colmore row
Colmore Row, running from Snow Hill Station to Victoria Square, is one of the most prestigious business addresses in the city. Since 1971, it's been a conservation area, and for good reason. It is, potentially, a very attractive street, but . . .
Both these photographs were taken within seconds of each other, and from exactly the same spot, Cathedral-side Colmore Row at the junction with Temple Row. The first is the view is towards Victoria Square. Barring the ugly BT phone box, what you see is an elegant building, with a wide enough pavement for us to see its proportions.
This second photograph (left) was taken on the same day, merely by pointing the camera towards the Snow Hill end of the street. This is unlovely view of the Grand Hotel (Grand indeed in Victorian and Edwardian eras) is because of the taxis and the jumble of the usual tawdry angular frontages, the "branding" the buildings by tenants that is permitted.
One of the reasons why, say, Bath or York or Chester are such attractive cities is because there are strict rules about what owners and tenants are allowed to do with the frontages of buildings. If only that were so here.