Although Birmingham in England has existed as a settlement for over a thousand years, today's city is overwhelmingly a product of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, with little surviving from its early history. As it has expanded, it has acquired a variety of architectural styles. Buildings of most modern architectural styles in the United Kingdom are located in Birmingham. In recent years, Birmingham was one of the first cities to exhibit the blobitecture style with the construction of the Selfridges store at the Bullring Shopping Centre.
Birmingham is a young city, having grown rapidly as a result of the Industrial Revolution starting in the 18th century. There are very few buildings remaining in Birmingham prior to this. Further loss has been demonstrated through the effects of war and redevelopment, especially following World War II. Industrialisation and planning policies have also led to Victorian buildings being demolished but the prosperity brought with it led to some of the city's grandest buildings being constructed, although in turn many of these are being or have been demolished. Industrialisation and the growth of the city led to its boundaries expanding and the city acquired other forms of architecture. As of April 2006, there are 1,946 listed buildings in Birmingham, thirteen scheduled ancient monuments and 27 conservation areas.
Many well-known architects come from Birmingham. From the Victorian era, Yeoville Thomason, J. A. Chatwin and Martin & Chamberlain made a big impact on the city. In the early 20th century, Harry Weedon designed over 300 Odeon cinemas across the country. Hurley Robinson also designed numerous cinemas around the United Kingdom. William Alexander Harvey played a key part in the design and construction of Bournville. In the postwar period, John Madin became a prolific architect and more recently, Glenn Howells and Ken Shuttleworth have made their mark on the international stage.
Medieval architecture
Although place-name evidence indicates that Birmingham was established by the early 7th century, the exact location of the Anglo-Saxon settlement is uncertain and no known trace of it survives. The modern settlement of Birmingham was established by Peter de Birmingham in 1166 as a planned town around the triangular marketplace that would become the Bull Ring. Traces of this 12th century settlement survive in the foundations of the Birmingham Manor House, now buried under the Birmingham Wholesale Markets, and in Norman fabric from the original church of St Martin in the Bull Ring, discovered when the church was rebuilt in the 1870s.
The Birmingham Plateau during the medieval period was heavily wooded but poorly supplied with building stone, so the architecture of the early town was dominated by timber framing, with dark wooden structures in complex patterns infilled with lightly coloured plaster. As late as the 19th century guidebooks would compare Birmingham's surviving medieval streetscape with those of Shrewsbury or Chester. Distinctive local styles of wall framing emerged, including the use of close studding and decorative braces within panels in herringbone and quadrant patterns, exemplified by the early 16th century Golden Lion Inn, which survives in Cannon Hill Park.
The only complete surviving building from the medieval town of Birmingham is The Old Crown in Deritend – built in the late 15th century as the guildhall and school of the Guild of St. John, Deritend – but many more examples survive from surrounding settlements since absorbed by the city. The oldest to have been securely dated is the Lad in the Lane in Bromford, which has been shown by dendrochronology to have been built in the spring of 1400, though the architectural style of the box-framed Selly Manor and the cruck-framed Minworth Greaves suggest they may have earlier 14th century origins.
The Stone public house in Northfield and Stratford House (1601) in Sparkbrook are also other examples of such buildings. St Edburgha's Church in Yardley dates to the 13th century, and is another relic from this period., there is also St Laurence in Northfield.
Other buildings from this period include the 15th century "Saracen's Head" and "Old Grammar School" in Kings Norton, Handsworth Old Town Hall, built in 1460; an example of early cruck timber-frame construction, and Blakesley Hall in Yardley, which was built by Richard Smalbroke in 1590.