BIRMINGHAM 2017 – Nightsky’s trip to 5 English cities

[Nightsky]

Thanks for comments, much appreciated! More will be posted soon.

[Nightsky]

BROAD STREET AND BRINDLEYPLACE:

Broad Street 07 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Broad Street 03 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Broad Street 04 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Central Square 01 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Central Square 03 by Nightsky, on Flickr

Central Square 04 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Central Square 05 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Brindleyplace Clock Tower 01 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Brindleyplace Clock Tower 02 by Nightsky, on Flickr

http://www.worldtravelimages.net/Bir...Centenary.html

http://www.worldtravelimages.net/Birmingham_Canal.html

[Nightsky]

THE CANALS:
- Westside district, ICC, Central Square, Brindleyplace, Three Brindleyplace Clock Tower, BT Tower, National Sealife Centre, National Indoor Arena, Gas St Basin

The Worcester and Birmingham Canal is a 47 km long canal that links Birmingham with Worcester. It starts near River Severn in Worcester and ends in the Gas Street Basin in Birmingham. It is 29 miles (47 km) long. There is one branch that goes to the Northwest (towards Wolverhampton), one to the Southwest (towards Worcester) and one to the East inside Birmingham.

There are 58 locks in the canal (incl. one of the largest in Europe), and it climbs 130m from Worcester to Birmingham. The canal passes the West part of Birmingham's city centre and to the East of the Jewellery Quarter.

In the Westside district, you find the Brindleyplace, canalside mixed-use development. Here you find the National Sea Life Centre, Royal Bank of Scotland, Orion Media, Ikon Gallery of Art and the Crescent Theatre. Central Square, the heart of Brindleyplace, is a nice modern square/designed piazza with fountains and many postmodern buildings. The ArtsFest is held here annually. Here you find the Brindleyplace Clock Tower, a red brick landmark, that is part of Three Brindleyplace building in Italian renaissance/postmodern style that also faces the canal. Inside the building is an atrium. Oozels Square is next to Central Square.

Along the canal you find many landmark buildings as The Mailbox (a red highrise building from 2000 with offices,a mall, and Birmingham's BBC Studios), The Cube (residential building from 2010 with sharp architecture), ICC (International Convention Centre with a large futuristic atrium that leads to Centenary Square, here you also find the Symphony Hall), the recently renovated Barclaycard Arena (formerly the National Indoor Arena), the National Sealife Centre (a large aquarium designed by Norman Foster, features a glass tunnel) and BT Tower from 1966 (the tallest structure in Birmingham, a 152m telecom tower). There are also lots of open air restaurants along the canal.

I walked along the canal, from the tourist parts near Brindleyplace with its large buildings, restaurants, stores, nice open bridges and locks,passed by locks through less touristy parts through dark narrow tunnels with dripping water (!) to BT Tower and the Snow Hill area. So if you are sensitive and want to walk along the whole canal, bring an umbrella!

Many different kind of boats passes along the canal; private boats, tourist boats, restaurant boats, fire boats.
Worcester and Birmingham Canal 33.JPG by Nightsky, on Flickr

Worcester and Birmingham Canal 34 - The Cube.JPG by Nightsky, on Flickr
Worcester and Birmingham Canal 01.JPG by Nightsky, on Flickr
Worcester and Birmingham Canal 02 - ICC, Hyatt.JPG by Nightsky, on Flickr
Worcester and Birmingham Canal 03.JPG by Nightsky, on Flickr

Worcester and Birmingham Canal 08 - National Indoor Arena.JPG by Nightsky, on Flickr

Worcester and Birmingham Canal 09.JPG by Nightsky, on Flickr

Worcester and Birmingham Canal 13.JPG by Nightsky, on Flickr

Worcester and Birmingham Canal 16.JPG by Nightsky, on Flickr

Worcester and Birmingham Canal 17.JPG by Nightsky, on Flickr

Worcester and Birmingham Canal 18 - The Malt House.JPG by Nightsky, on Flickr

Worcester and Birmingham Canal 20.JPG by Nightsky, on Flickr

Worcester and Birmingham Canal 24.JPG by Nightsky, on Flickr
Worcester and Birmingham Canal 26.JPG by Nightsky, on Flickr

Worcester and Birmingham Canal 27.JPG by Nightsky, on Flickr
Worcester and Birmingham Canal 29 - BT Tower.JPG by Nightsky, on Flickr

Worcester and Birmingham Canal 30.JPG by Nightsky, on Flickr

Worcester and Birmingham Canal 32 - BT Tower.JPG by Nightsky, on Flickr

http://www.worldtravelimages.net/Birmingham_Canal.html

[Nightsky]

HOLLOWAY CIRCUS AND CHINESE QUARTER:
- 10 Holloway Circus, Beetham Tower, Chinese Pagoda, Chinatown, Inner Ring Road, The Mailbox, BBC Studios, Doctor Who

Holloway Circus is a busy traffic circle in the south end of Birmingham's city centre. The busy Inner Ring Road pass right underneath it and four busy roads meet here. Here you find the Chinatown, marked by a lion and the 12m high Chinese Pagoda (erected in 1998) in the middle of the traffic circle, dwarfed by the 39-storey glass skyscraper 10 Holloway Circus, also called the Beetham Tower. It was completed in 2005 and is Birmingham's tallest skyscraper (until 2019), a 130m tall, mixed-use building, partly circular in its design with a glass facade of mixed green and blue glass facing Holloway Circus, and a more conventional backside. It was designed by Ian Simpson (architect behind all Beetham towers) in postmodern style and features a Radisson Blu Hotel and apartments. A serie of incidents and accidents happened during its construction, and up to 3 years after.

Two grey modernist highrises from the early 1970s (Cleveland and Clydesdale towers with 32 floors each) stand at the West part of the square, and the postmodern 26-storey Orion Tower from 2006 is just a few blocks to the Northwest.

One of the futuristic glass entrances to New Street Station can be found near Holloway Circus, just as an indoor marketplace along the grey Smallbrook Queensway.

The Chinese Quarter is a small Chinatown that is situated between Holloway Circus and near The Bull Ring, where it has a Chinese arch. You also find casinos, Chinese restaurants and a plaza with mixed restaurants and movie theatres.

The Mailbox is a red mixed-use midrise building, built in 2000 near Holloway Circus. It features offices, a Malmaison hotel, a cinema, a mall with a large Harvey Nichols store and Birmingham's BBC Studios, where you find an interesting free Doctor Who exhibition, that was of great joy for the author of this page! The exhibition includes a Tardis, a Dalek, costumes, monsters and other characters. The Mailbox is 300m long and also has an entrance to the west, where it faces the Birmingham Canal and the mixed-use futuristic highrise The Cube, built in 2010.

Holloway Circus 18 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Holloway Circus 17 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Holloway Circus 20 by Nightsky, on Flickr
10 Holloway Circus, or Beetham Tower, Birmingham’s tallest skyscraper.
Holloway Circus 22 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Holloway Circus 24 by Nightsky, on Flickr’
Holloway Circus 26 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Holloway Circus from the other side.
Holloway Circus 27 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Holloway Circus 01 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Holloway Circus 03 by Nightsky, on Flickr
New St Station from Holloway Circus.
Holloway Circus 05 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Holloway Circus 06 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Holloway Circus 10 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Chinese pagoda, Holloway Circus.
Holloway Circus 12 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Traffic under Holloway Circus.
Holloway Circus 13 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Holloway Circus 14 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Holloway Circus 15 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Holloway Circus 07 by Nightsky, on Flickr
10 Holloway Circus has 39 floors.

http://www.worldtravelimages.net/Bir..._Holloway.html

[Nightsky]

THE MAILBOX, BBC STUDIOS WITH DOCTOR WHO EXHIBITION:

The Mailbox, BBC Studios 17 by Nightsky, on Flickr
The Mailbox, BBC Studios 21 by Nightsky, on Flickr
The Mailbox, BBC Studios 23 by Nightsky, on Flickr
The Mailbox, BBC Studios 07 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Daleks.
The Mailbox, BBC Studios 09 by Nightsky, on Flickr
The Mailbox, BBC Studios 10 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Doctor Who’s Tardis!
The Mailbox, BBC Studios 15 by Nightsky, on Flickr

The Mailbox 01 by Nightsky, on Flickr
The Mailbox, shopping office and hotel complex, that houses the BBC Studios.
The Mailbox 03 by Nightsky, on Flickr

The Cube by Nightsky, on Flickr
The Cube, futuristic residential building annex to The Mailbox.

http://www.worldtravelimages.net/Bir..._Holloway.html

[Nightsky]

CHINESE QUARTER:

Chinatown Birmingham 04 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Chinatown Birmingham 05 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Chinatown Birmingham 07 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Chinatown Birmingham 08 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Chinatown Birmingham 10 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Chinatown Birmingham 11 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Chinatown Birmingham 01 by Nightsky, on Flickr

http://www.worldtravelimages.net/Bir..._Holloway.html

[Nightsky]

SNOW HILL AND COLMORE BUSINESS DISTRICT:
- BT Tower, Colmore Gate, St Chad's Cathedral, Jewellery District


This is the main business district of Birmingham, filled with modern office highrises and new skyscrapers u/c. It is situated right next to the Cathedral Square, with the street Colmore Row between. Snow Hill is the name of the railway station and the hill where it is situated. This district looks like an American city. Here you find Colmore Gate, a postmodern highrise builsing, St Chad's Cathedral, a red brick twin towered church completed in 1841, mother church of the Archdiocese of Birmingham and the Western Arcade. A 18-storey Holiday Inn opened recently, and a new Hilton is under construction. Colmore borders to the Jewellery District, a small scale historic district West of downtown, where you find a lot of jewelleries. BT Tower, a 152m tall telecom tower from 1966, that is Birmingham's tallest structure, is situated right next to Snow Hill.
Snow Hill 14 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Snow Hill 16 by Nightsky, on Flickr
BT Tower, Snow Hill by Nightsky, on Flickr
Colmore Business District 01 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Colmore Business District 04 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Colmore Business District 05 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Colmore Business District 07 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Colmore Business District 08 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Colmore Business District 10 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Colmore Business District 11 by Nightsky, on Flickr

Jewellery Quarter by Nightsky, on Flickr
Nearby Jewellery Quarter is famous for its many jewelleries.
Snow Hill 21 - St Chads Cathedral by Nightsky, on Flickr
Snow Hill 22 - St Chads Cathedral by Nightsky, on Flickr
They still have school uniform in Britain!
Snow Hill 25 - Colmore Gate by Nightsky, on Flickr
BT Tower 03 by Nightsky, on Flickr
BT Tower 04 by Nightsky, on Flickr
BT Tower, the tallest structure in Birmingham. Built in 1966, 152m tall.

http://www.worldtravelimages.net/Bir..._Snowhill.html

[Nightsky]

DIGBETH:
- Digbeth Street, Coach Station, Central Backpackers Hostel


Digbeth is the post industrial area just south of the Bullring, the heart for shopping in the city centre. The main road is Digbeth St that leads to the Bullring. It was in Digbeth I arrived by the National Express bus from Luton in the dark evening, at the Coach Station. Just a few blocks away at Coventry St/Milk St, also in Digbeth, is where I stayed, at the Birmingham Central Backpackers Hostel. Many industrial buildings in have been turned into apartments, stores, restaurants, offices and arts facilities, but lots of industrial activities still remain. A blue and brown brick Victorian railway viaduct (right above the hostel), the Devonshire Works building at the Custard factory complex, a beautiful police station building, the coach station (for long distance buses) and the southern entrance to the futuristic Selfridges store can be found found in Digbeth.

Birmingham Central Backpackers Hostel. I stayed one night in a shared room in this small hostel, less then 10 min walk from the city centre. The area is a bit shady after dark, filled with industrial buildngs and the place is not easy to find, so you have to be careful if you arrive after dark like I did! The interior was amazing, very cozy and colourful with really hip colours. May be not everyone's taste, but looked really nice and alternative. The room was nothing special, and it didn't have any locker but they offer free luggage storage. The hostel has good wifi, free coffee and tea all day long, a large TV screen in the lobby, maps and travel information and everything you will need for a short stay. The staff was nice upon arrival in the evening, but the staff in the morning was a bit absent. They offered a simple free breakfast. The beds where not very comfortable and had to stay at another building, next to the main building that made it a bit complicated. But very good value for money after all.
Digbeth 16 - towards Bullring by Nightsky, on Flickr

Digbeth 17 - Police station by Nightsky, on Flickr
Digbeth 20 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Digbeth 21 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Digbeth 23 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Central Backpackers Hostel, Digbeth 02 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Central Backpackers Hostel, Digbeth 03 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Central Backpackers Hostel, Digbeth 04 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Central Backpackers Hostel, Digbeth 06 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Central Backpackers Hostel, Digbeth 08 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Digbeth 02 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Digbeth 03 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Digbeth 05 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Digbeth 10 by Nightsky, on Flickr

http://www.worldtravelimages.net/Bir...m_Digbeth.html

[Nightsky]

DIGBETH AT NIGHT:

Digbeth at night 05 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Digbeth at night 07 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Digbeth at night 02 by Nightsky, on Flickr
This is where I arrived from Luton Airport. Fortunately it was very near my hotel, since the Ryanair flight was several hours late!
Digbeth at night 03 by Nightsky, on Flickr

http://www.worldtravelimages.net/Bir..._by_night.html

[Martin Mtl]

Great tour. That's a very eclectic city!

[Nightsky]

Thanks, Martin, yes it is!

[Nightsky]

BIRMINGHAM MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY:
- Edwardian Tea Rooms, Victoria Square, Chamberlain Square

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is a majestic art museum, situated in an imposing building between Victoria Square and Chamberlain Square, in the heart of the city centre. The museum was constructed 1881-85 and the extension in 1908, and features elements from a mix of architectural styles; Edwardian, Victorian, Baroque, Renaissance and Neo-Classic. It features more then 500 000 objects in 40 galleries. Works by famous painters as Picasso, Turner, Edward Burne-Jones, William Holman Hunt, Frederick Sandys and Boticelli can be found inside the museum. The emphasis lies on the English school and the Italian school, with the large collection from the Pre-Raphaelites. In the Round Room you find Jacob Epstein's sculpture Archangel Lucifer.
The beautiful Industrial Gallery with its staircases and stained glass exhibition is the original part of the museum. On the upper floor there is a large special collection about Birmingham's people and history. Here you find belongings, posters, sculptures, furniture, vehicles and architectural models.
There is an Egyptian collection of ancient belongings like death masks and coffins, an Iraqi collection, a classical Greek collection, Roman and Latina American rooms and an atrium with a frieze from the Parthenon. The largest complete coppar Buddha sculpture in the world can also be found in the museum.
The Edwardian Tea Rooms is a large, very beautiful tea room, where I tried classic English tea, British style.
With almost one million visitors annually Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is one of the most visited museums in the UK. And best of all: the entrance is free!

Victoria Square 15 - Museum by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 001 by Nightsky, on Flickr

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 003 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 020 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 023 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 025 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 039 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 040 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 047 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 048 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 051 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 059 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 064 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 068 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 070 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 073 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 006 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 007 by Nightsky, on Flickr


http://www.worldtravelimages.net/Birmingham_Museum.html

[Nightsky]

MORE BIRMINGHAM MUSEUM:

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 010 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 011 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 015 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 075 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 082 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 081 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 083 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 091 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 094 by Nightsky, on Flickr

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 098 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Had a breakfast in the Edwardian tea room. Really nice traditional English breakfast with tea.
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 099 by Nightsky, on Flickr
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 101 by Nightsky, on Flickr
View from the entrance of the museum towards Chamberlain Square.

http://www.worldtravelimages.net/Birmingham_Museum.html

[Nightsky]

Hope you enjoyed my tour of Brum! The last pics posted 8 months after the trip.

[Nightsky]

• Video Link

This is the video from my England trip. I can't see it from my computer by some reason but is made public so the link should work.