Birmingham Central Library demolition set to begin in January
Demolition of the former Central Library in Birmingham is set to start in January, the city council has said.
The building, which opened in 1974, was described by Prince Charles as looking like "a place where books are incinerated, not kept". A council spokesman said "stripping out" the interior is scheduled to begin in January, and demolition of the exterior will start in February. An £189m library opened in the city's Centenary Square in September 2013. The old library, in Chamberlain Square, was designed by Birmingham-born architect John Madin. The Friends of the Birmingham Central Library campaigned to save it, describing the building as a "very good piece of architecture of its time". "It's an iconic building and nothing like it will be seen again, if it goes," said Alan Clawley, secretary of the organisation. "Obviously, it divided opinion but that's probably the mark of something worth having. "The demolition is not really a surprise but it is very wasteful to knock down a building that's only 40 years old." In 2009 the then culture and tourism minister, Margaret Hodge, turned down a bid to have the building listed because she was not satisfied it was "really of sufficient architectural or historic interest". Birmingham's libraries