The new University Station building in Birmingham has been constructed on and adjacent to the nationally significant Metchley Roman Fort, a scheduled ancient monument.
In partnership with SLC Property and Transport for West Midlands, we were brought in at early design phase to lead the historic environment consents. A previous proposal many years ago to expand the station was not successful as its impacts on the scheduled monument were not considered enough and it was not granted consent.
Working closely with the project archaeologist, Historic England, Birmingham City Council, the construction contractor, the project management team and the client we successfully secured scheduled monument consent for the phased design and build of the new station building, including the incorporation of an interpretation scheme in the hard and soft landscaping of the public realms. Prior to and during construction we managed a significant number of applications to vary iations to the scheduled monument consent as the design developed, construction methodology changed and finds were uncovered over the 300 working days of archaeological watching brief. At the conclusion of construction all consents in connection with the scheduled monument were secured in line with the project programme.
The station building at University is now open and operational. As at September 2024 we are managing the archaeological analysis and reporting phases alongside the delivery of a heritage interpretation scheme for the site.