Apple has occupied the New Street, Birmingham building since 2016, but it was first constructed in 1879. Back then, it was the imposing offices of the Midland Bank, with an opulent, open, huge banking space.
Subsequent owners cut that space down and filled it up with retail shelves, but Apple was keen to restore it… “It is our intention to reinstate the space back to the single generous volume and character when used as a banking hall by Midland Bank,” the plans state. “Retail trading will be confined to the ground and lower ground floor level, to impose on the public’s experience of the space as originally intended when used as a banking hall.”