The building formed part of an initiative in the 1960s by Birmingham City Council to improve the road infrastructure in the area and to redevelop the city centre.[1] The site selected for development had previously been occupied by the "Perryian Pen Works", a business owned by Perry & Co., which ceased trading on the site in the 1960s.[2][3][4] The factory was demolished in the late 1960s and replaced, briefly, by a motor car and cycle accessory depot.[5]
The conversion of the depot into an office block, which was designed in the brutalist style, was completed in the early 1970s.[6] The design of the new building preserved the shape of the motor depot with a main frontage of 17 bays facing the Lancaster Circus roundabout, and then a long side wing of 34 bays extending along Staniforth Street.[2] The office block served as the headquarters of West Midlands County Council from its formation in April 1974 becoming known as "County Hall".[7][8][9]
Following the abolition of the county council in 1986,[10] the building was renamed 1 Lancaster Circus and occupied, as workspace, by the architecture, engineering, building, finance, environmental and consumer services departments of Birmingham City Council.[11][12] A programme of refurbishment works to convert the building to an open plan layout was undertaken by Wates Group at a cost of £23 million to plans by architects, Urban Design, and completed September 2010.[13][14] The redevelopment, which increased the capacity of the building from 800 occupants to 2,000 occupants and involved the installation of 179 chilled beams,[15] won a regional award from the British Council for Offices in 2011.[16][17]
The city council closed the building and announced the proposed redevelopment of the site in 2022.[18]
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