By Harry Leach

Copyright birminghammail

A man is on a mission to get broken UK clocks – including two that Birmingham shoppers see often – ticking again. Alfie Dennen has set up a website cataloguing public clocks that have ‘stopped’ across the country with the goal of getting them telling the time once more. The 49-year-old said many of the historic timepieces had been left frozen in time off the back of “austerity” and years of council funding cuts. READ MORE: Next’s £40 ‘Chelsea style’ cowboy boots add an ‘effortless edge’ to any outfit One such clock is located at 103 Colmore Row, above Theatrix bar in Birmingham city centre , where the time has been stuck at ’11 O’clock’ for yonks. The clock, opposite the council house, is a prominent feature on a building that was once the main office for Alliance Assurance. It served as a banking hall until the 1990s. Alfie, from Hastings, also has his eye on fixing a stunning clock at 31 Corporation Street, above Manga store ‘ TokyoToys’. The clock was installed by Nathan Jewellers when the business moved from Union Passage to Corporation Street in 1887, Alfie suspects. “Both of them have a story to tell and a community that misses them,” he said. When asked why he has an interest in returning broken clocks to their former glory, Alfie said: “It comes down to two things, really. “I’m very interested in clocks and how austerity has affected civic space. They also create conversation. “And it really started when I helped get a clock on a London church working again by engaging with the community after my mum spotted it. It had stopped because the council didn’t have the funding to keep it running but we got it going again. “My mum was overjoyed with that as she felt connected. She once said that ‘when you see a stopped clock, you feel like you aren’t cared for by the world around you’. I believe that to be true.” Alfie said he didn’t expect to get every broken clock in the UK working again – but he will try his best to help fix as many as possible. “Many of them have been left frozen in time since the austerity measures of the 80s,” he added. He described the stopped clocks in Birmingham as “beautiful like the city”. “My hope is for people to upload pictures of stopped clocks in the UK onto my website when they see them – so that we can catalogue which ones need turning back on. “From there I will do research on each clock to get a sense of what’s required, and see what can be done, so that we get a full picture.” Alfie has uploaded 42 stopped clocks from around the UK to his website so far. Click here to upload your own pictures of stopped clocks to the website if you would like to help Alfie with his mission.