The Old Chapel (Birmingham)

 apartment building  Add category

Despite its name and appearance, this was never a chapel. Built in 1851 as an electrical accumulator charging station. This where heavy batteries were brought by carriage to be charged.

The design comes from their purpose. As the large, heavy batteries were liable to explode, these buildings had thick walls built from engineering brick, and tall thin windows to allow the explosion to escape. As power generation was improved, the building became used for wharfage purposes, with timber being offloaded from the canal further down Ludgate Hill. It later became a warehouse until 1941 when it was bombed. However, the building survived due to the nature of its construction and went back to its roots as an electrical substation.

In 1998, it was sold to Pilotage who then converted the building into 12 apartments, designed by Nicholls Brown Webber Architects.