are the plans for the community hub:

Stirchley Baths Proposed Site Plan
Stirchley Baths Proposed Ground Plan

Download PDF versions here:

Proposed Ground Floor Plan (PDF)
Proposed Site Plan (PDF) 

And you can have a look at the full planning applications on the Birmingham City Council website by clicking HERE and HERE