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A Birmingham and Black Country thread for all things Brummie and Yam-Yam

Lorca said:
I lolled at the fact that Queen Victoria used to shut the blinds on her carriage when passing through, never knew that!
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It's been said that that is where the Black Country got it's name.
In Queen Victoria's early diaries she writes, aged 13, of her visit to Birmingham and Wolverhampton: "The men, woemen [sic], children, country and houses are all black. But I can not by any description give an idea of its strange and extraordinary appearance.

"The country is very desolate every where; there are coals about, and the grass is quite blasted and black. I just now see an extraordinary building flaming with fire. The country continues black, engines flaming, coals, in abundance, every where, smoking and burning coal heaps, intermingled with wretched huts and carts and little ragged children."
 
mr steev said:
It's been said that that is where the Black Country got it's name.
In Queen Victoria's early diaries she writes, aged 13, of her visit to Birmingham and Wolverhampton: "The men, woemen [sic], children, country and houses are all black. But I can not by any description give an idea of its strange and extraordinary appearance.

"The country is very desolate every where; there are coals about, and the grass is quite blasted and black. I just now see an extraordinary building flaming with fire. The country continues black, engines flaming, coals, in abundance, every where, smoking and burning coal heaps, intermingled with wretched huts and carts and little ragged children."
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I read Hard Times (Dickens) years ago and that quote by Queen Victoria was in the Introduction, even though the book was a bit more Northerny.
 
Smokeandsteam said:
The Rainbow has abandoned its appeal totally and will refund the £25K raised to fund its legal challenge.

A massive blow to the city in my view, and very very sad news. Still the relgious bigots and moralisers on BCC Licensing Committee will be delighted. They've taken down a major player in the counter culture of the city.

The Rainbow Venues withdraws appeal against council
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Yes it sucks, one can only assume the venues will open back up under new management at some point and the cycle can start all over again. As a donator I'd be more than happy for them to use that money for that very reason. A bit of Phoenix Nights style magic with the licensee.
 
cybershot said:
Yes it sucks, one can only assume the venues will open back up under new management at some point and the cycle can start all over again. As a donator I'd be more than happy for them to use that money for that very reason. A bit of Phoenix Nights style magic with the licensee.
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According to the article in counteract they will continue but not in Brum.
 
Juat posted this in the politics forum here.

Plans are also afoot to show the film of Malcolm X visiting Smethwick. Plus Shirin Hersch will be talking about her forthcoming book examining strikes in the West Midlands during the period that brough black, asaian and white workers together and forged a cultural identity based on shared class interests on the shopfloor.

Rivers of Love
 
Smokeandsteam said:
Juat posted this in the politics forum here.

Plans are also afoot to show the film of Malcolm X visiting Smethwick. Plus Shirin Hersch will be talking about her forthcoming book examining strikes in the West Midlands during the period that brough black, asaian and white workers together and forged a cultural identity based on shared class interests on the shopfloor.

Rivers of Love
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That looks really interesting, thanks for posting.
 
cybershot said:
I somehow missed the announcement, but knew about the fight to keep open, but looks like iconic canalside boozer and live music venue The Flapper lost it's battle and closes it's doors on 30th June. 1 year before it would have celebrated it's 50th Birthday!

Weather looks good on Wednesday and I've got the day off, so may well have what could be my final pint there.

Birmingham’s popular Flapper venue closes : replaced by yet more posh flats - Louder Than War
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Absolutely shit news this.

While the blame lies squarely elsewhere it’s a bit disappointing to see both The Flapper and The Rainbow closing without much of a fight.

Really bad news for the soul of the city.
 
Funny you should say that, as Wednesday I went into the new Library for the first time (shame on me, also the flapper didn't open until 4pm and by then we were ready to go home after being on our feet since 10:30am) and also discovered the secret garden.

Photos attached, so much construction work going on, it's impossible to get a good picture of the city anywhere because of cranes or stuff that's been bulldozed! Also Can't actually see very far because, far too many tall buildings around now! However I'm sure it looks impressive from the Lickey Hills!

IMG_1475.jpg IMG_1471.jpg IMG_1470.jpg IMG_1474.jpg IMG_1472.jpg
 
cybershot said:
Funny you should say that, as Wednesday I went into the new Library for the first time (shame on me, also the flapper didn't open until 4pm and by then we were ready to go home after being on our feet since 10:30am) and also discovered the secret garden.

Photos attached, so much construction work going on, it's impossible to get a good picture of the city anywhere because of cranes or stuff that's been bulldozed! Also Can't actually see very far because, far too many tall buildings around now! However I'm sure it looks impressive from the Lickey Hills!

View attachment 133367 View attachment 133368 View attachment 133369 View attachment 133370 View attachment 133371
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We went there on Friday. :)
 
Well, I've been liking Birmingham this week. We live near a lot of green, a few minutes from the River Rea, and I cycled up to Cannon Hill along the river on Friday in beautiful sunshine, then on to the Custard Factory where I had a lovely lunch, then on my way home lots of people I knew with their kids at our local park, so me and my kids joined them. Yesterday, I took my eldest to her drama group in Hockley, and I had a coffee while doing some work in a nice caf in the Jewellery Quarter, I didn't eat but the breakfasts looked great. Then in the evening my partner and I went out (we finally have a babysitter) to our slowly changing high street and went to a microbrewery bar, followed by the new artisan pizza place, then the local pub which was very busy. It's still a very down to earth place, so I can't see it becoming too gentrified, nice for there to be places to go on a very run down high street and to not automatically think lets go into Kings Heath.
 
kazza007 said:
Birmingham is looking increasingly shit with yet more shiny buildings/flats and iconic places closing
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It's been like this since forever.

No sense of planning;
no coherent vision of what the city/skyline should look like;
the almost deliberate tearing down of iconic buildings and replacing them with shit;
Clogged up roads everywhere choking the city to death;
religious council bigots and the cops closing down any sense of a counter culture;
the breathtakingly bad attempts to become a knowledge economy city;
the endless wasteful ostentiatious odes to philistinism and desperation to be LA or NY but ending up like Detroit;
systematic failure to act like the second city whilst moaning about London, Manchester, everywhere;
the filth and mess;
morons who couldn't run a bath running the city


I still fucking love it though...
 
True. It's like an old, battered pair of shoes...with a new, snazzy pair of laces to revitalize, but still the familiarity of those comfy, old pair.
 
Except... The centre is a much nicer place to be now. The old Birmingham was horrible - endless subways, dark tunnels under roads, concrete misery. To get anywhere meant going underground though rubbish filled passageways that stank of piss.

It's so much better now, even allowing for the corporate blandness in the buildings.
 
beesonthewhatnow said:
Except... The centre is a much nicer place to be now. The old Birmingham was horrible - endless subways, dark tunnels under roads, concrete misery. To get anywhere meant going underground though rubbish filled passageways that stank of piss.

It's so much better now, even allowing for the corporate blandness in the buildings.
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Have you been in town lately? It's a building site. Shit Primarks, shit shops that nobody needs, yet more new offices, boxy indentikit flat construction, filthy and full of rubbish. Oh, and literally choking to death from endless and permanent congestion.

Given the endless empty shops everywhere you'd think the council might want to have mandated some massive green spaces, maybe open up more of the canals, maybe massively expand cylce networks, maybe have kids play areas and desginate some car free zones. But no. Just in the last few months The Flapper has gone to be replaced by flats, The Rainbow - gone for god knows, the Adam and Eve - gone, loads of the Irish pubs in Digbeth forced closed by the cops etc etc

I agree with you about the old rat run networks - they were horrible and probably dangerous - but the point is this. Moving away from the 60's planning blight could have been the moment to transform the city. We could have made it greeener, cleaner and genuinely made it a space to be rather than just work and consume, but as usual we've failed.
 
beesonthewhatnow said:
Except... The centre is a much nicer place to be now. The old Birmingham was horrible - endless subways, dark tunnels under roads, concrete misery. To get anywhere meant going underground though rubbish filled passageways that stank of piss.

It's so much better now, even allowing for the corporate blandness in the buildings.
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That bit on new street/high St around odeon/specsavers round to boots has quite a down trodden/univiting/embarrassingly rough feel to it for a 'second city' compared to further up. Maybe a reflection on other city center, but did we really need a primary megastore for the pavilion, etc. Gap near Martineau a poundland megastore and many other examples of similar shite. The centre is really two co existing cities now
 
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