Fort Dunlop

Fort Dunlop
Fort Dunlop from the M6 motorway, 2007
General information
Type	Office, retail and hotel (formerly industrial)
Location	Erdington, Birmingham, England
Coordinates	52°30′35″N 1°48′43″W / 52.5097°N 1.8120°W / 52.5097; -1.8120Coordinates: 52°30′35″N 1°48′43″W / 52.5097°N 1.8120°W / 52.5097; -1.8120
Construction started	1916
Completed	1920s (2006 in current form)
Height	24 metres (79 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	7
Design and construction
Architect	1920s: Sidney Stott and W.W. Gibbings 2007: Hazel Rounding of shedkm
Main contractor	Capital Properties (UK) Ltd
Awards and prizes	Grade A locally listed

Fort Dunlop (grid reference SP129902), is the common name of the original tyre factory and main office of Dunlop Rubber in the Erdington district of Birmingham, England. It was established in 1917, and by 1954 the entire factory area employed 10,000 workers. At one time it was the world's largest factory, when it employed 3,200 workers.

Fort Dunlop, the main building of the former factory area, is next to the M6 motorway, near to junction 5. It is a Grade A locally listed building. It was designed by Sidney Stott and W. W. Gibbings in the 1920s. The building's use was the storage of tyres and was called Base stores. An almost identical building housing administrative and general offices was located on Wood Lane. Dunlop Tyres now occupies a small part of the building.

The Dunlop Rubber Co. Ltd was set up in Birmingham in 1901 to manufacture Dunlop tyres, initially for bicycles and later for motor vehicles. The First World War initiated a huge expansion in the demand for solid tyres for lorries, and the Fort Dunlop factory was built in 1916 on a 120-hectare site on the east side of Birmingham. Post-war, the motor industry grew and Dunlop was well placed to supply the demand for tyres. In the 1970s it was still the largest tyre factory outside the United States, however, the increased number of foreign cars imported into Britain led to a decline in demand, the company was sold in the 1980s and large-scale tyre production ceased at Fort Dunlop. Dunlop Tyres continued to produce specialised vintage, motorcycle and motorsport tyres on the site. The factory was to close in September 2014, with production moving to Germany and France.

The company Urban Splash acquired the building and the 4.02 hectares (9.9 acres) of land from English Partnerships in 1999 and started work developing proposals in conjunction with Advantage West Midlands, the regional development agency who funded the reclamation of the land. Urban Splash possess the building by a 999-year lease from Advantage West Midlands.