Birmingham Coach Station (formerly Digbeth Coach Station) is a major coach interchange in

Digbeth Digbeth is an area of central Birmingham, England. Following the remodelling of the Birmingham Inner Ring Road, Inner Ring Road, Digbeth is now considered a district within Birmingham City Centre. As part of the Big City Plan, Digbeth is under ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, England offering services to destinations throughout the island of Great Britain and also to

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

and

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

National Express Mobico Group, formerly National Express Group, is a British multinational public transport company with headquarters in Birmingham, England. Domestically it currently operates bus and coach services under brands including National Express. Th ...

, the largest scheduled coach service provider in Europe, has its national headquarters on the site.

History

Digbeth Coach Station -entrance -Birmingham -UK

The original interchange was built in 1929 as a bus depot by

Midland Red Midland Red was a bus company that operated in the Midlands of England from 1905 until 1981. It was one of the largest English bus companies, operating over a large area between Gloucester in the south and Derbyshire in the north, and from Nort ...

, which was later converted into Digbeth Coach Station. Successor company Midland Red West used the coach station as a base for its Birmingham and Black Country operations. The original building was dark and dingy as it was not originally intended to serve passengers as a coach interchange. Plans were initially developed for a new coach station on Great Charles Street, as Digbeth was considered by National Express to be an "undesirable" location. However, after the completion of the new

Bullring A bullring is an arena where bullfighting is performed. Bullrings are often associated with the Iberian Peninsula, but they can also be found through Iberian America and in a few Spanish and Portuguese ex-colonies in Africa. Bullrings are ...

and the planned Eastside redevelopment, it was decided to demolish the old structure and build a new coach station on the same site. Outline planning application for a design by

Make Architects Make Architects is an international architecture practice headquartered in London that also has offices in offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Founded in 2004 by former Foster + Partners architect Ken Shuttleworth. The practice has a variety of pr ...

was submitted on behalf of National Express to

Birmingham City Council Birmingham City Council is the local authority for the city of Birmingham in the West Midlands, England. Birmingham has had an elected local authority since 1838, which has been reformed several times. Since 1974 the council has been a metropo ...

in March 2006. However this option was abandoned in favour of a competing design by SBS Architects. The final

planning application Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to buil ...

for the design by SBS Architects was submitted on 29 October 2007. The old coach station closed in November 2007 for redevelopment and during reconstruction National Express used a temporary site in Oxford Street on the opposite side of Digbeth High Street, called Birmingham Central Coach Station. The refurbishment was estimated to have cost £15 million.NatEx press release 29 October 2007
/ref> It was officially reopened on 18 December 2009 by the then

England national football team The England national football team have represented England in international Association football, football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by the Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in Eng ...

manager

Fabio Capello Fabio Capello (; born 18 June 1946) is an Italian former professional association football, football manager (association football), manager and player. As a player, Capello represented SPAL, AS Roma, Roma, AC Milan and Juventus FC, Juventus. H ...

. The new station has been awarded a

BREEAM The Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), first published by the Building Research Establishment in 1990, is touted as the world's longest established method of identifying the sustainability of buildings. Ar ...

'Excellent' rating.

References

External links

October 2007 BBC news article with picturesAlbum of photographs taken in and around the old Digbeth Coach Station
{{Transport in the West Midlands Metropolitan County Buildings and structures in Birmingham, West Midlands Bus stations in the West Midlands (county) Transport in Birmingham, West Midlands Transport infrastructure completed in 1929 1929 establishments in England