Birmingham has been described as the ‘Workshop of the World’ because of its of manufacturing history which includes copper, coins, chocolate, printed blocks and jewellery. I had found a walk called Manufacturing and migration which about half way round described the Gas Street basin so we started our walk at that point and set off to discover the rest of Birmingham. We walked through the International Convention Centre (ICC) which was opened in 1991 and is seen as the ‘seed’ for the regeneration of Birmingham. Outside the ICC is the library of Birmingham, a very modern building which I am not sure I like, especially as directly opposite is a lovely Georgian building which I later found out was part of the University although I am not sure if that was why it was built, also in centenary square is the Hall of Memory, this actually looks like a chapel but it was built in the 1920s as a memorial to the citizens of Birmingham that died in the First World War, later information on those that died in the Second World War, and other conflicts included Korean, Vietnam and the Falklands were added. Remembering the fallen of WWI, one of the plaques has the inscription “Of the 150,000 who answered the call to arms 12,320 fell: 35,000 came home disabled’ which really brings home the horror of the conflict. Just across from the Hall of Memory is a sculpture dedicated to Baskerville who created the Baskerville typeface. We continued across the road to Chamberlain Square which is full of old buildings and much more like an old city square. The square is named after Joseph Chamberlain (he of the clock fame in the jewellery quarter) and contains the Town Hall, the Museum and Art Gallery which has a clock tower nicknamed ‘Big Brum’ and the adjoining Victoria Square, named after Queen Victoria it is said that her statue marks the centre of Birmingham. In 1993 the square was pedestrianised and a water feature created, this has a fountain that is said to represent a river and in the middle is a monumental female figure that represents the life force, unfortunately all of this is rather lost on the locals who call it ‘the floozie in the jacuzzi’ in my opinion much more apt! There should be a statue by Anthony Gormley somewhere but we couldn’t find it so it has either been moved or stolen! From here we walked down New Street to the Bullring which should have been the start of the walk. The weather has really changed today so we had to stop and buy Chris a jumper as he hadn’t packed one then we had a wonder round the Bullring which is not at all what I expected. For a start it seems to be a series of undercover shopping malls, not one large one which is what I expected. We had a look around a couple of them but it all felt quite disjointed so we continued with the walk. The bullring has been the home to a market since the 12th century when Peter de Birmingham obtained a charter from King Henry I. It is thought that the name came from the ‘sport’ of Bull baiting which took place here, I hadn’t realised that in Britain, bull baiting was still legal until 1835 I thought it was outlawed earlier than that! There is a statue to Admiral Nelson at the far end of the Bullring, despite being landlocked, Nelson is a hero in Birmingham as his naval victories gave Britain command of the seas allowing Birmingham to export its manufactured goods to the four corners of the world. Nelson overlooks St Martin’s church dedicated to the patron saint of Soldiers, there has been a church by the market since the 13th century although the current one dates from the 19th. We walked down Digbeth street which is the Irish quarter although currently being demolished and rebuilt and back to the open market. The outdoor market contains loads of fruit and veg stalls all seemingly selling the same thing, next door is the indoor Rag market which according to the sign on the building is the largest in the world, although I would question this, from here we walked up to the Arcadian shopping centre, this is the centre of China town, apparently the Chinese population didn’t arrive in Birmingham until the 1960s when men came from Hong Kong and the New Territories, most set up catering businesses and as the popularity of the Chinese take away grew more families arrived, by the 1980s the area was recognised as the Chinese Quarter and the population was estimated to be 12,000. Just up the road, in the middle of a roundabout is the Chinese Pagoda, the money for this was donated by Wing Yip who arrived by boat in 1959 from Hong Kong and opened a Chinese shop in Clacton-on-sea, he opened a number of other restaurants in East Anglia then expanded and opened a grocery shop in Birmingham, eventually he employed over 400 people and supplied more than 2,000 Chinese restaurants around the country, he gave the pagoda to Birmingham as a thank you for the city that provided him with a home. From here we walked up to the Singer’s Hill Synagogue, this was built in 1856 although records suggest that there was a small Jewish community in the area from the 13th century. As it was Saturday the families were just arriving for a service so we didn’t take photos as the very nice security guard asked us not to! Finally we walked round to the Mailbox, it is called this as it was built in the 1970s as the Royal Mail sorting office, at the time the largest mechanised sorting office in the county. When the New Street Station was built the area was regenerated and reopened in 2000, in 2004 the BBC moved in from their studios at Pebble Mill. From here we were back at the canal and where we started. We decided to walk down to Ed’s and get a Milkshake, then went back to the room for a bit of a relax before heading back up to the Jewellery Quarter to pick up my ring by which time it was time to head to the Birmingham back to backs, unfortunately on the way we got caught up in a demonstration I think against the government but I could be wrong! We arrived at the Back to backs a few minutes late but as it is a guided tour, for only us (each tour was booked for a max 6 person bubble and they are 30 minutes apart) so it didn’t really matter. Known as Court 15 these are the last surviving back to backs in the West Midlands, the original house was actually built as a six bedroom house for a businessman, as this area was virtually in the country but as this area became consumed by the city, the business men moved out and the owners converted the house to a back to backs. More houses were built and the courtyard created by 4 back to backs (8 houses) and 3 blank backs creating the courtyard containing 11 houses. We started in the brew house, which is actually the wash house, each household was allocated day to do their washing, so every 11 days you could have clean clothes and a bath, they used the water from the washing for the bath as it was already heated, there were 3 privies in the corner shared by all the houses, it was common for the families to take in lodgers so as many as 60 people lived in this courtyard at any time. We could go in 3 different houses, although only on the ground floor, due to Covid (not sure why this meant we couldn’t go upstairs but it did) and each house was decorated to represent a different era, starting with when they were first build and ending in the 1940’s the guide was really interesting and the whole tour lasted over an hour because we had a great conversation with him. By the time we finished it was almost 4pm so we walked back to the canal area and after picking up some more water we set off for something to eat then back to the hotel for a relax and catching up with the Olympics.
