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Major shopping centre in central Birmingham

The Bull Ring is a major shopping area in central Birmingham England, and has been an important feature of Birmingham since the Middle Ages, when its market was first held. Two shopping centres have been built in the area; in the 1960s, and then in 2003; the latter is styled as one word, Bullring. When coupled with Grand Central (to which it is connected via a pedestrian overpass, branded as 'LinkStreet') it forms the United Kingdom's largest city centre based shopping centre, styled as Bullring & Grand Central. The site is located on the edge of the sandstone city ridge which results in the steep gradient towards Digbeth. The slope drops approximately from New Street to St Martin's Church and is visible near the church. The current shopping centre was the busiest in the United Kingdom in 2004 with 36.5 million visitors. It houses one of only four Selfridges department stores and previously the fourth largest Debenhams in the UK.

The area was first known as Corn Cheaping, a reference to the corn market on the site. The name Bull Ring referred to the green within Corn Cheaping that was used for bull baiting. The 'ring' was a hoop of iron in Corn Cheaping to which bulls were tied for baiting before slaughter. The joining of the two words in the 21st century development of the area to form Bullring caused controversy amongst some residents and others who were angry at the change of what was described as a "historic spelling".

The market legally began in 1154 when Peter de Bermingham, a local landowner, obtained a Charter of Marketing Rights from King Henry II. Initially, a textile trade began developing in the area and it was first mentioned in 1232 in a document, in which one merchant is described as a business partner to William de Bermingham and being in the ownership of four weavers, a smith, a tailor and a purveyor. Seven years later, another document described another mercer in the area. Within the next ten years, the area developed into a leading market town and a major cloth trade was established. The name Mercer Street is first mentioned in the Survey of Birmingham of 1553. This was a result of the prominence of the area in the cloth trade. In the 16th century and 17th century, Mercer Street rapidly developed and became cramped. In the early 18th century Mercer Street was known as Spicer Street, reflecting the growing grocery and meat trade that had begun to take over from the cloth trade. By the end of the century the street was known as Spiceal Street. Despite being overcrowded and cramped, many houses on the street had gardens as indicated by an advertisement for a residential property in 1798. Houses were constructed close to St Martin's Church, eventually encircling it. These became known as the Roundabout Houses. There was widespread vandalism and destruction of property. The riots prompted fears amongst the town's residents at the council's inability to prevent or control the riots and led to speculation that the council was tolerant of lawlessness. Because of disorderly behaviour at fairs, in 1861 the area, along with Smithfield and Digbeth, became the only place in central Birmingham where fairs were permitted. In 1875, all fairs were banned from the town. The area around the market site developed and, by the Victorian era, a large number of shops were operating there. Immigrants set up businesses such as flower sellers and umbrella vendors. The Lord Nelson statue became the location for preaching and political protests. Well known preachers of the time were nicknamed Holy Joe and Jimmy Jesus.

In the late 18th century, street commissioners were authorised to buy and demolish houses in the town centre, including houses surrounding the Bull Ring, and to centre all market activity in the area. This was a result of new markets being established across the city in scattered locations creating severe congestion. Demolition of these properties began slowly; however, after the Act of 1801, the speed of demolition increased and by 1810 all properties in the area had been cleared as according to the 1810 Map of Birmingham by Kempson. During the clearance, small streets such as The Shambles, Cock (or Well) Street and Corn Cheaping, which had existed before the Bull Ring, were removed. The Shambles was originally a row of butchers' stores, situated close to the road leading from the location where bulls were slaughtered. which used substantial material from designs by James A. Roberts. Demolition began in the late 1950s beginning with the demolition of the old fish market. Construction commenced in the summer of 1961. The outdoor market area was opened in June 1962 with 150 stalls within the new Bull Ring, which was still under construction. In 1964, construction of the Birmingham Bull Ring Centre neared completion. It was a mixture of traditional open air market stalls and a new indoor shopping centre, the first indoor city centre shopping centre in the UK. Jamaica Row and Spiceal Street had been demolished and removed during the development, being replaced by a submerged market area. There were 140 shop units located on of room on a site. There were also 19 escalators, 40 lifts, 96 public doors, six miles (10 km) of air ducting and 33 mile (53 km) of pipe work. The shopping centre was air conditioned and had music played to create an intimate atmosphere within the building. The remains of old Market Hall were demolished in 1963 and replaced by Manzoni Gardens; an open space designed for shoppers to relax. In the 1970s a statue of King Kong stood there. A mural of a bull was located on the side of the building as visitors entered via the road splitting the market area. The 1960s' Bull Ring Centre had problems from the beginning and was very much a product of its era. At the time of its opening it was considered the height of modernity, but higher rentals within the shopping centre meant that traders turned away from it. The public were also less inclined to use the subways and escalators, which stopped working regularly. Also, it did not age well and soon became generally regarded as an unfortunate example of 1960s Brutalist architecture, with its boxy grey concrete design and its isolation within ringroads connected only by pedestrian subways. It was, by the 1980s, much disliked by the public and contributed to the popular conception that Birmingham was a concrete jungle of shopping centres and motorways. In 2015, Historic England included the four bull ring murals, designed by Trewin Copplestone, which decorated the outside walls of the shopping centre, in a list of public works that have been lost, sold, stolen or destroyed.

Plans for redevelopments began in the 1980s, with many being just visions. In 1987, the first serious plans were released under a document called "The People's Plan" which had been designed by Chapman Taylor Architects for London and Edinburgh Trust (LET), who had bought the land following the end of Laing's lease. It proposed the full demolition of the Bull Ring Shopping Centre and the construction of a new mall described as "a huge aircraft carrier settled on the streetscape of the city". The mall was a long box with three floors. A pressure group called Birmingham for People was formed who wanted to aid the redevelopment of the Bull Ring. They distributed leaflets of the proposals to 44,000 homes in the city. However, as a result of local opinion, LET were forced to change their proposals. In 1988, in response to the calls for a new design, LET released a masterplan of numerous buildings with a wide pedestrianised street leading to St Martin's Church. As part of the design, two high rise buildings of a similar height to the Rotunda were proposed to front New Street station and Moor Street station. However, lack of local support failed to allow the plans to materialise.

After the failure of the LET plan, new plans began to surface. In the mid 1990s, another serious proposal was produced and this gained support resulting in the publication of a masterplan. However, soon after the publication of the masterplan, changes were made to the design. In 1998, Selfridges voiced reservations about opening a store in Birmingham due to restrictions on doing so and considered opening a store in Glasgow instead. It was an important part of the planned Redevelopment of Birmingham.

The successful proposal received planning permission and demolition of the 1960s Bull Ring Shopping Centre commenced in 2000 with the traders moving to the Rag Market in Edgbaston Street. It was replaced by a new design, mixing both traditional market activity with modern retail units. The main contractor was Sir Robert McAlpine. The first building to be completed was the Nationwide Building Society which, while not directly connected to the shopping centre, was part of the development. A new indoor shopping centre, "Bullring" (as the commercial entity is branded) opened on 4 September 2003. Because a major road and two railway tunnels ran under the northern edge of the site, two levels of retail areas are dramatically suspended from four 45m arched steel trusses, each weighing 120 tonnes, which are supported on piles either side of the railway tunnels. The first week of trading saw the new shopping centre under considerable pressure due to the large crowds it attracted. On 4 September 2003, the day of opening, some 276,600 people visited the shopping centre.

Bullring Shopping Centre was masterplanned and designed mainly by Benoy. The shopping centre consists of two main buildings (East and West Mall) which are connected by an underground passage lined with shops and is also accessible from St Martin's Square via glass doors. They are sheltered by a glass roof known as the SkyPlane which covers and appears to have no visible means of support. The two malls are different internally in design. The balustrades in the East Mall consist of integrated glass 'jewels' within the metal framework, and are of different colours formed through polyester powder coating. It features a dramatic landmark building, housing a branch of Selfridges department store to a design by the Future Systems architectural practice. The store is clad in 15,000 shiny aluminium discs and was inspired by a Paco Rabanne sequinned dress. The Selfridges store cost £60 million and the contractor was Laing O'Rourke. Covering an area of , the designs for the Selfridges store were first unveiled in 1999,

There is a multi storey car park opposite Selfridges on Park Street which is connected to the Selfridges store via a 37 metre long, curved, polycarbonate covered footbridge, suspended over the street. On the ground floor of the car park there is retail space which was previously a furniture showroom. In 2005, a small Costa Coffee café, designed by Marks Barfield Architects and dubbed the Spiral Café, was constructed alongside the steps leading towards to New Street from St Martin's Square. The building's shape resembled that of shell and featured a curved bronze roof with both ends covered with glass. The main contractors were Thomas Vale and the structural engineers were Price & Myers. The building form is inspired by the mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci who identified natural patterns of growth found throughout the universe, from the shapes of shells and pines cones to fractal patterns within galaxies. The café was knocked down as part of the Spiceal Street redevelopment in 2011. The entire redevelopment was accompanied by an official project magazine and then commemorated with an 'art book' style book which covered Bullring's transformation in illustration and photography. Both book and magazine were produced by specialist publisher Alma Media International on behalf of the developers. The shopping centre's design has both its admirers and detractors. In 2008, a poll conducted in conjunction with SimCity Creator stated that Bullring was the ugliest building in the country, although the poll has been criticised.

On 6 September 2010, plans were announced for a expansion with the creation of three new restaurant units totalling around in St Martins Square with the existing Pizza Hut and Nandos to be extended out closer to St Martins Church and thus expanded. The new restaurants are 'Browns Bar & Brasserie' and 'Chaobaby', opening their first restaurants in Birmingham in the larger two of the units closest to Jamies Italian. The third unit, closest to Selfridges is home to 'Handmade Burger Co'. In addition to the existing Nandos, Wagamama, Pizza Hut, Jamie's Italian and 'Mount Fuiji'. this has created a hub of seven restaurants named after the traditional Spiceal Street. Construction of the part indoor, part outdoor development commenced in March 2011 and consists of a glass, wooden and aluminium exterior and "ribbon" effect roof. The award winning Spiral Cafe that was once sited here has been relocated off site. The new Spiceal Street opened on 24 November 2011. Since then, Jamie's Italian closed after the company went into administration in May 2019, and Handmade Burger Co would suffer the same fate 8 months later in January 2020, later to be replaced by Vietnamese Street Kitchen.

A part of the James A. Roberts design for the first Bull Ring Shopping Centre included a 12 storey circular office block. However, upon revising his design this was increased to 25 storeys. As a result of this, plans for a revolving rooftop restaurant and a cinema were dropped. This became the Rotunda and is a surviving component of the 1960s development. Due to problems during construction, the building never reached the intended height. Although never used, the revolving section remains in place due to the late decision to drop the restaurant from the plans. The Rotunda has been converted into apartments by developers Urban Splash. Although located close to the development and constructed at the same time as the 1960s centre, it was not part of the development despite being included in the design. A poem is engraved into one of the stones in the wall of the Bullring dedicated to the Rotunda. The public space to the front of both malls facing the High Street and New Street is named Rotunda Square after the building.