Que Club Birmingham: what is happening to the site of the iconic techno venue?

One of Birmingham’s most iconic music venues is set to be honoured with its very own exhibition later this year.

The Que Club, which was based at Central Hall, Methodist Central Hall on Corporation Street in Birmingham city centre, had seven rooms and a main area for clubbers, artists and music fans to enjoy.

The city’s legendary Que Club will now be part of an exhibition to celebrate one of the UK’s best venues. Opening on 28 April at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and running until December, In The Que will be a tribute to the city’s temple to techno.

And a documentary about the iconic venue has also just been released called In The Que.

The venue is one of the city’s most famous, but the site of The Que is set to be transformed into a new leisure complex featuring a hotel and restaurant.

Originally built in 1904, the Central Methodist Hall became the legendary club in 1989, attracting major artists such as David Bowie, Daft Punk and Blur. Despite becoming an important part of Birmingham’s musical and cultural scene, the club went out of use in 2017 and the building declined onto Heritage England’s At Risk Register.

In the summer, TODD Architects won planning permission to refurbish and redevelop the Grade II* Listed Methodist Central Hall into a Dean Hotel which will feature 150 new hotel rooms and eight new bars and restaurants at ground and basement levels.

The scheme represents the first ‘Dean’ brand hotel outside of Ireland and will be operated by Press Up Hospitality Group.

The planners say the proposed three-storey rooftop extension will be ‘set back from the parapet and terraced backwards as the volume rises’.

A single-storey extension will also be set back from the parapet and above this rests a ‘new restaurant with a pitched roof matching the form of the original’.

What’s been said about the hotel plans?

Seamus Lennon, Principal, TODD Architects, said: “We are thrilled to see our hotel-led proposals for the refurbishment of Birmingham Central Methodist Hall granted approval.

“The Central Methodist Hall offers the opportunity to mix the height of Victorian grandeur with a fresh and contemporary take on the modern hospitality offer. Whilst it remains necessary to extend the building vertically to ensure the project is commercially viable, Birmingham City Council planners recognised our proposals will ensure this is done sensitively and allow the full restoration of the Central Hall space to be enjoyed by generations to come.”