The bank holiday was beautiful here in the midlands. Blue skies, sun out, heart.fm playing in every garden. And the day after I got to hang out with one of my grown up friends. I say grown up. I just mean he has a job. Matt’s also based in London nowadays, so our catch-ups aren’t exactly regular. But on Tuesday 7th April, he made the journey up to Birmingham, so I repaid him by giving him a whistlestop of the glorious second city.
And yes, you read that right. I called Birmingham glorious. It’s a great city – it just has a bad rep. (Well actually it has two great Reps – the old Rep and the new Rep. Some local humour for you there.) So I figured I’d share our one day tour of Birmingham with you lovely people. Because it was really great day and more people should go to Birmingham.
New Street at Christmas.*
Starting at New Street station, which is so close to being finished and is all shiny and new, we headed up towards Victoria Square. Victoria Square has a statue of Queen Victoria, an Antony Gormley statue called The Iron Man (which I though was called the Drunken Man for years because that’s what my Mom called it) and a giant fountain called The River. Or as it’s usually known – The Floozy in the Jacuzzi.
Floozy in the snow.
Victoria Square leads on to Chamberlain Square and both are really pretty areas thanks to the buildings with twiddly bits that the Victorians so adored. They’ve also got the town hall and the Birmingham Art Gallery. Me and Matt didn’t go in to the Art Gallery because it was such a lovely day it was a shame to be inside, but if you’re ever around you should go. It’s got the largest collection of Pre Raphelite paintings in the world, a Jacob Epstein in the lobby and the Staffordshire hoard. Basically, it’s a great art gallery and I’ve spent so many hours in there that at this point I might as well live there.
(Part of) Centenary Square at Christmas
Ducking through Paradise Forum (which I will admit is less than a paradise), you end up in Centenary Square, which is now home to the Library of Birmingham. And I defy you to not like the library. Beautiful from the outside, gorgeous on the inside with not one but two gardens, it makes me want to write a letter of appreciation to the architect. It’s such a great building and it has egg chairs and a lift that looks like Willy Wonka’s elevator and table tennis. I could write an entire blog post dedicated to the Birmingham library – it’s that good.
Look how pretty.
But reluctantly moving on, if you head through the ICC you end up by the canals. There’s a lot of canals in Birmingham; more miles than in Venice. How else were we going to get all our coal around during the industrial revolution? Carriages and wagons? Don’t be ridiculous. We wandered along the canal towards the NIA (just one of the gazillion venues for concerts and stuff in Brum) and then headed back towards Brindley Place, past the Sea Life Centre, in search of food. There’s a ton of restaurants in Brindley Place so the hardest part about finding food is deciding what you want.
Afterwards, we went back down canalside and wandered through Gas Street Basin, which can be lovely, and then we headed through the Mailbox. Home to high-end stores and a section of the BBC, the Mailbox is bright red. It’s currently undergoing some work, but it’s still a great looking building.
After me and Matt had been distracted by the TARDIS the BBC has out front, we made our way out of the Mailbox and down towards the Bullring. Because what’s a trip to Birmingham without going to the Bullring? For those who’ve not yet had the pleasure of visiting the Bullring, let me explain. The shiny, mirrored bit is just Selfridges. That’s just a portion of the Bullring. With over 160 shops, it’s huge. And great. Good shopping, good eating – what more could you want?
The Bullring has a bull. Who gets dressed up on special occasions.
Well, what we wanted was somewhere to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful weather, so we ended up in the Chinese quarter for a couple of hours. And then I walked Matt back to the station, because our time had come to part ways. On the way we walked past the Back to backs, which are an interesting few hours if you’ve got time to spare.
It was a really fun day and I think I persuaded Bond of some of the reasons why Birmingham’s great. And hopefully I’ve adequately explained them to you. Even if my pictures are all from Christmases gone by.
* Many of these photos are, surprisingly, not from mine and Matt’s excursion. Didn’t actually take any photos that day…
Kat's Blog of Stuff 