Curzon Gateway (Birmingham)

 student accommodation, historical layer / disappeared object

Curzon Gate is a private student accommodation complex owned by UNITE, overlooking Curzon Circus in Eastside, Birmingham. It was previously the site of a Castle Cement depot, the silos of which dominated the surrounding area.

The site was sold to private property developers as part of the wider Eastside masterplan for the area, and a residential scheme was initially envisaged. Artistic impressions showed plans for a 25 storey tower surrounded by shorter buildings, housing apartments. Planning applications submitted to Birmingham City Council proposed a two-phase scheme incorporating a student accommodation element, overlooking the Middle Ring Road, and a private residential element, overlooking the Digbeth Branch Canal.

Construction of Phase 1 - the student accommodation - commenced in 2005. Completed 2 years later, it was taken over by UNITE and predominantly houses students at Aston University, as well as some Birmingham City University students also. Some site preparations were then made for Phase 2, which was to include generally more family housing rather than smaller apartments targeting young professionals working in the city. However, when the credit crunch began and was then followed by the recession, all work stopped and the Phase 2 site was turned into a temporary secure storage site, which it remains as today.

Very little will happen on site for the near future due to the unveiling of the route for the planned High Speed 2 railway line from London to Birmingham city centre, via Birmingham International. The Birmingham branch of the line is proposed to terminate in the Eastside area of the city centre, with the line running directly across the Curzon Gate site. This would require the demolition of the student accommodation blocks when construction begins in a few years, and has guaranteed that Phase 2 of the scheme will almost certainly not be carried forward.