Exploring Downtown Birmingham

In case there is any doubt, we are loving it here! In addition to the new friends here and the day-to-day 'enjoyables' we have also had some special Saturday adventures, where we hop on the bus or train and head out for the day.

Our early excursions outside our neighborhood were to downtown Birmingham, or 'the city centre' as it's called here. It may not have the same historic or aesthetic appeal as many other cities and towns in Britain, but there are still many beautiful buildings with more history than we're used to in western Canada. There's also a lot to do on a Saturday in September. Here's a selection of pictures from our trips to the city centre giving a short tour of some of the sites we've seen.

The Bull Ring is possibly the best known feature of Birmingham. Its current edition is a massive, modern shopping centre similar to the large-scale North American malls, but the location has been a centre of shopping for hundreds of years with a market known to have been at that spot since at least the 12th century. Today the whole area maintains this long history as a regional shopping mecca. Everywhere you turn there's an open market or a shopping centre or a shop-lined street, with everything from name brand stores to quaint old shops. At the Bull Ring, there is, quite naturally, a bull (pic 1). But there's also a beautiful church, St. Martin's, originally built in the 12th century alongside the market, although the current building dates to 1875 (pic 2). And what would an English city be without a statue of Admiral Lord Nelson (pic 3)?

Here's the gang at New Street, sipping Starbucks outside McDonalds (pic 4). Maybe 'New Street' means 'New World Street'?

Just a little off the busy retail district is St. Philip's Cathedral, built in 1715 (pic 5). The grounds of St. Philip's are also the parish cemetery, as with most of the old churches here, and they have been restored beautifully. Somehow, busy with pedestrian traffic yet peaceful at the same time.

Victoria Square is the central square in Birmingham. As you would expect by the name, it has a statue of Queen Victoria imposing her rule over the Council House and Town Hall (pic 6). These buildings date to the last third of the 19th century, and unfortunately the Town Hall is being renovated so we haven't been able to see it. One of the days we were there the Square was hosting an outdoor children's film. It was quite a contrast seeing Shrek juxtaposed against the Victorian surroundings, and especially to think of Shrek looking over the Square (pic 7) just as Victoria herself does (pic 8).

Just around the corner from Victoria Square is Chamberlain Square, with the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery on one side, the central public library on the other, and local-boy-done-good Joseph Priestley (pic 9) and good-boy-done-local James Watt (pic 10) watching over the whole thing.

There's much more to describe in downtown Birmingham, but we'll finish with this picture of the crew down by the canals (pic 11), with the promise of a whole post devoted to this unique historical feature of our beloved Brum.