Mass change is coming to Gas Street after were given the go-ahead.
Councillors have given the green light for a historic former gas works, which has lain empty for years, to be turned into a church centre and café.
Proposals were submitted to the Diocese of Birmingham for Gas Retort House, between Berkley Street and Gas Street, which was awarded Grade II* listed status in 1993.
The building, which was built between the 1820s and 1920s and was the city’s first gasworks, will now become a place of worship and community centre.
The Diocese, which bought the building last December, has been working with Gun Quarter-based architecture firm Apec on the project.
Apec’s report said the large volume spaces of Retort House and Coal Store remained and were aesthetically pleasing, enhanced by the attractive appearance of the original cast-iron and timber roof trusses.
The cast-iron columns, roof trusses and wrought-iron bracing bars are considered early examples of their type and were possibly made at the Phoenix Foundry, in Snow Hill, and transported by the direct canal link which still exists.
It concluded: “The proposed use as a church lends itself very well to preserving the large volume spaces with very little intervention and, where smaller rooms are necessary such as kitchens and lavatories, these are to be of lightweight construction enabling reversibility.
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“Virtually all of the historic brickwork walls have been altered over the life of the building and some have been totally rebuilt.
“What is proposed will cause no harm to any of the identified, significant elements of the heritage asset and interventions will be fully reversible without harm.
“The proposed use is a viable and sustainable way of enhancing the heritage asset in line with good conservation principles.
“Furthermore, the building will be regularly open to the public, thus providing an opportunity to experience and understand the gas-making process that was fundamental to the cultural and economic development of our world.”