A very different Perry Barr Campus

Of course the story of the Perry Barr (now City North) campus is that Attwood and Baker were built first in the early 1970s, Cox to Galton were built later in the 1970s and Kenrick in the mid-1980s. However it could have been very different. After the building of the first two buildings plans were made for phase 2 of the polytechnic. Early plans were much more ambitious and could have seen a vast campus filling the site.

In the event we ended up with 5 new buildings arranged in a kind of "quad" (at least when Kenrick was added). Original plans dating from 1973 were for 3 such quads with 5 extra buildings to be built as well as a large library to link everything up (which was more of less realised with the Kenrick library). Franchise Street, the current main entrance to the campus, would have gone (and the Hare of the Dog too!) with a new service road built further along Wellhead Road next to the railway line.

The current nursery was originally a "nuclear suite" and the post room an "animal house" indicating plans to conduct medical research at the polytechnic at one stage. What is not clear from the plans is where anyone would have parked.