The Jubilee Centre is a large industrial building on the junction of Sherlock Street and Pershore Street close to the Chinese Quarter and within walking distance of the city centre. It was built in the 1930’s.
The building was constructed as industrial works for Fisher & Ludlow, a major Birmingham manufacturer of pressed steel components for the motor industry. During the Second World War the site was involved in wartime production and is known to have suffered bomb damage during air raids on the city, traces of which are said to remain in parts of the structure. Fisher & Ludlow later relocated its operations, after which the building was taken over by the General Post Office and used for manufacturing and refurbishing telephone bodies and related equipment.
In later years the site was converted into enterprise and workshop units, and in 1983 the Midlands Industrial Association assumed a long-term lease, securing the building’s future as affordable city-centre workspace. Since then the Jubilee Centre has developed a reputation as a practical and characterful base for creative, light industrial and commercial users, retaining its utilitarian industrial character rather than being converted into conventional modern offices. The building remains an important example of Birmingham’s inter-war industrial architecture and a reminder of the city’s manufacturing and communications heritage.
The building is now managed by the Midlands Industrial Association Ltd, a group which is registered as a Friendly Society and which reclaims derelict buildings and through refurbishment lets them out to small to medium sized businesses.
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