Digbeth catches fire (again)

Dear readers — we hope you enjoyed your weekends and weren’t too shaken by the sudden arrival of wintry weather. The radiator at Dispatch HQ is well and truly ON.

Today, Digbeth has faced another fire in an empty old warehouse — reportedly used as a rubbish tip during the bin strikes — the latest building to suffer the heat. Residents who live right by the site (which has been set ablaze a few times in the past) are unhappy to say the least. That’s today’s Big Story.

In your Brum in Brief, one of the men behind the flags has doubled down after video footage emerged of him protesting outside a hotel housing asylum seekers. To jog your memory: he is one of the campaigners who claims they are not spreading hate but patriotic joy. Elliot Stanley certainly was spreading joy when he sold sex dolls, as we discovered when we unearthed an old TV documentary about his former family-run business. Also today: Russia might have been behind the cyber attack at JLR and committee members at the Asian Chamber of Commerce step down en masse, citing ‘racial insensitivity.’ Read on for those stories.

Catch up and coming up:

• From the sports field to hitting the books, don’t say the Dispatch doesn’t have range. Last week we published stories on Aston Villa’s controversial upcoming match against Tel Aviv Maccabi and indie publishing house Emma Press. Both courtesy of the indispensable Dan Cave. 
• Our recent mission to fact-check Robert Jenrick’s claims that he “didn’t see a single white face” when he was in Handsworth in February was picked up by national news outlet Novara Live:

• The Dispatch is holding a source clinic on Wednesday the 15th of October at 1000 Trades. A big thank you to everyone who has decided to take part! Please remember that if you need to cancel: we’d appreciate 24 hours notice. Please also respect the 30 minute slot that you’ve booked. Additionally, please have a think about whether you want to be on the record, on background, or off the record. You can find a guide to these terms here.  

Photo of the week:

Photo: Sober Sunday (Druids Heath 2025) @dirty.brum. How sober was your weekend? Let us know in the comments. 

Big Story: Digbeth catches fire (again)

Top line: Another abandoned Digbeth building has caught fire, prompting outcry.

Context: Late on Friday afternoon, a derelict former electronic toy factory at 234 Bradford Street was the latest industrial building in Digbeth to go up in flames. During the last six months, the S&K building (a former grocer’s HQ also on Bradford Street) and a three-storey factory at 12 Rea Street have also caught alight.

The latest blaze: The most recent fire began at around 5.40pm on Friday, and according to our on-the-ground reporter, was quickly contained by West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS) officers, preventing spread to surrounding residential buildings (including a staff writer’s flat!). WMFS raised no concerns about further structural damage to the building but declined to comment about any specific cause.

A ‘terrible situation’: Leo, a resident of neighbouring Hairpin House, told The Dispatch the building has been abandoned for “as long as I can remember.” Over the last two years, he revealed, the roof has caved-in allowing passerbys to see “just how terrible the situation inside is — the floor looks like it’s about to collapse.” He added: “People have just been throwing their garbage in the building for weeks and months since the bin strikes.”

Data check: The fire has raised the hackles of community activist group The Friends of Bradford Street, who recently filed an FOI request to the WMFS asking how frequent blazes were in Digbeth. The outcome, according to the Friends’ X page, was “worse than expected.” The FOI revealed there have been 28 fire service call outs to four derelict sites in the area since 2021.

A bright future? The ‘Stone Galleon’ building at 234 Bradford Street has been visibly abandoned since at least 2009, according to Google Street view. As reported by Birmingham Live in 2016, the site was due to be redeveloped into flats by a company called ESRG Developments, after a 2014 fire at an adjoining building. Yet another fire gutted that structure — formerly owned by the Kingfield Heath stationery company — in 2020.

An unknown owner: A quick check on the Land Registry reveals that the structure’s freehold was sold in 2007 for £600,000 to Bitton Invest Corp, a company registered in the city of Road Town, British Virgin Islands. Sadly, the British Virgin Islands are a haven for offshore companies and don't keep transparent accounts of company directors — so we don’t know who directly owns the building. 

Bottom line: If history teaches us anything, fires are going to keep happening at Digbeth’s disused buildings, unless action is taken. Especially if, as it appears has happened in this case, the ongoing bin strikes mean people are using them as rubbish dumps.

Additional reporting by Pooyan Kimiyaee.

Our staff writer Samuel McIlhagga is working on fires in derelict buildings across the West Midlands. He has a call out for tips here. 

Brum in Brief:

🇬🇧 One of the two men behind the rise in Union Jack flags in south Birmingham has said he is ‘not ashamed’ to have attended an August protest outside a Solihull hotel housing asylum seekers. Elliot Stanley, 44, is the co-founder of raisethecolours.org (not a registered charity or company as The Dispatch recently revealed) which hoists flags, some reading “stop the boats” and “save our kids,” both here and around the country. Stanley has appeared on GB News several times to insist the campaign is not divisive or right wing but merely patriotic. After video footage emerged of him at the demonstration saying asylum seekers “shouldn’t be here,” the businessman has faced criticism from anti-racist campaigners. In an interview with Birmingham Live, Stanley doubles down, claiming his issue with “unvetted and undocumented males coming to this country” is uncontroversial. Stanley is used to the spotlight, having once taken part in a documentary about the sex doll company he used to run with his wife and 17-year-old son. Sex Doll Official — which both sold and rented out customised dolls — was run from the family home in Bromsgrove but folded during the pandemic.

🚙 Work has resumed at Jaguar Landrover (JLR) plants across the West Midlands after a major cyber attack back in August. The attack has led the British government to underwrite a £1.5 billion loan to help the firm, and has threatened up to 200,000 jobs in the UK. Now, The Telegraph has revealed that Russia “is suspected of being behind the cyber attack.” The newspaper’s political editor Ben Riley-Smith broke the story on Saturday, reporting that Russian actions were “an active line of inquiry” in intelligence communities. Operatives from GCHQ have been sent into JLR to investigate the cause. 

👔 Ten committee members of the Asian Chamber of Commerce have stood-down over alleged ‘racial insensitivity’ and ‘disrespect’ at the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, according to the Birmingham Mail. The resignations leave the board with only four remaining members. Several of the chambers' committee members have gone public, telling the Birmingham Mail that: “the Asian Business Chamber was being treated as little more than a diversity tick box.” The Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce have responded to allegations about insensitivity saying: “While we regret there has been a disagreement over operational matters, we strongly deny allegations of racism.”  

🐻 The county of Warwickshire could be split in half, according to the BBC. The West Midlands county, famous for Shakespeare, the sport of rugby, and the author George Eliot, could be split up, as the UK government looks at English devolution reforms this year. There are currently proposals to break the historic county into a North Warwickshire and South Warwickshire council: with Atherstone, Nuneaton, and Rugby in the north and Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick and Leamington Spa in the south. Currently Tory, Liberal Democrat and Green controlled local councils back the move, while Labour and Reform controlled areas are advocating to retain a single county council.   

Quick Hits:

🔪 West Midlands primary schools are reporting an increase in knife crime related incidents. (BBC).

🎤 Birmingham born singer The Streets (Mike Skinner) has skipped Birmingham on his ‘A Grand Don’t Come for Free’ tour. Although, there are rumours that he might announce a St Andrews stadium date. (I Choose Birmingham).

🕉️The 10th annual Birmingham Diwali festival in Handsworth has been postponed over safety fears. (BBC). 

🔋 The High Court approves a battery storage facility at Great Barr after campaign against it (Express and Star). 

👩‍🏫 Redudancies at Arthur Terry Learing Partnership trust schools in the West Midlands due to ‘financial challenges.’ (Birmingham Mail). 

💎Birmingham City council places Vyse Street Jewellery Quarter workshops up for sale. (Professional Jeweller). 

🙏 Vigil to be held at Coventry Cathedral to mark 85 years since the Blitz. (BBC). 

Media picks:

🎧 The Rest is History podcast recently released an episode on one of Birmingham’s most notorious sons: politician, classicist, intelligence officer and, for many, inflammatory racist: Enoch Powell. The episode, in some ways a response to the rise of Reform and nationalist protests this year, explores the life of Powell and his West Midlands roots. Presenters Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland describe his lower-middle class Brummie background, education at King Edward’s School, obsession with the Worcestershire poet A.E. Housman and political career in Wolverhampton. They try to reckon with Powell’s incendiary ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech against immigration made in 1968 at the Midland Hotel near New Street Station. Sandbrook claims that his influence “is more important than many who became prime minister."

📰 The Guardian has interviewed Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl’s education activist who was shot by the Taliban in 2012, aged 15. After the attempted assassination, Yousafzai moved to Birmingham for treatment, eventually ending up at Edgbaston High School. She has had an international career, and an Oxford education, but returned to Birmingham to get married in her parent’s house in 2021. The interview with journalist Sirin Kale, comes after the release of her new book Finding My Way. Yousafzai reveals that smoking a bong at her Oxford college brought back the 2012 attack by the Taliban and discusses balancing differing cultural expectations: around marriage and career.  

Our to do list:

🎸 Tonight, 1960s and 1970s favourite Graham Nash plays Symphony Hall. Tickets from £71. 

🇺🇸 On Tuesday, the New Jersey Rock band The Happy Fits play Digbeth’s Mama Roux’s. Tickets from £22.  

🤡 Suffering from the ‘millennial pause'? Noticed how weird British culture is? Catch observational comedian Josh Baulf at The Glee Club on Wednesday. Tickets from £16.50. 

🌻 The Sunflower Lounge, an independent venue on Smallbrook Queensway, is hosting an emerging talent night on Thursday. Tickets start at £9.05. 

🌊 Symphony Hall are covering all the generational touchstones this week. Catch Gen X favourites Wet Wet Wet on Friday. Tickets start at £34.50. 

📖 Birmingham Literature Festival is hosting a Readers Day on Saturday at Priory Rooms. Join authors including: Ingrid Persaud, Sean Lusk, Lottie Hazell and others for a series of seminars and panels. Tickets start at £35. Includes tea and coffee. 

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13/10/2025: We have changed the phrasing of the section about the JLR cyber attack to make it clear that the government has underwritten a £1.5bn loan for the firm.