Friday Photo: The Big Peg

Today’s Friday photo is of the Big Peg, in the Jewellery Quarter.  This eight storey flatted factory is a prominent feature of the jewellery quarter taking pride of place next to Chamberlain Clock and the recently developed Golden Square.  In the post war era, Birmingham Council were determined to demolish as much of old Brum as they could, and the Jewellery Quarter unfortunately didn’t escape the planner’s butchery.   Following on from their purchase of the freehold of the Hockley Estate in 1963, the council demolished some beautiful terraces of jeweller’s workshops and replaced them with the new flatted factory, alongside 16 additional workshops and car park. Completed by 1971, the flatted factory (then known as the Hockley centre) alongside the new workshops, were an unpopular new addition.  The council lifted rents on the new development, which made them hard to fill, indeed, many of 150 firms that were displaced didn’t rent new units and simply relocated elsewhere in the quarter. Luckily, the council must have realised this development was misguided as there was no further large scale redevelopment.