The National Exhibition Centre (NEC) is an exhibition centre located in

Marston Green Marston Green is a large suburban village of around 5,000 residents in the civil parish of Bickenhill and Marston Green, in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands. It lies within the historic counties o ...

Solihull Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blyth ...

, West Midlands,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. It is near junction 6 of the

M42 motorway The M42 motorway runs north east from Bromsgrove in Worcestershire to just south west of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, passing Redditch, Solihull, the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) and Tamworth on the way, serving the east of the Bi ...

, and is adjacent to

Birmingham Airport Birmingham Airport , formerly ''Birmingham International Airport'', is an international airport located east-southeast of Birmingham city centre, west-northwest of Coventry slightly north of Bickenhill village, in the Metropolitan Borou ...

and Birmingham International railway station. It was opened by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

in 1976.

History

The NEC was originally going to be built adjacent to the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which ...

(junction 21) near

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

but it was turned down by

Leicestershire County Council Leicestershire County Council is the county council for the English non-metropolitan county of Leicestershire. It was originally formed in 1889 by the Local Government Act 1888. The county is divided into 52 electoral divisions, which return a to ...

with claims that "The big shows won't move away from London". The building was designed by Edward Mills. In November 1971, the

Secretary of State for the Environment The Secretary of State for the Environment was a UK cabinet position, responsible for the Department of the Environment (DoE). This was created by Edward Heath as a combination of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, the Ministry of T ...

granted outline planning approval for the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. On 16 February 1973, then Prime Minister

Edward Heath Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath a ...

travelled up from London to cut a white ribbon and initiate its construction. The NEC was opened by

on 2 February 1976.

Expansion of the complex

The seventh hall of the NEC complex, a multi-purpose indoor arena named the

Birmingham International Arena The Resorts World Arena is a multipurpose indoor arena located at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Solihull, England. It has a capacity of 15,685 seats. The venue was built as the seventh hall of the NEC complex. After 18 months of cons ...

(currently branded Resorts World Arena), opened in December 1980. NEC plaque 11y07

On 23 March 1989, Queen Elizabeth II opened three new halls. Four more halls were added in 1993, and another four new halls, designed by Seymour Harris and built by John Laing, were completed in January 1998. A five-year, £40 million venue improvement programme which saw improvements made to everything from the car parking to signage, seating and catering was carried out between 2006 and 2011.

Exhibitions

The NEC has 20 interconnected halls covering of floor space. Regular exhibitions in the past have included the

British International Motor Show The British International Motor Show is an annual motor show held by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders between 1903 and 2008 in England, and as The British Motor Show since 2021 by Automotion Events. Initially held in London at T ...

and the international dog show ''

Crufts Crufts is an international dog show held annually in the United Kingdom, first held in 1891. Organised and hosted by The Kennel Club, it is the largest show of its kind in the world. Crufts is centred on a championship conformation show for d ...

''. The NEC has 16,500 parking spaces spread around the site, with a shuttle bus service operating to and from the car parks. In 2020 the all-day parking fee for public exhibitions was £16.00.

NEC Group

Parent company the NEC Group also owns and operates the

Arena Birmingham Arena Birmingham (known for sponsorship reasons as Utilita Arena Birmingham, and previously as The Barclaycard Arena and originally as the National Indoor Arena) is an indoor arena and sporting venue in central Birmingham, United Kingdom. It ...

and

ICC Birmingham The International Convention Centre (ICC) is a major conference venue in Birmingham, England. The centre incorporates Symphony Hall and faces Centenary Square, with another entrance leading to the canals of Birmingham. The Westside area, which ...

, both in central Birmingham, and the Resorts World Arena, based on The NEC site.

Birmingham City Council Birmingham City Council is the local government body responsible for the governance of the City of Birmingham in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. It is the most populated local council area in the United Kingdom ...

placed the NEC Group up for sale in 2014. After short-listing three contenders to purchase the company, the sale to Lloyds Development Capital, the private equity unit of Lloyds Banking Group, was completed in January 2015 for £307 million. In October 2018, Blackstone acquired NEC Group from Lloyds Development Capital, paying around £800 million for the group.

Emergency hospital

From early April 2020 the NEC housed

NHS Nightingale Hospital Birmingham The NHS Nightingale Hospital Birmingham was the second of the temporary NHS Nightingale Hospitals set up by NHS England to help to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. It was constructed inside the National Exhibition Centre, Solihull, and ope ...

, an emergency hospital scheduled to open on 10 April, and receive its first patients on 12 April, as part of a network of

NHS Nightingale Hospitals COVID-19 hospitals in the United Kingdom are temporary hospitals set up in the United Kingdom and overseas territories as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They principally include the seven NHS England Nightingale Hospitals, ...

in response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. On 1 April 2021 the hospital was closed without ever treating a patient.

Gallery

File:NEC hall 3a 11y07.JPG, Preparations for an exhibition in Hall 3a File:NEC inside atrium 11y07.JPG, View from inside the atrium File:NEC atrium roof 10y07.JPG, Atrium roof structure File:NEC atrium gallery 11y07.JPG, The atrium showing an upper level called the ''Gallery'' File:NEC horizontal escalator 11y07.JPG, Moving walkway File:The NEC Pavilion - geograph.org.uk - 985608.jpg, NEC Pavilion (2008) File:Atrium Entrance 2, National Exhibition Centre - geograph.org.uk - 81173.jpg, NEC Atrium entrance 2 (2005) File:NEC atrium entrance3 10y07.JPG, NEC Atrium entrance 3 (2007) File:NEC shuttle bus 10y07.JPG, An NEC

Plaxton Pointer The Plaxton Pointer (originally known as the Reeve Burgess Pointer, and later as the TransBus Pointer and Alexander Dennis Pointer) was a single-decker bus body manufactured during the 1990s by Reeve Burgess, Plaxton and latterly built by Alex ...

1 bodied

Dennis Dart SLF The Dennis Dart is a rear-engined single-decker midibus chassis that was introduced by Dennis Specialist Vehicles of Guildford, England in 1989, replacing the Dennis Domino. Initially built as a high-floor design, In 1996 the low-floor second ...

shuttle bus outside atrium entrance 2

References

External links

*
The NEC Birmingham Business event calendar
{{Authority control Indoor arenas in England Exhibition and conference centres in England Buildings and structures completed in 1976 Buildings and structures in Birmingham, West Midlands Buildings and structures in Solihull Esports venues in the United Kingdom London Spitfire 2022 Commonwealth Games venues Table tennis at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Weightlifting at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Boxing at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Badminton at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Powerlifting at the 2022 Commonwealth Games