Birmingham Central Library, Birmingham

£40.00

Birmingham Central Library, Birmingham

2 reviews

A Brutalist memory, finely detailed in concrete by Spaceplay.

Birmingham Central Library, Birmingham

Name: Birmingham Central Library, Birmingham
Brand: Spaceplay
SKU: MINI_003
Price: 40.00 GBP
Availability: InStock

£40.00

Solid Cast Concrete Model
Size: 3.5cm high, 8.5 cm wide, 5cm deep
Scale: 1:1000 (approx)
Weight: 100g

BUY TWO OR MORE MODELS AND GET 15% OFF

Hold onto the library you grew up with, in solid concrete. Whether you climbed its steps, studied beneath its overhangs, or defended its right to exist, honour what Birmingham lost.

Made to order and shipped within 30 days

Designed and made in my UK studio

Comes gift-boxed for the perfect concrete gift

Express processing available for UK orders

For EU orders Click Here

Shipping

All Spaceplay models are made to order and are usually made and posted within 30 days.

All orders are sent using a tracked postal service, and you’ll receive tracking details once your model has been posted.

UK orders usually arrive within 3 working days after posting. International orders usually arrive within 8 working days after posting, although customs and local postal services can sometimes cause delays.

If you need your order for a specific date, please let me know before ordering and I’ll do my best to help.

UK customers can also select Express Shipping at checkout to have their model made and posted within 8 days.

Returns

You can return unused and undamaged items within 30 days of delivery for a refund, excluding return postage costs.

If your model arrives damaged, faulty, or incorrect, please email me within 14 days of delivery with your order number and photos of the issue. I’ll arrange a free replacement to be made and posted to you.

Building Information

Location: Birmingham, UK
Architect: John Madin
Completed: 1974
Status: Demolished 2016
Brief Overview:
Birmingham Central Library was once the largest municipal library in Europe and an icon of British Brutalism. Designed as an inverted ziggurat, its bold form and concrete massing became a symbol of post-war modernity in Birmingham. Despite strong campaigns to preserve it, the library was demolished in 2016—its legacy lives on through memories, photographs, and small concrete tributes like this one.

Making my concrete model

Some buildings define a city—and a generation’s sense of place.
Birmingham Central Library did exactly that. Opened in 1974, it stood at the heart of the city for decades, a massive inverted ziggurat of concrete that sparked fierce debate and deep affection in equal measure. Designed by John Madin, it became a touchstone for Brutalist architecture in Britain—loved, loathed, and never ignored.

I knew I had to make this model while there was still time.
Before demolition began, I visited, photographed, and measured everything I could. Getting the weight and tiered form right in miniature meant working through layer after layer of prototypes. It deserved that care. It deserved to last, even in a small way.

This is what remains—concrete cast from memory, carrying a piece of Birmingham’s lost Brutalism and icon architecture into the present.

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Birmingham Central Library, Birmingham

Some buildings are remembered long after they're gone. This Birmingham Central Library miniature concrete model is for everyone who studied, worked or sheltered from the rain beneath John Madin's inverted ziggurat. When it opened in 1974 it was Europe's largest municipal library. Its top-heavy stepped form was the symbol of Birmingham Brutalism until its demolition in 2016. This concrete model of Birmingham Central Librarylets you hold that defining shape in one hand, and it suits a desk, bookshelf or studio table. It's for Madin admirers, former library users, architects and collectors of lost Brutalist architecture. It's a gift that carries memory as much as design. Each miniature concrete building is hand-poured, so its texture, weight and small air pockets are unique.