A popular piece of architecture in Birmingham is set to be scrapped to make way for a new restaurant quarter.
The Spiral Cafe in the Bullring’s St Martin’s Square will have to be removed as part of a plan to transform the area.
A row of three restaurants will be constructed under an extended viewing platform, designed to attract more customers to the square.
The development, known as Spiceal Street, would create a hub of seven restaurants, incorporating existing chains Wagamama, Pizza Hut and Nando’s as well as the recently opened Jamie Oliver restaurant, Jamie’s Italian.
Conservationists have raised concerns about the decision to remove the Spiral Cafe, which was created by Marks Barfield Architects in 2005 to bring life to the newly created public space.
The building form is inspired by the mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci who identified natural patterns of growth found throughout the universe, from the shapes of shells and pines cones to fractal patterns within galaxies.
Coun Paula Smith (Lib Dem, Hall Green), who chairs the city’s conservation and heritage panel, said that the cafe, part architecture, part sculpture, should be relocated.
She said: “It is sad when something so unique and so different is being dismantled and destroyed. We must be able to relocate it.”
But planning officers said that the building was a special design for that location and would be difficult to re-site elsewhere.
Rather than leave it unloved and in storage they said it is likely to be scrapped, while the Bullring developers have been asked to stump up £100,000 for a new piece of public art.
Planning officer Richard Goldborn said: “The Bullring has been a success in recent years, creating jobs, bringing in a high number of people, But this area has not worked particularly well.
“This will generate new investment and new life for this part of the Bullring and I believe we got a deal with the new artwork.”
