Whilst on a weekend away with the wife I spotted what I recognised as FiveWays tower from our hotel window only a few hundred meters away.
Having had the "you'd better not be planning on going exploring chat" I decided to head out at first light the next morning to get some "external" photos, or at least that's what I told th'handbrake.
The history
Five Ways Tower is a 23-storey commercial building, completed in 1979, on a 2.1-acre (8,500 m2) prime site located in the Birmingham City Centre by the corner of Frederick Road and Islington Road, near to the Five Ways roundabout and close to Five Ways Station, at the gateway to the Edgbaston area of Birmingham.
Completed 1979
Abandoned 2005
Height 76 metres (249 ft)
Floor count 23
Several hotels expressed interest in acquiring the building from its owners, since its solid concrete design could be converted into a business class hotel.
The building is vacant due to the last tenants evacuating the building in 2005 due to ill health amongst the workforce. It was discovered that the building suffers from sick building syndrome, and being too expensive to refurbish to modern standards a likely option is demolition in line with the regeneration of the surrounding area.
The building has in excess of 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m2) of existing net office space, six lifts, basement storage, and a double height floor at the top. The building has a carpark for approximately 200 cars allocated to the Tower.
The building's architect was Philip Bright of the Property Services Agency. Andy Foster described it as being similar to the work of James Stirling.
The explore
I'll prepared but up early I headed out into Birmingham, a strange place at 5am. Rubbish, glass, takeaways and vomit littered the streets. The last few piss heads were making their way home as the street cleaners were setting up to make the place look half decent again and to be fair they did a grand job.
The place looks to have been re secured (in a piss poor fashion) recently but it was still pretty much a walk in.
Armed only with my phone and it's light a headed in for the only bits I was interested in. These being the lift motor rooms, window cleaning machine that resembles a roller coaster and the roof tops.
Pictures, hope you enjoy
There she is in the distance..
More to come..
Having had the "you'd better not be planning on going exploring chat" I decided to head out at first light the next morning to get some "external" photos, or at least that's what I told th'handbrake.
The history
Five Ways Tower is a 23-storey commercial building, completed in 1979, on a 2.1-acre (8,500 m2) prime site located in the Birmingham City Centre by the corner of Frederick Road and Islington Road, near to the Five Ways roundabout and close to Five Ways Station, at the gateway to the Edgbaston area of Birmingham.
Completed 1979
Abandoned 2005
Height 76 metres (249 ft)
Floor count 23
Several hotels expressed interest in acquiring the building from its owners, since its solid concrete design could be converted into a business class hotel.
The building is vacant due to the last tenants evacuating the building in 2005 due to ill health amongst the workforce. It was discovered that the building suffers from sick building syndrome, and being too expensive to refurbish to modern standards a likely option is demolition in line with the regeneration of the surrounding area.
The building has in excess of 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m2) of existing net office space, six lifts, basement storage, and a double height floor at the top. The building has a carpark for approximately 200 cars allocated to the Tower.
The building's architect was Philip Bright of the Property Services Agency. Andy Foster described it as being similar to the work of James Stirling.
The explore
I'll prepared but up early I headed out into Birmingham, a strange place at 5am. Rubbish, glass, takeaways and vomit littered the streets. The last few piss heads were making their way home as the street cleaners were setting up to make the place look half decent again and to be fair they did a grand job.
The place looks to have been re secured (in a piss poor fashion) recently but it was still pretty much a walk in.
Armed only with my phone and it's light a headed in for the only bits I was interested in. These being the lift motor rooms, window cleaning machine that resembles a roller coaster and the roof tops.
Pictures, hope you enjoy
There she is in the distance..
More to come..
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