Wavensmere’s 165-home Edgbaston scheme tipped for approval

Plans to build a six-storey apartment block at a fire-hit former Birmingham masonic lodge look set to get the go-ahead at a planning committee meeting next week.

The ‘eyesore’ three-and-a-half acre Clarendon Suites site at Stirling Road in Edgbaston has been vacant since a huge blaze at the former Provincial Grand Lodge of Warwickshire Masons in 2019.

Now, a proposal by city developer Wavesmere Homes looks set to breathe new life into the decaying plot, with a Glancy Nicholls’ designed scheme for 75 three-bedroom townhouses and 90 one- and two-bedroom apartments looking likely to get the thumbs up at committee on 16 August.

A design containing an apartment block on the Hagley Road side, and three separate rows of town houses between Clarendon Road and Stirling Road is proposed for the site, which is around a mile from Birmingham city centre.

A total of 12 affordable homes are proposed as part of the scheme.

A six-storey residential block and four rows of townhouses are proposed. Credit: Glancy Nicholls

The former masonic hall, an uncompromisingly modernist, John Madin-designed structure, opened in 1971 and was used to stage conferences, exhibitions and banquets.

But the building had fallen out of use by 2014, and it was demolished in 2022, several years after a significant fire all but sealed the building’s fate.

In the last ten years the site has been the subject of no less than three separate applications for a residential care facility, as well as two applications for different residential schemes. The site was identified in a council-commissioned land study, carried out in 2025, as being suitable for 190 homes.

“The proposed development would secure the delivery of 165 no. homes in a sustainable location and would bring a long-term vacant brownfield site back into use,” read a report by the city council’s planning officer.

“The proposed residential apartments and townhouses would make a meaningful contribution towards Birmingham’s housing provision and would provide a significant number of 3-bedroom family homes, for which there is an evidenced need for in Edgbaston.”

Glancy Nicholls designed the scheme, with planning provided by RPS. The project team includes Rogers Leask, FPCR, Georisk, Focus and Newsteer.

Documents and plans relating to the application can be found on Birmingham City Council’s planning portal using reference: 2025/04544/PA