The announcement recently by Eric Pickles of Local Infrastructure funding loans from the Housing and Communities Agency for three projects in Birmingham’s Enterprise Zone is good news. The three projects that have won resources from the fund are;

Masshouse – Funding will partly be spent on creating an attractive public square.

Arena Central – Funding will help pay for the demolition of buildings – underway currently

Argyl Works – Will help pay for preparatory works to enable the use of the building as a datacentre

Further details can be found here

An image of the side of Argyl Works – which gives a sense of the scale of the building

Now the Masshouse Scheme and Arena Central are well known and important to the regeneration of the Enterprise Zone but I wasn’t aware of the Argyl Works Data Centre plan – but again seemingly an important backbone facility for Birmingham’s Digital economy. The name Argyl Works rang a bell in my mind and on checking I remembered – it is where Birmingham Opera Company have previously stage some of its most impressive operas. I was unlucky to miss the multi award winning Mittoch aus Licht last summer but previously had seen Life is a Dream in March 2012. What was really impressive about the performance I saw was the use of the cavernous space . Birmingham didn’t need an Opera House it had better. I guess therefore that this building is now of limits for the company, which is a great shame, but equally BOC have in recent years innovated and there are plenty of other spaces they could use in the City but I doubt if there will be any with so much space and height. What are your plans Birmingham Opera Company? Link to there site (here)