I Yet another good feature article except for the video which doesn’t show the Birmingham that most people experience daily and the lyrics would not encourage people to visit.
Manchester has a band ‘The Courtneers’ which has a huge following in and around the city. Birmingham has ‘The Twang’ - a band which has produced great music over many years reflecting the mood and feel of life in the city. In fact one of the albums is titled ‘Jewellery Quarter’.
Thank you for the compliment about the feature Barbara. We will have to respectfully disagree about the music video! I did see The Twang last year at The Crossing in Digbeth though. It was a fun gig.
Great piece, Kate. I think I could've gone a lifetime of Birmingham just being somewhere to change trains if I hadn't had the good fortune to fall for a Brummie - from the first 'meet the parents' visit it became somewhere I always look forward to returning to, where I've had many of the best memories of my adult life. The best pubs, a really thriving underground music scene (annual trips to House of God and Supersonic are always highlights), one of the easiest places in the country to reliably find a great meal at any price point, a really exciting mix of architecture where Arts and Crafts gems sit next to striking brutalism and bonkers postmodernism. The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is superbly curated and I really hope doesn't get jettisoned to help the council balance the books. I could go on!
The obvious comparison with Manchester (which I've made my home) is an interesting one. For sure Manchester has been more successful at selling itself, but a lot of its branding feels very backwards-looking: presenting itself as the most exciting place in the country without managing to break out of an obsession with the Hacienda and cotton mills. In Birmingham there's not the same sense that the music scene sits in the shadow of being the home of metal, and the Jewellery Quarter is still home to a massive amount of craftspeople rather than just being a name that nods to heritage.
"Quietly getting on with stuff" sounds about right - but there must be a middle ground between letting its gems go overlooked (or get bulldozed) and getting swept away in self-promo and chasing after shiny, expensive new selling points.
I’m similar to Anne Forster in that I grew up near Manchester & moved to Birmingham 39 years ago. I love the place, the warmth of the people drew me here initially. I got off the train at the hole that was New Street was lost & confused getting to the road New Street. On the ramp I asked when I could stop one of the throng if they knew where the No7 went from. She started to tell me then stopped & said come with me I’m catching that bus ! She told me about exact change & as we came to Lynton Square shouted down the bus - hey Manc, you stop ! I chose the Poly to study & have never left. I’m constantly disappointed by the understated love Brummies have. Carl Chinn hits the nail on the head about here. Now though is the time to shout about & there is so much to love. The council doesn’t do us proud save for the Be Bold project which I use on my office email. Maybe it takes an adopted Brummy to talk the place up.
And yet there is hope on social media local groups proud of the gems in their area. Photo groups who shine a light on unsung parts of Brum. Walking tours of these places are great, go see the police museum & the “wing” of a gaol between the police station & the court. Pop in the Magistrates too, no photos allowed ridiculously but an architectural masterpiece with “memes” of the 19th century dotted around. I love Manchester but really love Brum. Alright Brum 😊
That's a great story about your arrival in brum and a really good example of how friendly ppl are here, thanks for sharing. I must go to that police museum tour - I didn't know anything about it!
The No 7 does not and never has gone to Lynton Square....(which ceased to exist with the building of the One Stop Shopping Centre in Perry Barr in the 1980s). Like Lynton Square, the Poly has also ceased to exist ......and although it graduated to University status, it was not for long before the Powers that be demolished it as well! In its place we now have a desolate bunch of buildings which were originally designated as the 'Athletes' Village' for the prestige Commonwealth Games but never used.... a large Housing Estate that still lies empty and desolate in the ruins of Perry Barr. Get REAL!
A really good article but I need to highlight my work with the Birmingham Music Archive which is all about celebrating our city’s contribution to local, national & international music culture and to imbue a sense of recognition and pride in Birmingham. Just two examples out of many is our In The Que film & exhibition that over 400,000 people visited and which we are now taking to London for a short exhibition (and House of God is very much at the heart of the film/exhibition) and our On Record album and videos where 11 artists wrote & recorded a song that responded to the word Birmingham. The album has been streamed over 100 million times across 233 countries. Dapz On The Mapz track precedes MIST’s similar track by over 12 months! Do go and search out the album and videos as it is a sonic love letter to Brum.
I’m writing this not to brag but to say there are people out there trying to change the narrative about Brum and who are proud of the city and our culture.
Hey jez, thanks for a detailed comment. I'd love to chat with you more about the archive. Absolutely there will be far more than one example of brum pride expressed in culture. It was nicely serendipitous that mists track came out just as I was writing it so thought it was a good one to include. I've seen the que club film - v good! I'll check out the album, cheers.
Hi Kate, yea there are lots of pride expressed through our culture. Be great to have a chat with you about the archive and museum we're opening in 26/27...I'll DM you my email address or see you in Bearwood 😂
I haven't been to the police museum yet, definitely going. Also very interesting walks I've yet to do. Pre 2020 my school friends and i would meet in Birmingham a couple of times a year and visit museums etc ,have a meal, they love it, will be picking that up again soon. Loved The Coffin Works and also the RBSA gallery in the Jewellery Quarter.
I moved to Birmingham in February this year having lived in the south, the east and the north.
Every place has its problems and Birmingham isn’t exempt from that, but what this city has is a warmth and welcome I’ve not experienced anywhere else.
It’s the only place I’ve lived where my middle-class accent has never been remarked on or reacted to, where I’ve not been made to feel out of place. I live in an area that straddles privilege and disadvantage, and on my daily dog walks meet other dog owners of all ages, backgrounds and socioeconomic status. Everyone is friendly. Everyone has the time of day.
The warmth and resilience of Brummies is this city’s greatest strength.
Great article. I moved to Brum from Edinburgh a few years back which, as you can imagine I got a lot of questions about that. But I quickly found it's a great city, and when my old Edinburgh friends come visit they're always really impressed.
I've felt since early moving here that people are quite happy flying under the radar, like they don't want everyone knowing because then they'd come and ruin it. Somehow trying to keep the second city as a little secret.
I am a proud adopted Brummie having moved here in the early 2000s. I love the diverse and friendly folk who call it home. It has also been incredibly welcoming professionally. I can't stand the brutalised buildings though and am glad that a lot of them have gone. Appreciate not everyone will agree
I've only lived in one city and that's Manchester and I still hold a deep affection for the place where I grew up ....but...the West Midlands has been my home for 45 years .
I've not lived closer than say 15 miles to Birmingham in that time but I like the city a lot. I love its architecture, even the brutalist bits my daughter waxes lyrical about have started to become attractive to me. The amazing history that's there, the canals too.
Hi Kate I am a proud working class Brummie like Carl Chinn and like him I was the first in my family to go to university like Carl Birmingham University. I couldn't be prouder of my city and for nearly 20 years had the job of my dreams in inward investment and investment promotion promoting my city to companies from around the globe. But if it's culture you want go no further north than Brum....the Birmingham Royal Ballet (I led on the relocation of the Elmhurst Ballet School to Birmingham to become the feeder ballet school for the Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2004) the CBSO at Symphony Hall, the Pre-Raphaelite collection of art at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and my favourite at Birmingham University the Barber Institute of Fine Arts or as we called it at Locate in Birmingham the City's former Inward Investment agency: "The best small art gallery in Europe". I could go on the Birmingham Hippodrome the world renowned Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Alexandra Theatre and the Old Rep. Things that Birmingham gave the world ...it spread literacy around the globe with the Birmingham pen trade based in the Jewellery Quarter supplying billions upon billions of metal pen nibs so much so that in 1870 Birmingham made pen nibs accounted for 75% of EVERYTHING written down in the world....imagine that! (I was a volunteer at the Pen Museum which is well worth a visit along with the Coffin Works in the Jewellery Quarter) Birmingham inventor Alexander Parkes invented the first viable plastic which he eponymously called "Parkesine" and imagine how that changed the world not always for the better. On the sporting front Birmingham’s Edgbaston pioneered the worldwide game of lawn tennis and Sir William McGregor Aston Villa chairman gave us the first organised football league in Victorian times. Indeed it could be said Birmingham was the crucible of the Industrial Revolution with Boulton and Watt creating the modern world with the first production line in the world making steam engines at the SOHO Foundry. I agree with your correspondents who almost all say what a welcoming and warm city Birmingham is, a true city of Sanctuary welcoming outsiders and nonconformists (not just in religion) with open arms. As one of our most famous sons and ambassadors for Brum Ozzy Osborne of Black Sabbath fame (another thing Birmingham gave the world: Heavy Metal music) said: "Birmingham Forever" Birmingham poet and writer Keith Bracey the Brummie Bard. My poetry is mostly about Birmingham history and I have published a book of verse "From Bearwood and Beyond" from whence I hail
Thanks Keith for hilighting all the great things to do and and see in Birmingham, I've visited most of them. That's what I like about Birmingham, it was a city of a thousand trades and thankfully some of the businesses did survive into the 20th C and their workshops were still intact to be resurrected as museums. We should treasure these as lots of cities have not been fortunate in still having the archives of industry to educate ,inform and delight 21st C visitors.
It might not be everyone's cup of tea but museums are fantastic places to learn about your heritage, Brummies. If you don't know where you've come from ,how do you know where you're going?
Agreed that museums are fantastic places Anne. I volunteer 3 days a week Wednesday Thursday and Friday at Smethwick Heritage Centre the Museum in the Park next to the Smethwick War Memorial and Smethwick Council House on High Street Smethwick. You should visit us sometime Anne. Smethwick was an industrial powerhouse back in Victorian times and in the early to mid 20th C. There were 30 or 40 big industrial firms like Chance Glass (once the largest glassworks in the world) GKN, Smethwick Drop Forgings, Tangye’s Smethwick Carriage Works, Evered, Birmid and Avery at the SOHO Foundry. Smethwick people are a rare breed and most think of themselves as having a distinct Smethwick identity not being Brummies or Black Country folk. I hail from Bearwood on the border with Smethwick but I am a proud Brummie born, raised and schooled in Edgbaston at George Dixon Grammar School for Boys in City Road Edgbaston and then onto the University of Birmingham AND I still live just 2 miles from where I was born and raised in Bearwood. Come and pay us a visit at the Smethwick Heritage Centre we're open on Thursdays and Fridays between 11am and 3pm Tara Rabbit! Keith Bracey Birmingham and Black Country poet and writer
I'll take you up on that sometime Keith. This is what I was hoping for with the launch of The Dispatch, broadening my local knowledge. I've always been interested in industrial heritage ,growing up about a mile and a half from Manchester's city centre it was a foregone conclusion really.
I won't be there until 10th December but you are welcome on any Thursday or Friday between 11am and 3pm. I will show you some of our fascinating Smethwick industrial heritage Look forward to meeting you All the best Keith Bracey
Coming from France almost 7 years ago, I never thought I would fall in love with Brum as I did.
Its diversity allowed me to feel instantly welcomed and part of it, where I have the liberty to express my French and cultural identity without feeling less of a Brummie for it. In Birmingham, I feel free to be who I am (bright pink hair, tattoos all over) without being judged for it - something I never felt during my 20 years in France.
I have always felt like Birmingham keeps underselling itself, even though there is so much to do! Yes, Manchester and Liverpool are cool, but Birmingham too!
When my family asks me « when will you come back home? » my answer is never.
I Yet another good feature article except for the video which doesn’t show the Birmingham that most people experience daily and the lyrics would not encourage people to visit.
Manchester has a band ‘The Courtneers’ which has a huge following in and around the city. Birmingham has ‘The Twang’ - a band which has produced great music over many years reflecting the mood and feel of life in the city. In fact one of the albums is titled ‘Jewellery Quarter’.
Thank you for the compliment about the feature Barbara. We will have to respectfully disagree about the music video! I did see The Twang last year at The Crossing in Digbeth though. It was a fun gig.
Great piece, Kate. I think I could've gone a lifetime of Birmingham just being somewhere to change trains if I hadn't had the good fortune to fall for a Brummie - from the first 'meet the parents' visit it became somewhere I always look forward to returning to, where I've had many of the best memories of my adult life. The best pubs, a really thriving underground music scene (annual trips to House of God and Supersonic are always highlights), one of the easiest places in the country to reliably find a great meal at any price point, a really exciting mix of architecture where Arts and Crafts gems sit next to striking brutalism and bonkers postmodernism. The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is superbly curated and I really hope doesn't get jettisoned to help the council balance the books. I could go on!
The obvious comparison with Manchester (which I've made my home) is an interesting one. For sure Manchester has been more successful at selling itself, but a lot of its branding feels very backwards-looking: presenting itself as the most exciting place in the country without managing to break out of an obsession with the Hacienda and cotton mills. In Birmingham there's not the same sense that the music scene sits in the shadow of being the home of metal, and the Jewellery Quarter is still home to a massive amount of craftspeople rather than just being a name that nods to heritage.
"Quietly getting on with stuff" sounds about right - but there must be a middle ground between letting its gems go overlooked (or get bulldozed) and getting swept away in self-promo and chasing after shiny, expensive new selling points.
I’m similar to Anne Forster in that I grew up near Manchester & moved to Birmingham 39 years ago. I love the place, the warmth of the people drew me here initially. I got off the train at the hole that was New Street was lost & confused getting to the road New Street. On the ramp I asked when I could stop one of the throng if they knew where the No7 went from. She started to tell me then stopped & said come with me I’m catching that bus ! She told me about exact change & as we came to Lynton Square shouted down the bus - hey Manc, you stop ! I chose the Poly to study & have never left. I’m constantly disappointed by the understated love Brummies have. Carl Chinn hits the nail on the head about here. Now though is the time to shout about & there is so much to love. The council doesn’t do us proud save for the Be Bold project which I use on my office email. Maybe it takes an adopted Brummy to talk the place up.
And yet there is hope on social media local groups proud of the gems in their area. Photo groups who shine a light on unsung parts of Brum. Walking tours of these places are great, go see the police museum & the “wing” of a gaol between the police station & the court. Pop in the Magistrates too, no photos allowed ridiculously but an architectural masterpiece with “memes” of the 19th century dotted around. I love Manchester but really love Brum. Alright Brum 😊
That's a great story about your arrival in brum and a really good example of how friendly ppl are here, thanks for sharing. I must go to that police museum tour - I didn't know anything about it!
The No 7 does not and never has gone to Lynton Square....(which ceased to exist with the building of the One Stop Shopping Centre in Perry Barr in the 1980s). Like Lynton Square, the Poly has also ceased to exist ......and although it graduated to University status, it was not for long before the Powers that be demolished it as well! In its place we now have a desolate bunch of buildings which were originally designated as the 'Athletes' Village' for the prestige Commonwealth Games but never used.... a large Housing Estate that still lies empty and desolate in the ruins of Perry Barr. Get REAL!
It’s alright. I often think ‘alright’ gets lost in translation outside Birmingham. Alright = very good!
A really good article but I need to highlight my work with the Birmingham Music Archive which is all about celebrating our city’s contribution to local, national & international music culture and to imbue a sense of recognition and pride in Birmingham. Just two examples out of many is our In The Que film & exhibition that over 400,000 people visited and which we are now taking to London for a short exhibition (and House of God is very much at the heart of the film/exhibition) and our On Record album and videos where 11 artists wrote & recorded a song that responded to the word Birmingham. The album has been streamed over 100 million times across 233 countries. Dapz On The Mapz track precedes MIST’s similar track by over 12 months! Do go and search out the album and videos as it is a sonic love letter to Brum.
I’m writing this not to brag but to say there are people out there trying to change the narrative about Brum and who are proud of the city and our culture.
Keep up the great work!
Hey jez, thanks for a detailed comment. I'd love to chat with you more about the archive. Absolutely there will be far more than one example of brum pride expressed in culture. It was nicely serendipitous that mists track came out just as I was writing it so thought it was a good one to include. I've seen the que club film - v good! I'll check out the album, cheers.
Hi Kate, yea there are lots of pride expressed through our culture. Be great to have a chat with you about the archive and museum we're opening in 26/27...I'll DM you my email address or see you in Bearwood 😂
I haven't been to the police museum yet, definitely going. Also very interesting walks I've yet to do. Pre 2020 my school friends and i would meet in Birmingham a couple of times a year and visit museums etc ,have a meal, they love it, will be picking that up again soon. Loved The Coffin Works and also the RBSA gallery in the Jewellery Quarter.
I moved to Birmingham in February this year having lived in the south, the east and the north.
Every place has its problems and Birmingham isn’t exempt from that, but what this city has is a warmth and welcome I’ve not experienced anywhere else.
It’s the only place I’ve lived where my middle-class accent has never been remarked on or reacted to, where I’ve not been made to feel out of place. I live in an area that straddles privilege and disadvantage, and on my daily dog walks meet other dog owners of all ages, backgrounds and socioeconomic status. Everyone is friendly. Everyone has the time of day.
The warmth and resilience of Brummies is this city’s greatest strength.
So glad you love it here Mary. It is a very warm place!
Great article. I moved to Brum from Edinburgh a few years back which, as you can imagine I got a lot of questions about that. But I quickly found it's a great city, and when my old Edinburgh friends come visit they're always really impressed.
I've felt since early moving here that people are quite happy flying under the radar, like they don't want everyone knowing because then they'd come and ruin it. Somehow trying to keep the second city as a little secret.
I am a proud adopted Brummie having moved here in the early 2000s. I love the diverse and friendly folk who call it home. It has also been incredibly welcoming professionally. I can't stand the brutalised buildings though and am glad that a lot of them have gone. Appreciate not everyone will agree
Not sure how "brutalist' spell-checked to "brutalised". That sounds like a whole different architectural problem
I've only lived in one city and that's Manchester and I still hold a deep affection for the place where I grew up ....but...the West Midlands has been my home for 45 years .
I've not lived closer than say 15 miles to Birmingham in that time but I like the city a lot. I love its architecture, even the brutalist bits my daughter waxes lyrical about have started to become attractive to me. The amazing history that's there, the canals too.
I have a foot in both cities I suppose .
Be proud Birmingham.
Hi Kate I am a proud working class Brummie like Carl Chinn and like him I was the first in my family to go to university like Carl Birmingham University. I couldn't be prouder of my city and for nearly 20 years had the job of my dreams in inward investment and investment promotion promoting my city to companies from around the globe. But if it's culture you want go no further north than Brum....the Birmingham Royal Ballet (I led on the relocation of the Elmhurst Ballet School to Birmingham to become the feeder ballet school for the Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2004) the CBSO at Symphony Hall, the Pre-Raphaelite collection of art at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and my favourite at Birmingham University the Barber Institute of Fine Arts or as we called it at Locate in Birmingham the City's former Inward Investment agency: "The best small art gallery in Europe". I could go on the Birmingham Hippodrome the world renowned Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Alexandra Theatre and the Old Rep. Things that Birmingham gave the world ...it spread literacy around the globe with the Birmingham pen trade based in the Jewellery Quarter supplying billions upon billions of metal pen nibs so much so that in 1870 Birmingham made pen nibs accounted for 75% of EVERYTHING written down in the world....imagine that! (I was a volunteer at the Pen Museum which is well worth a visit along with the Coffin Works in the Jewellery Quarter) Birmingham inventor Alexander Parkes invented the first viable plastic which he eponymously called "Parkesine" and imagine how that changed the world not always for the better. On the sporting front Birmingham’s Edgbaston pioneered the worldwide game of lawn tennis and Sir William McGregor Aston Villa chairman gave us the first organised football league in Victorian times. Indeed it could be said Birmingham was the crucible of the Industrial Revolution with Boulton and Watt creating the modern world with the first production line in the world making steam engines at the SOHO Foundry. I agree with your correspondents who almost all say what a welcoming and warm city Birmingham is, a true city of Sanctuary welcoming outsiders and nonconformists (not just in religion) with open arms. As one of our most famous sons and ambassadors for Brum Ozzy Osborne of Black Sabbath fame (another thing Birmingham gave the world: Heavy Metal music) said: "Birmingham Forever" Birmingham poet and writer Keith Bracey the Brummie Bard. My poetry is mostly about Birmingham history and I have published a book of verse "From Bearwood and Beyond" from whence I hail
Thanks Keith for hilighting all the great things to do and and see in Birmingham, I've visited most of them. That's what I like about Birmingham, it was a city of a thousand trades and thankfully some of the businesses did survive into the 20th C and their workshops were still intact to be resurrected as museums. We should treasure these as lots of cities have not been fortunate in still having the archives of industry to educate ,inform and delight 21st C visitors.
It might not be everyone's cup of tea but museums are fantastic places to learn about your heritage, Brummies. If you don't know where you've come from ,how do you know where you're going?
Agreed that museums are fantastic places Anne. I volunteer 3 days a week Wednesday Thursday and Friday at Smethwick Heritage Centre the Museum in the Park next to the Smethwick War Memorial and Smethwick Council House on High Street Smethwick. You should visit us sometime Anne. Smethwick was an industrial powerhouse back in Victorian times and in the early to mid 20th C. There were 30 or 40 big industrial firms like Chance Glass (once the largest glassworks in the world) GKN, Smethwick Drop Forgings, Tangye’s Smethwick Carriage Works, Evered, Birmid and Avery at the SOHO Foundry. Smethwick people are a rare breed and most think of themselves as having a distinct Smethwick identity not being Brummies or Black Country folk. I hail from Bearwood on the border with Smethwick but I am a proud Brummie born, raised and schooled in Edgbaston at George Dixon Grammar School for Boys in City Road Edgbaston and then onto the University of Birmingham AND I still live just 2 miles from where I was born and raised in Bearwood. Come and pay us a visit at the Smethwick Heritage Centre we're open on Thursdays and Fridays between 11am and 3pm Tara Rabbit! Keith Bracey Birmingham and Black Country poet and writer
I'll take you up on that sometime Keith. This is what I was hoping for with the launch of The Dispatch, broadening my local knowledge. I've always been interested in industrial heritage ,growing up about a mile and a half from Manchester's city centre it was a foregone conclusion really.
I won't be there until 10th December but you are welcome on any Thursday or Friday between 11am and 3pm. I will show you some of our fascinating Smethwick industrial heritage Look forward to meeting you All the best Keith Bracey
I am an « adopted » Brummie and I LOVE this city!
Coming from France almost 7 years ago, I never thought I would fall in love with Brum as I did.
Its diversity allowed me to feel instantly welcomed and part of it, where I have the liberty to express my French and cultural identity without feeling less of a Brummie for it. In Birmingham, I feel free to be who I am (bright pink hair, tattoos all over) without being judged for it - something I never felt during my 20 years in France.
I have always felt like Birmingham keeps underselling itself, even though there is so much to do! Yes, Manchester and Liverpool are cool, but Birmingham too!
When my family asks me « when will you come back home? » my answer is never.
Birmingham is my home.