New Street Signal Box – Birmingham

Construction: 1964

Architects: Bicknall and Hamilton with R L Moorcraft

This delightful little building looks more like an abstract sculpture than a signal box. The exterior is clad in horizontally ribbed precast concrete panels, which are echoed vertically in the adjoining wall. Ribbon windows continue the horizontal emphasis and break up the facade nicely. A small unclad section near the entrance is covered in glazed white tiles providing an interesting textural mix.

The signal box, along with the Moore Street electricity substation in Sheffield, show the level of creativity and fun that architects working in the brutalist style brought to infrastructure construction back in the 60s. The building was Grade II listed in 1995.