What are the worst eyesores that need urgent attention in Birmingham?

Birmingham and the West Midlands has some stunning examples of architecture, but like most areas the city isn't shy of a few eyesores. I'm here today in the city centre to speak to people here and find out which landmarks in the region they consider to be the grottiest.

Josh says: “I think when you walk up New Street, I think a lot of the concrete buildings, especially the old Britannia Hotel, is quite a bit of an eyesore, you know, it's not a particularly well-built Birmingham, it's the concrete sort of city.

"I mean there's a lot of redevelopment works that are going on, especially up by Victoria Square, around by the mailbox, the cube, etc. So it's good to see the parts are coming along, but I think definitely the main parts of New Street need to be redeveloped and be brought more into the modern world, just to purely give some more life back to the area, which is what it needs.”

Simon says: “I think the Pallasades is dated and doesn't look good, and it can be quite intimidating when you're walking up to it. Yeah [the look of the city], it's getting a lot better. From where it was maybe 10 years ago, it's certainly improving. Some of the old buildings are really, really cool. Yeah, generally it's good.”

Emma says: “I think there are certainly parts of the city that are really appealing, like some of the old terracotta buildings, areas of the city centre. If I'm thinking eyesores, it's got to be stuff like all of HMO and student housing in Selly Oak. You take a wander around there, because I went to university in Birmingham, so you take a walk around there and it's very dingy, I guess. It's really unfortunate, I guess, what's happened to that area.”

James says: “I’d say all the closed shop fronts really, more than anything. You walk down the street and there's just so many closed shops, it's just gross to look at really, but yeah, that's all I can think of really.”

Udie says: “I can't think of a particular landmark per se, but I do think that one of the things that we could improve on in Birmingham itself is cleanliness. I think over the years we've seen more and more litter. I think when I was growing up you would see this Keep Britain Tidy campaign and I think everybody took a bit of pride in it and it started from a very young generation.

"I don't see that happening that much as I did when I was a child. I'd like to see some sort of initiative introduced, reintroduced again and I think general cleanliness helps build civic pride into an area and once you've got civic pride people feel a bit better about themselves and they have more respect for the area and I think it just generally uplifts the mood of the people.

"So I think cleanliness is just generally an ongoing theme. So I haven't got a particular eyesore monument, but I think in all I think Birmingham itself could do with an uplift in its cleanliness.”