On This Day
On This Day, 11 June 1918
On 11, Jun 2018 | In On This Day | By Nicola Gauld
Birmingham Daily Gazette
Tuesday 11 June 1918
THE PASSER-BY
The formation of a Civic League for Birmingham, with official municipal encouragement, represents one of the best and most encouraging impulses of the Reconstruction spirit.
It may be a far cry to the City Beautiful, but it will be a great gain to get an expert body of artists and architects pooling ideas and acting as a centre of intelligence for the harmonious development of streets, buildings, and memorials in a comprehensive city plan.
Every city should have a complete plan even if it may take 100 years to realise it. Mr. Haywood has already suggested some lines of approach. Mr. George Cadbury indicated that the extension of a station like New-street would be a suitable subject for consultation.
The most illuminating point made at the meeting was Mr. Rothenstein’s suggestion that Birmingham should find its native genius expressed through Birmingham artists, rather than seek a super-imposed culture. A beginning might be made by turning the Art Gallery into a more catholic modem centre. A night raid hammer-carrying Suffragettes on some of the city’s statues might not inappropriate.
