Bullring Shopping Centre, Birmingham

The Project

The Bull Ring has been at the commercial heart of Birmingham since the Middle Ages, when a market was first held on the site. The first Bull Ring Shopping Centre was constructed in the early 1960s, comprising a mixture of open-air market stalls and a new indoor shopping centre – the first development of its kind in the UK – which at the time was considered the height of modernity.

The redeveloped and renamed Bullring opened in 2003 to critical and public acclaim, including the iconic Selfridges store, which won a RIBA Award for Architecture. A new exterior public realm was built around the original parish church of Birmingham, the Church of St Martin in the Bull Ring. To create a welcoming space and provide a place for visitors to relax and socialise, seating was required onto the stepped area.