# All around birmingham, UK, the good, the bad and the ugly!



## Brum Knows Best (Mar 9, 2007)

Grate job Jonesy55, made the second city look good


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Really great photos, thanks for sharing


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

eastadl said:


> great photos. When I went on the usual dopey Aust backpack around Europe, I was intrigued over Birmingham. Was on a national express bus heading for Hollyhead and halfway through the bus started going through what looked like the most rundown communist concrete city - Birmingham. We were mortified at this concrete jungle of freeways and awful 1960s buildings and 'commi' blocks and absolutely nothing looked nice anywhere.


That's not an unrealistic impression to be fair, Birmingham is an industrial city and you can walk just a few minutes from the city centre shops and apartments to find yourself in a sea of run down and depressing warehouses and ex-factories. Digbeth where the long distance buses arrive is typical of that, it isn't the best introduction to the city. 

The inner city residential areas surrounding the centre have high levels of poverty, crime and unemployment too. That's pretty much the case with most British cities though, a smart and regenerated centre, surrounded by poor districts, which are in turn surrounded by more prosperous suburbs.

I'm glad you all liked the photos, I plan to do some more of the residential areas around the centre soon, i'll post them in this thread.


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## El Mariachi (Nov 1, 2007)

I am loving this thread. Nice pics! Love the riverfront and shopping district.


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

goschio said:


> Looks very nice and lively. Hope one day the brutalist library will go away.


It is going away, a new library is being built a couple of hundred metres away.


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## StigJ (Mar 3, 2008)

The old library is awful, but I have to say that the new one is not much better...

Lovely pics by the way.


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

^^ Yeah, I'm not 100% convinced by it either.

However I do like the plans for the redevelopment of the main train station, Birmingham New Street.

Work has just started to change this:




























into this.


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## jlshyang (May 22, 2005)

Thanks for posting, Jonesy55 

I used to go there so often, brings back a lot of pleasant memories


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## sky-eye (Jan 2, 2003)

Thanks for the various pictures. Birmingham looks quite nice.


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

Glad you both enjoyed the photos, I took my camera on thursday but it was raining so I didn't go out at lunchtime to take any more photos, maybe next week. :laugh:


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## fourbytwo (Feb 12, 2009)

Thanks for the great work Jonesy. We do have a world class city here, even though we don't appreciate it sometimes.


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## cardiff (Jul 26, 2005)

Great photos, very honest pictures as well showing most sides of Birmingham. i wouldnt call it a pretty city, but its definately a very interesting one containing all sorts of urban form.


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## emzeti (Jun 13, 2006)

nice car ..nice buildings there


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## Snowy (Nov 6, 2006)

Troopchina said:


> Even though it's England's second city I've never actually seen any Birmingham threads. This was an eye-opener. Thanks for the tour.


Birmingham is such a huge city, it is England's second city after all, but despite this it somehow seems an invisible city. Few people outside of the UK have heard of it and outside of Birmingham, people within the UK don't really know what it looks like, except that it's supposed to be a 1960s concrete mess, which is unfair and incorrect. 

The problem with Birmingham is that it's not an iconic city, unlike London, Manchester and Liverpool and it doesn't really have any iconic buildings (except for maybe the new Selfridges one) or famous vistas. It doesn't have a particularly cool image or strong sense of identity either - with London you have red double-deckers, black taxi cabs, the Royal Family, the Rolling Stones and the 70s punk scene, with Manchester you have the famous caustic sense of humour, Manchester United, Joy Division and the Stone Roses and with Liverpool, you have the "Scouse" sense of identity, the iconic waterfront and a certain four-piece band who conquered the world. Birmingham's sense of identity is less obvious, it's never really had a world-famous music scene and it's football teams are the relatively unfashionable Aston Villa and Birmingham City. It's industrial past is celebrated in the UK, but somehow Manchester's industrial past has always seemed more glamourous, with it's famous "Cottonopolis" identity. Perhaps this is partly to do with there being so many attractive 19th century warehouse buildings in the city centre, which you don't really see in Birmingham.

Despite all of this, these pictures have shown that parts of Birmingham are actually very nice, that it has some attractive old buildings and many of the old 1960s eyesores are being replaced with better modern buildings, some so-so, others fairly good. With the promising new station replacing the old 60s horror, things are getting better and better for Birmingham. It might never be as iconic of England's other large cities, but it can be rightly proud of itself.


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## Snowy (Nov 6, 2006)

^^ By the way, great pictures Jonesy!


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## LSyd (Aug 31, 2003)

thanks for the tour. Brum gets an undeserved bad rep.

-


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

Snowy said:


> Birmingham's sense of identity is less obvious, it's never really had a world-famous music scene.


True but some famous bands have come from Birmingham, Ozzy Ozbourne was signing books in the WHSmith shop underneath my office a couple of weeks ago. I can also think of Duran Duran, some of Led Zep, er ELO, ok I'm struggling, help me out here. :laugh:


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## Ecological (Mar 19, 2009)

The probably with Brum is not that it hasn't got anything to shout about. Its problem is they dont know how to shout about it. They are regarded as the funniest most humourous people in the country yet despite trying to get rid of the bad rap it gets, it seems sources outside the city will do anything to prevent them. 

I'll list just a few things ... More people eat and buy cadburys chocolate every day then listen to Beatles songs. 

**Cadburys* is currently the worlds largest confectionary distributor and the most famous Chocolate brand in the world. 

*Look at your computer and change your font to Baskerville ... Its Brummy  

*Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Duran Duran, Dexy Midnight Runners, Electric Light Orchestra, Moody Blues, UB40, The Move, The Charlatans, The Streets, The Twang, The Editors, Jamelia (Ok ... that one was just for the sake of it ) 

*Birds Custard

*Typhoo Tea

*Brylcream

*HP Sauce

*Jaguar

*Range/Land Rover

*The Mini

*Aston Martins

*Neville Chamberlain

*Cat Deeley 

*Lord of the Rings ...

Im not going to even start about Birminghams industrial past because I can gurantee without us, this world would be shit  ... 

Oh and the Lunar Society ... 

Read up on it ... Benjamin Franklin was a member


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Thanks for those updated photos of Birmingham


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## Guest (Nov 19, 2009)

I love yor pics!  Great city. There's just one I don't like of Birmingham: their accent :lol:


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## jeromeee (Oct 16, 2009)

Ah, the famous Frankfurt Christmas Market 
Birmingham looks alright, better than I imagined it.


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

Is it famous? :laugh:

Did you imagine a wasteland? 

It isn't that bad thankfully!


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## jeromeee (Oct 16, 2009)

People in Frankfurt might have heard about it in the paper since we exported it to our sister city :lol:

I didn't imagine a wasteland but I thought it was greyer.


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

Ah, ok, if you are from Frankfurt that makes sense


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## Crash_N (May 19, 2011)

More pics, please 
:cheers:


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## Laurence2011 (Mar 4, 2011)

good skate spots and a frankfurt market... I should visit .. :cheers:


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## Brummyboy92 (Aug 2, 2007)

Fantastic pictures, such a vast improvement this year.


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## Axelferis (Jan 18, 2008)

a lot of people presents this city as a rubbish, insecure town. What is the reality?


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

Well I've never been killed in the 7 years I've worked here so it can't be that dangerous!

It has good parts and not such good parts like most cities.


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## Brummyboy92 (Aug 2, 2007)

Is it not one of the safer cities in the britain?


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

The murder rate is above average but lower than many of the other biggest cities.



Jonesy55 said:


> Police Authority - population - 5-year average homicide rate per 100,000
> 
> Strathclyde (Glasgow and surrounding area) - 2.3m - 3.00
> Metropolitan (Greater London) - 7.4m - 2.22
> ...


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## aarhusforever (Jun 15, 2010)

^^ very intereating. Thanks for sharing your photos of your lovely city


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

No problem. It's not my city as such, I just work here rather than live here but I guess that makes it a second home!


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## El_Greco (Apr 1, 2005)

Birmingham is a memorial to the sheer brainlessness and utter stupidity of the 60s planers, who have created a 20th century equivalent of a medieval walled city (wall being the motorway) filled with grotesque monstrosities. Ive been there twice though.


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

Glad you liked it! kay:

:laugh:


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## El_Greco (Apr 1, 2005)

They should do something about that motorway, city centre itself could do with some reconstructing (whats happening with New Street Station are they still going ahead with that cool replacement?). The best thing(s) about Birmingham are Digbeth, Jewellery Quarter, canals and that chinese restaurant Ive dined twice in.


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

I don't think there are many monstrosities in the city centre itself these days, the bullring redevelopment got rid of a lot of that stuff some years ago, but there are still plenty just outside. The dual-carriageway inner ringroad (not actually a motorway) around half the centre is an obstruction but in recent years there have been moves to link up areas like the mailbox beyond it to the city centre.

Yes, the New St redevelopment has started, the ugly old commieblock tower at the rear of the station has just been pulled down and part of the Pallasades centre on top of it are now closed off.

http://www.newstreetnewstart.co.uk/construction-progress.aspx


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## Axelferis (Jan 18, 2008)

what this motorway has? I often heard that it is a town with "the" motorway :lol:

What particular with this road?


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## geoff189d (Jun 4, 2005)

Jonesy55 said:


> I don't think there are many monstrosities in the city centre itself these days, the bullring redevelopment got rid of a lot of that stuff some years ago, but there are still plenty just outside. The dual-carriageway inner ringroad (not actually a motorway) around half the centre is an obstruction but in recent years there have been moves to link up areas like the mailbox beyond it to the city centre.
> 
> Yes, the New St redevelopment has started, the ugly old commieblock tower at the rear of the station has just been pulled down and part of the Pallasades centre on top of it are now closed off.
> 
> http://www.newstreetnewstart.co.uk/construction-progress.aspx



I had no idea that tower block had been demolished. I used to work in the BT building opposite and often thought how inappropriate such a building was for the city centre as I stood at the window and stared at it!


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## hoody (Jan 7, 2003)

Axelferis said:


> what this motorway has? I often heard that it is a town with "the" motorway :lol:
> 
> What particular with this road?


"The" Motorway could mean one of two things. Spaghetti Junction which is a complex junction to the north of Birmingham. It is no less ugly than any other junction in the world. In fact I believe it has quite a bit of charm.










Alternatively, "The" Motorway could mean the old ring road which has largely been demolished. It used to circle the entire core and stifled growth. In the late 1990's the part of the ring road which was on stilts (Masshouse) was demolished and is now being turned into museums, universities and parkland (called Eastside) while the rest of the ring road remains largely underground in tunnels which has always been the case since it was constructed in the 1960's. It is now a through road, which most cities have.

Before









Under construction - it's not perfect but a million times better than before and nowhere near as bad as people make it out.


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