The Mailbox is an upmarket development of offices, designer shops, restaurants, bars and luxury city-centre apartments in the City Centre and on the boundary of the City Centre Core in Birmingham, West Midlands, England. It includes a mini supermarket and three art galleries: the Artlounge, Castle Galleries and the Three White Walls Gallery. It is also home to BBC Birmingham.
The Mailbox is about 300 metres (980 ft) long from front to back including The Cube. Above the front shops it has an additional 6 floors. The Birmingham and Worcester Canal passes along the back.
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Previously the location of canal wharves, the site was the location of the Royal Mail's main sorting office for Birmingham (hence its name), which was completed in 1970. It was designed by R. H. Ousman of the Ministry of Public Building and Works, who collaborated with project architect H. A. E. Giddings and with Hubbard Ford & Partners, who supplied E. Winters and R. Lee as architects. When completed, it was the largest mechanised letters and parcels sorting office in the country with a floor area of 20 acres (81,000 m2) and the largest building in Birmingham. A tunnel was constructed between the site and New Street station for letters to be delivered directly to the office. The structure housed the largest electronic sorting equipment in the West Midlands to handle the post.[1]
The main entrance was located at Blucher Street beneath a tower set between a square block for parcels on the left and a lower block for the letters sorting office on the right. The structure consisted of a steel frame on a 40-foot (12 m) square grid with lightweight pre-cast concrete floor slabs and reinforced concrete retaining walls and sub floors. The exterior was clad with cast glass troughs and exposed aggregate panels. Ventilation was provided through air-handling units which provided the building with the temperature it required. Extract fans were also placed on the roof. The exterior consisted mainly of the glass slabs and projecting air handling units with recessed windows.[1]
The Royal Mail sorting office was recognised by Chatham in 1997. Chatham had been an important figure in the regeneration of Birmingham, working with Argent to develop Brindleyplace. He found out that the sorting office was to be sold and tried to convince Argent about the potential the building offered if it were to be converted into a mixed-use building. Argent was unconvinced and so Chatham decided to establish his own development company, Birmingham Development Company, and purchased the building in 1998 for £3 million. He also paid a further £1 million for the surrounding waterfront buildings.[2] Soon after purchasing the building, he sold the air-rights to Crosby Homes, providing him with further money for redeveloping the building.[2]
The building was converted by the Birmingham Development Company to include two hotels with a total of 300 rooms, 15,850 sq. m (170,000 sg. ft.) of office space, 9,290 sq. m (100,000 sq ft.) of retail space and a similar area for restaurants and a health club.[2] Crosby Homes constructed apartments above the space. The redevelopment of the sorting office involved demolition of all but the steel sub-structure. It cost £150 million overall and opened in December 2000. Following the purchase of two retail units by Harvey Nichols, the development was valued to be in excess of £125 million.[2]
A public square the size of Chamberlain Square was created to the front of the Mailbox beneath Suffolk Street Queensway. It was paved with natural stone and as well as being a social area, it was also designed to allow the easy movement of visitors to, from and around the building. The area to the rear of the building is used frequently by the public. At the back of The Mailbox it is possible to walk over a bridge and walk along the canals near Gas Street Basin. The complex is currently erecting a new state-of-the-art mixed-use building called The Cube, designed by Birmingham born architect Ken Shuttleworth's practice MAKE Architects with Buro Happold engineers. This accompanying structure is to be the final phase in the completion of the Mailbox. The Cube will house a rooftop restaurant, boutique hotel and residential apartments.
In 2004, BBC Birmingham moved into a new complex of studios at the Mailbox that replaced the previous Pebble Mill site in Edgbaston. The general public is able to watch radio and television broadcasts being made at an all-access public foyer, as well as surf the BBC website and buy BBC merchandise. On 31 October 2005, 81 year-old actress Mary Wimbush died at The Mailbox studios shortly after a recording session for The Archers.[3] On 16 February 2008, a shooting incident took place at Cafe Lazeez at the Mailbox.[4]
Network Rail also have offices within The Mailbox, with their predecessor Railtrack being one of the earliest occupants in February 2001 after moving out of Stanier House.
In April 2011 the Mailbox was sold for £127.1 million to a joint venture between Brockton Capital and Milligan.[5]
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