Let's go to Birmingham!! A picture thread

http://www.anticarshow.net/im/ban_bnrr/onthebridge.jpg

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/445000/images/_448348_bull_150.jpg

I'm such a charming lass =)

Bags I can find bleaker architecture than you, Trayce.

The whole city seemed to be under construction last I was there. I mean it was a nice enough place, but it was so layered with scaffolding and grime and cranes and horrible pizza huts.

Pizza and boxing. Why is the pizza with five cheeses called a Mike Tyson?

Wheres Gareth when we need him?

the worst building ever?

(i cant believe i cant find a better picture than that tho...)

that was meant to be a picture of selfridges in brum. it is rubbish.

keep it wherever you are, unless of course you're already here. in which case, i can only suggest going somewhere else, and staying there.

(My parents once took me and my brother to Birmingham for a fortnight in the guise of a "summer holiday". This was in the mid-80s as well, before any form of urban regeneration had started. Imagine the mental scars.)

i could keep doing this, but i'll spare you. my point is that you can find the sort of images you're posting in any city. you can also pull your head out of your arse, take a look around, and find out that your pre-conceived notions aren't the whole picture.

ed says that moor st station has been done up - i would like to see that.

i think you're right that birmingham is not, and never has been, a single entity. which is why people dismissing it having only seen some part of it tends to rankle somewhat (this is where i'd put a smiley-face disclaimer if it wasn't for the fact that nobody seems to do them here).

moor street station has been done up - although i haven't been and the bull ring (or 'bullring' as it now seems to be called), against all expectations, really doesn't look that bad. even the big blue tit looks kinda fine, from the right angle.

I heart Birmingham.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1109/1310467548_38e27d117a.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chellebella/42720436/

i like birmingham

every time i've been there i've had a nice time. and the people were friendly. and we sat by a canal and got drunk and larfed and larfed.

I'm going to Brum tomorrow. Haven't been there in years, probably 10 years. I grew up in Worcester so I went there quite a few times when I was growing up but maybe only once or twice in adulthood. Apparently it's a lot nicer now.

It's always been nice. You just had to look in the right places.

I was trying to post a picture of the rag market aka the place I was when I should have been doing A Level sociology.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1351/531848166_f420f87582_m.jpg

http://tre.ngfl.gov.uk/uploads/materials/6055/Bournville_almshouses.JPG

http://www.reedboats.co.uk/routes/canals/wor4.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1314/534377039_d7099743d1_m.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1366/532274528_0ed458be4d_m.jpg

I love that fountain. I used to jump in it a lot as a teenager.

I can't believe the hate for the selfridges building upthread - it's got kind of overplayed but really it's incredible and has done amazing things for Birmingham's...er...brand. It's almost impossible to take a bad photo of too.

I've been visiting Birmingham for about 30 years (and lived there in the early 80s) and, although I've always liked it (the rotunda! the art gallery! the canals! whta's not to love?) I don't think it's ever looked better.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/49/115241868_72a2e25668.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/73/154259881_24f673fb8c.jpg

Does Brum still have that awesome 3 or 4 level shop with all the goth clothes, posters, op shop clothes etc? That was one of the most awesome shops Ive ever been in. I wish I'd bought more things there but being on an overseas hol, I couldnt afford to.

Oasis? Yeah. Rumours have persisted for ages that it will be shut down.

Every time I go back to Birmingham it seems marginally more impressive, but there's still a lot of ugly shit surrounding the centre. That said I will be annoyed when they've finished turning Digbeth into a load of swank flats because the view of the skyline from the 50 bus was pretty good from there.

Oasis that was it! Ive never been to such a store anywhere in Melbourne or Sydney (and we have some deceent shopping). It was fantastic.

All week, I have been wearing a pair of threadbare cords I bought from there six years ago, because I am a tramp.

I still have a Kangol beret and a cream satin slip dress I got from there in about 1995. The dress is now used as a nightdress, what with changing fashion and the fact I am a bit more substantial than I was in 1995.

Bournville is unquestionably the nicest part of Birmingham.

I don't know whether its still there, but there used to be an advert for Banks Beer on one of the buildings near New St station with a big lit up pint and the slogan Unspoilt by Progress - I always used to think "that's more than can be said for Birmingham".