Moseley is a pleasant residential area 3 miles south of central Birmingham.  Moseley Hall, the original mansion house, was converted to a hospital  in the 1890’s and specifically to a geriatric hospital in 1967.  It is set within a conservation area and original plans for a new flat roofed modern hospital building at the site in Alcester Road were turned down because of opposition by local residents.

Rugby architects, The Design Buro, were subsequently appointed to design a building that would win the approval of local residents as well as the planners.  They would need to come up with a design that would blend in with the local arts and crafts style and sit well in harmony with the old Hall. 

227,000 Red Blue Sandfaced  tiles

Fittings - Eaves, gables, cloaked verges and half round ridges

Lesley Sheldrake of Birmingham City Council was the chief planning officer and she explains that “local residents wanted a design that would reflect the character of the buildings within the area.”  The Design Buro found a solution  which was approved by both planners and residents.  The resulting roof was a dominant feature of the new design and it was therefore key to choose the right tile.  “We felt we needed to use a domestic traditional roofing material to blend in with the surrounding architecture” explains Richard Ali from the Design Buro “and the planners liked Dreadnought’s red/blue colour as it fitted in well with the surrounding buildings.   Practical considerations required that the roof contain a number of air intake louvres which were cloaked to blend in with the roofline.  Dreadnought were able to supply all the fittings that we needed and we are very pleased with the result.”