On this Day 1965: Birmingham Mail moves to new HQ

The production of the Birmingham Evening Mail, Birmingham Post and Sunday Mercury moved to a new building in Birmingham, as this ten-minute ATV Today feature revealed…

Exterior shots of the new headquarters on Colmore Circus showcase the modern tower of the publications. Footage also shows the previous base for the newspapers which was on the corner of New Street and Cannon Street. Inside the old building, the cramped conditions of the printing presses are evident.

Reg Harcourt interviews Sir Eric Clayson, Chairman of the Post and Mail; Richard Crabtree, Managing Director; and Frank Owens, Editor of the Mail about the move to the new building and its technological advances. The report also shows how for a sixties Birmingham the new building makes life easier for journalists, and those who deliver the newspapers via the road. From a clogged-up Cannon Street to the new internal pickup road at Colmore Circus.

The Post and Mail offices in the 1980s were used in Crossroads as the HQ for the fictional Midland Gazette Newspaper. By the 2000s newspaper habits had changed and it was decided that such a vast site was no longer needed – as massive printing presses gave way to much smaller digital versions, along with much content now being consumed online. Despite it being noted at the time of opening that the building had been designed to last 100 years it only managed 40, it was demolished in 2005. The newspapers once more relocated.

The Post and Mail building was designed by John H. Madin and Partners.