Origins

Birmingham had its first polytechnic in the mid-19th century when the Birmingham Polytechnic Institute was formed in 1843 but it only lasted for 10 years (we'll return to this institution at a later date). However the current institution dates from 1971 when changes to higher education in Britain led to the formation of a new wave of polytechnics. The City of Birmingham Polytechnic was formed from a number of existing colleges and became the 27th polytechnic formed in Britain.

The centre of the new polytechnic was Perry Barr campus, to this day the centre of the university though it is split across a number of campuses. The current campus buildings date from 1972-3 when the current Attwood and Baker buildings were built. The image below shows the architect models of the original campus buildings.

The below photo shows the site where the Perry Barr campus was built. So you can gain your bearings the greyhound stadium is in the top left and Wellhead Lane heads off to the right from it.

And today of course it looks like this...