BIRMINGHAM - ENGLAND |
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Birmingham is a city in the West Midlands of
England. Being the country's second largest city, it is generally considered
Britain's "second city", after London. The City of Birmingham has a
population of 992,100 (2003 estimate); the Birmingham metropolitan area (the
West Midlands county) has a population of 2,575,768. Around five million
people live within a 50 mile (80km) radius of the city.
The city is commonly known by its nickname Brum (from its colloquial name
Brummagem) and its inhabitants as Brummies. Birmingham residents speak with
a distinctive Brummie accent which is often confused with the Black Country
accent. The people are generally regarded as hard working, and having a
unique sense of humour. |
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Birmingham is one of the
most culturally diverse cities in the UK, with large populations from the
Caribbean and Indian sub-continent: according to the 2001 census, 29.7% of
the population of Birmingham is non-white. Birmingham also has a large Irish
community, and the city hosts the third largest St. Patrick's Day parade in
the world, after Dublin and New York. Birmingham's balti restaurants produce
some of the finest 'Indian' cuisine in the U.K.
About 22 million people visit Birmingham every year and the city was voted
second best place to shop in England 2004 after the West End of London. Its
top attractions include Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Millennium Point,
Bull Ring, Selfridges Building, Cadbury World, Tolkien Trail, Birmingham
Royal Ballet, and the National Sea Life Centre.
Birmingham has 35 miles (60 km) of canals within the city boundaries, of
which most are navigable, the canals were once the lifeblood of the city's
industries during the Industrial Revolution but are now used mainly for
pleasure. It is often quoted, that Birmingham has more miles of canal than
Venice. This is in fact true (Venice has 26 miles) although Birmingham is
much larger than Venice.
Architecture
Birmingham grew out of dozens of small villages, towns and farmsteads,
particularly during the Industrial Revolution. The need to house the many
industrial workers that flocked to the city from other areas lead to many
Victorian streets and terraces of back-to-back houses, some of which were
later to become inner-city slums.
Some of the city's older black and white timber buildings can still be seen
today like 'The Old Crown' public house in Digbeth, the 'Stone' public house
in Northfield and Stratford House in Sparkbrook.
Many Georgian, Tudor, Edwardian and Elizabethan buildings still survive
dotted around the city. These include Bournbrook Hall (Bournville), Selly
Manor (a Tudor manor house), Minworth Greaves (a medieval hall), the 15th
Century "Saracen's Head" and "Old Grammar School" (both Kings Norton),
Handsworth Old Town Hall (1460; an example of early cruck timber frame
construction), Soho House (Handsworth, 1766), The Old Birmingham Workhouse
in Lichfield street (1734) and the 29m metre high Perrots Folly Ladywood
which was built in 1758 by John Perrot and which was an inspiration to
Tolkien.
The Victorian era saw an extensive building programme right across the city,
examples of which can still be seen, with many churches and public buildings
like the Birmingham Law Courts, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Birmingham
Botanical Gardens, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts the Town Hall and the
City of Birmingham Council House. Many of the public buildings were built
usng red brick and terracotta. New Street and Corporation Street in the city
centre have retained many of their fine Victorian buildings providing an
insight into how the city once looked.
Birmingham's industrial importance in World War Two lead to some of the
heaviest bombing raids during the Blitz, this claimed many lives and many
beautiful buildings too, however the destruction that took place in post war
Birmingham was also extensive, dozens of fine Victorian buildings like the
intricate glass roofed Birmingham New Street Station, and the old Central
Library were destroyed in the 1950s and 1960s. These planning decisions were
to have a profound effect on the image of Birmingham in subsequent decades,
with the mix of concrete ring roads, shopping malls and tower blocks often
referred to as a 'concrete jungle' or a city with no soul. The largest high-rise
estate in Britain was constructed at Castle Vale with over 30 huge tower
blocks in one small area. Birmingham has since learnt from this with one of
the largest tower block demolition and renovation programmes anywhere in
Europe, and the construction of new buildings, squares and green spaces.
Birmingham's grade I listed Town Hall closed to the public in 1996, for £31
million City Council initiated major renovation. The redbrick Victoria Law
Courts in Corporation Street, built in 1887, and Curzon Street Station are
also grade I listed.
Many grade II listed buildings also remain in the city, for instance the
recently- listed, though empty, Grand Hotel on Colmore Row (1875, with
additions in 1876, 1891 and 1895) and the popular 200ft-high Rotunda, a
circular tower block at the South end of New Street. St. Philip's Cathedral,
built as a parish church, is in the heart of the city, and has glass by
Edward Burne-Jones. More modern architecture includes the award winning
Future Systems' Selfridges building which is an irregularly- shaped
structure, covered in thousands of reflective discs. Brindley Place and
Millennium Point are also examples of recent rejuvenation. Many new projects
are planned for the city, including a new Library of Birmingham in the
developing Eastside, and Arena Central on Broad Street.
Places of interest
The Back to Backs Living Museum (The National Trust).
Chinese Quarter - home to many clubs, bars and restaurants
Convention Quarter
Jewellery Quarter - The largest concentration of dedicated jewellers in
Europe
National Sealife Centre
Number 9 The Gallery
Birmingham Thinktank Science Museum
Victoria Square
Sutton Park
Learning
Birmingham has three universities: The University of Birmingham, Aston
University and The University of Central England (UCE, formerly Birmingham
Polytechnic). The UCE has asked Aston to consider a merger. The Birmingham
Conservatoire, now part of the UCE, was established over 100 years ago and
is recognised as one of the major national colleges of music which focuses
on performance and composition.
Mansfield College, one of the constituent colleges of the University of
Oxford, was founded (under the name of Spring Hill College) in Birmingham
but later moved to Oxford with the relaxation of non-conformists in 1886.
Sports
Football (Soccer)
The city is home to two of the UK's oldest professional Premier League
football teams: Aston Villa (1874) and Birmingham City (1875) . Nearby West
Bromwich Albion's ground The Hawthorns used to be divided by the Birmingham/
Smethwick border, but was moved completely into the latter by a minor
rationalisation of local government borders in the 1960s and is now in
Sandwell.
The first football league was invented, by William McGregor on 22 March
1885, in Aston.
Athletics takes place at the open-air Alexander Stadium on a national and
international level. Recent development has seen addition of a High
Performance Centre for indoor intense specialist training. The Stadium is
also home to Birchfield Harriers, who have contributed towards Britain's
National and International Athletics for many years. The National Indoor
Arena is Britain's Premier Indoor Athletics stadium and in 2003 successfully
hosted the 9th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics. The city has
been chosen to host the European Athletic Association's European Indoor
Championships in 2007.
Culture and Arts
Popular music
In the late 1960s Heavy metal music first evolved in the city and its
neighbouring districts with bands such as Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, The
Fortunes, The Move and Led Zeppelin which included Robert Plant (singer from
West Bromwich) and John Bonham (drummer from Redditch) Early progressive
rock and blues bands to evolve from the city in the Brum Beat era included:
The Rockin Berries, The Honeycombes, Wizzard, The Spencer Davis Group, Idle
Race, The Moody Blues, Judas Priest, Traffic, and The Electric Light
Orchestra.
Other successful Birmingham singer/songwriters and musicians include Joan
Armatrading, Steve Gibbons, Mike Kellie (of Spooky Tooth), Jeff Lynne, Phil
Lynott (who formed Thin Lizzy), Carl Palmer (of Emerson Lake and Palmer),
Ruby Turner, Toyah Willcox, Steve Winwood and Roy Wood.
Mothers rock venue ran in Erdington from 1968 - 1971 and The list of bands
who played there reads like a roll call of rock legends: Pink Floyd recorded
part of Ummagumma, The Who performed Tommy and Traffic staged their debut
gig. The club was voted number one rock venue in the world by America's
Billboard magazine.
Birmingham-based tape recorder company, Bradmatic Ltd helped develop and
manufacture the mellotron. Over the next 15 years, the mellotron had a major
impact on rock music and is a trademark sound of the era's progressive bands.
During the 1970s Birmingham's large West Indian population spawned what is
arguably one of the earliest roots reggae bands in the UK, Steel Pulse. With
their ground breaking 1970s album Handsworth Revolution they proved that
English Reggae music could offer something more than just sound system. They
were soon followed by the first truly mixed race UK dub reggae band, UB40.
Other 1970s Reggae orientated groups were 2 tone band The Beat, and Musical
Youth who (along with UB40, Pablo Falconer and Pato Banton) were part
responsible for bringing UK reggae into the homes of everyday 1980s Britain.
More recent successful Reggae artists include the Brummie Rasta MC Chesire
Cat who wrote and rapped on the Leftfield album 'Rhythm and Stealth' and MC
Ebu who toasts at various events across the UK.
The 1980s brought New Romantic super-group Duran Duran, who formed in the
city and worked in Birmingham's famous Rum Runner nightclub in the 1970s.
Also Napalm Death and Stephen "Tintin" Duffy emanated from late 1970s/early
1980s Birmingham, as did Dexy's Midnight Runners. The Birmingham Hip Hop
scene also emerged during the 1980s.
The late 1980s/1990s Indie music scene saw bands such as The Charlatans,
Dodgy, Ocean Colour Scene, WonderStuff, Pop Will Eat Itself and Ned's Atomic
Dustbin who all eminated from the city and its surrounding satellite towns.
Bhangra Rap evolved in Handsworth in the early 1990s with Apache Indian who
later went on to host his own radio show on BBC Radio 1. Many other Bhangra
bands are based in the city.
Jazz is popular in the city. The Birmingham International Jazz Festival
takes place annually and is the largest of its kind in the UK. Some of the
city's jazz musicians include Soweto Kinch and King Pleasure and the Biscuit
Boys.
Birmingham has embraced house music since the late 1980s. Acid House nights
such as Spectrum took place at the Digbeth Institute (now the Sanctuary) and
the Hummingbird (now the Carling Academy Birmingham). Some of the UK's most
influential dance nights including Gods Kitchen, Chuff Chuff, Wobble, Miss
Moneypenny's, Gatecrasher, Sundissential, Atomic Jam, House of God and the
original C.R.E.A.M. have their roots in the city and have been supported by
local figures such as the late Tony De Vit, Steve Lawler and Steve Kelley.
More recent artists include electro dub creators Rockers Hi-Fi, Big Beat
musicians Bentley Rhythm Ace, Garage/House band The Streets, Electronica
bands Broadcast, Pram, Plone, Surgeon, Add N to X and Avrocar. R&B singer
Jamelia is also from the city as is Kelli Dayton of The Sneaker Pimps,
saxophonist/rapper Soweto Kinch and the rock band Ocean Colour Scene.
Party in the Park is Birmingham's largest music festival, at Cannon Hill
Park, where up to 30,000 revellers of all ages enjoy popular chart music.
Some of Birmingham's other music venues include Academy 2, the National
Exhibition Centre's Indoor Arena and Symphony Hall, Scruffy Murphy's, the
Custard Factory, Edward's No. 8, mac (Midlands Arts Centre), and the Drum
Arts Centre.
Classical music
The internationally-renowned City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's home
venue is Symphony Hall, where it gives frequent performances. The equally
world-renowned Birmingham Royal Ballet also resides in the city as will the
world's oldest vocational dance school, Elmhurst.
The Birmingham Triennial Music Festival took place from 1784 - 1912 and was
considered the grandest of its kind throughout Britain. Music was written
for the festival by Mendelssohn, Gounod, Sullivan, Dvorak, Bantock and most
notably Elgar, who wrote four of his most famous choral pieces for
Birmingham.
Albert William Ketèlbey was born in Alma Street, Aston on 9 August, 1875,
the son of a teacher at the Vittoria School of Art, Ketèlbey attended the
Trinity College of Music, where he beat the runner-up, Gustav Holst, for a
musical scholarship.
Birmingham's other city- centre music venues include The National Indoor
Arena (NIA), CBSO Centre, Adrian Boult Hall (ABH) at Birmingham
Conservatoire and the Birmingham Town Hall,currently closed for
refurbishment, which played host to many classical and popular music
performances from the late 1800s.
Literature
Many famous literary figures have been associated with Birmingham:
Arthur Conan Doyle lived in Aston from about Spring 1879 - early 1882 and
many of his works include references to people or places he knew there.
Barbara Cartland or "The Lady in Pink" was born in Edgbaston July 9th 1901.
The family home was on Cartland Road, Kings Heath.
Benjamin Zephaniah is a famous black dub poet from Handsworth who tackles
predudice, poverty and injustice.
Charles Dickens gave readings in Birmingham Town Hall.
The Lord of the Rings author J. R. R. Tolkien spent most of his childhood in
the Birmingham area, and his work is much influenced by his time there his
parents also came from Birmingham.
Judith Cutler's crime novels are set in present-day Birmingham. The city
also has literary workshops such as Tindal Street Press.
Washington Irving lived in Birmingham for some time, during which he wrote
stories including Rip van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Bracebridge Hall, or, The Humorists, A Medley is based on Aston Hall.
Comedy
Birmingham has generated some very famous comedians including: Sid Field,
Tony Hancock, Jasper Carrott, Shazia Mirza and Rick Mayall.
The local evening newspaper sponsors an annual autumn comedy festival in the
city.
The Glee Club and Birmingham Jongleurs are both prominent comedy venues. The
Drum Arts Centre also hosts series of monthly comedy sessions as does the
mac.
Theatre and music hall
There are many theatres in Birmingham. The three largest professional
theatres are the Alexandra Theatre ("the Alex"), Birmingham Repertory
Theatre ("The Rep") and the Birmingham Hippodrome. The actors in the
long-running Radio 4 serial The Archers live in and around Birmingham, where
the supposedly rural programme is recorded.
Art
Birmingham has one one of the largest collections of Pre-Raphaelite art in
the world at The Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. Edward Burne-Jones was
born in Birmingham.
David Cox was a famous Birmingham watercolour artist and President of the
Associated Artists in Water Colour in 1810.
The Barber Institute of Fine Arts is housed at the University of Birmingham
and although only a small gallery it was declared 'Gallery of the Year' by
the Good Britain Guide 2004.
The Ikon Gallery is housed in a neo-gothic former school in Brindley Place
and showcases modern art. Number 9 The Gallery is close by.
The Halcyon Gallery is located inside the International Convention Centre,
with major sale- exhibitions by artists as diverse as Rolf Harris, Mackenzie
Thorpe, L.S._Lowry and Birmingham-born Govinder Nazran, who was nominated
for the Fine Art Trade Guild's 'Best Selling Artist 2004'.
Graffiti (or "spraycan art") culture appeared in the early 1980s, with the
area featuring in Channel 4 documentary Bombing. Birmingham also hosted the
largest spraycan art competition in Britain, which brought together Goldie,
Bronx Graffiti Supremo Brim, Mode and 3D, who later went on to found Massive
Attack. Graffiti events are still held in the Custard Factory and Selly Oak
ball park.
The Old Bird's Custard Factory is now one of the largest thriving media and
arts villages in Europe, with exhibitions and an array of exciting modern
sculpture and water features.
The mac hosts theatre performances, concerts, literature and poetry
showcases, courses, film screenings and art exhibitions.
The Drum Arts Centre features works of local, regional, national and
international African, Asian and Caribbean contemporary artists.
Festivals and shows
Birmingham is home to many national, religious and spiritual festivals
including a St. George's Day party and the third largest St. Patrick's Day
parade in the world, after New York City and Dublin.
The Birmingham Tattoo is a military show that has taken place in the city
for several years. The currently biennial Caribbean- style Birmingham
International Carnival was originally the Handsworth Carnival, held in
Handsworth Park from 1984, but now takes place biennially in Perry Barr
Park. Birmingham Pride takes place in Birmingham's gay village and attracts
up to 100,000 visitors each year. The Fierce Festival teams with the
Birmingham Repertory Theatre ("The Rep") to present an series of quirky
performances from local and national companies. The Birmingham Film Festival
takes place annually at various Broad Street venues. It highlights local
talent as well as a wide spectrum of international productions. The Young
Book Reader UK festival also takes place in the city as well as the
Birmingham International Jazz Festival. The millennium saw the birth of the
Birmingham International Festival. |
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