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| Near Snow Hill station. A different view here. |
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| Selfridges department store. Click here for some more images. |
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| Town hall built early 1930`s. In the past has been a venue for all types of music. Elgar and Mendelsohn, The Beatles and The Stones this building has heard it all. The two latter groups appeared live. |
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| The refurbished New Street Station with the Grand central shopping centre above the main concourse. |
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| Close up of the right side below the Grand Central name. As you run frantically for your train you can watch it depart in the reflecting metal clad building. Personaly I think it`s horrible. |
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| Hall of Memory, Library and Baskerville House. |
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| Birmingham city library. |
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| Roof garden of the library gives panoramic views of the city. |
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| From the library roof garden. Nb Valerie in Cambrian basin. |
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| Spring Hill library opened in 1893. In 1895 a man was sentenced to 6 weeks in prison with hard labour for throwing books inside the library. Nowadays that man could throw groceries around as Tesco have managed to join their store onto the library. They both now share a common entrance. The library survived being demolished by road improvements but somehow bloody Tesco managed to attach some glass and metal to a piece of historic Brum. |
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| The Cube. The view from above shows it`s not the shape you first think. |
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| A shopping arcade dating back to 1926 |
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| Birmingham City Council House opened 1870. |
The floozie in the jacuzzi has a pink bra courtesy of the "Ladies fight breast cancer" charity. Click here to see a photo gallery of the garden in it`s water feature days.
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| The Bell Edison telephone exchange dates back to late 1800`s. |
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| Brindley Place with an unusual roof line on the Costa coffee building. |
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| Leaving Birmingham both canal and railway about to enter a tunnel. |
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| Around Birmingham city a lot of the canal bridges feature these Red panels. They date back to WW2 when the fire service would put hoses down into the canal for water to fight fires caused by bombing. Evidently the fire service still have keys for these doors but nowadays the water main system at street level would be sufficient most times. |
4 comments:
Different attitudes and architectural styles abound; I get a headache looking at the images. No doubt locals also either approve or diapprove of the new structures. Mind, it is what is inside the structures that probably counts the most. Sometime I wonder who has their head above or below ground; the architects or the local councils that approve such weird designs?
In one hundred years or less, will it matter to us? We'll all be elsewhere no doubt; at least the odd shapes, from well above will make superb bomb targets if the war ever returns as it did some seventy years prior.
I look at the stories Les has woven about how and where the canals once were, thinking railways would supersede the canals (which they did, in some locations) and then the railways would be ousted for newer physical structures, and whatever was needed for the occupiers of
these new (may I say weird) structures would be conveyed
to and fro courtesy of rubber tyred vehicles perhaps.
Rather fittng NB Valerie has arrived by water and departed by the same method from inner Birmingham by the second mode of transport, after ox cart and foot.
Keep doing these history tours; some of us have not been in Bull Ring centre vicinity for fifty years (in my case, purchased some motorcycle leathers there) and may well never return as the orld of international travel has changed, moreso for those of us on the "it's too expensive to travel account health insurance" and similar.
Hi Les & Jaq. Just caught up on the blog. Sorry to hear of your medical woes, but pleased you were able to get out and explore the city. Loved the historical blog about the old city centre wharves. Having worked in the Broad St area, I thought I knew it - you've taught me so much more!
So impressed by the photo of your logs - Valerie will be sitting a little lower in the cut with all that on the roof!
All the best,
Alistair
Hi Bryce
I wonder what will take over from the trains? Perhaps people will teleport to their destination. I do prefer the older buildings as the craftsmanship of all the detail included in the construction is facinating.
Funny you should mention travel insurance as this is something I am looking into. Frightening.
Les
Hi Alistair
You can never have to many logs what with the price of coal.
Health wise all is now good with Jaq`s knee soon to be fixed.
Les
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