17 & 19 Newhall Street, Birmingham

Opened in 1887, the building was designed by Frederick Martin of the firm Martin & Chamberlain. It was constructed to house the new Central Telephone Exchange and offices for the National Telephone Company (NTC). Birmingham's central exchange had 5,000 subscribers and was the largest of its type in the country. Originally having the postal address of 19 Newhall Street, it was known as "Telephone Buildings" within the NTC organisation but it was also popularly known as the "Bell Edison Telephone Building" – the NTC logo behind the wrought iron gates to the main entrance bears the names of Bell and Edison. The ground floor of the building was let out to shops. In 1912, the NTC was taken over…