Birmingham ( , , locally ) is a
city and
metropolitan borough in the
West Midlands county of England.
Birmingham is the largest of the British Core Cities and the
second most
populous British city, with a population of 1,006,500 (2006
estimate).
The City
of Birmingham forms part of the larger West Midlands
conurbation
, which has a population of 2,284,093 (2001 census)
and includes several neighbouring towns and cities, such as
Solihull
, Wolverhampton
and the towns of the Black Country
.
The city was a powerhouse of the
Industrial Revolution in England, a
fact which led to Birmingham being known as "the workshop of the
world" or the "city of a thousand trades". Although Birmingham's
industrial importance has declined, it has developed into a
national commercial centre, being named as the second-best place in
the United Kingdom to locate a business, and the 14th best in
Europe by
Cushman &
Wakefield in 2009. It is also the fourth-most visited city by
foreign visitors in the UK. In 2007, Birmingham was ranked as the
55th-most livable city in the world and the second most livable in
the UK, according to the
Mercer Index of worldwide standards
of living.. Birmingham was also one of the founding cities for the
Eurocities group and is also sitting as
chair. Birmingham has the second-largest city economy in the UK,
and was ranked 72nd in the world in 2008.
People from Birmingham are known as '
Brummies', a term derived from the city's nickname
of 'Brum'. This comes in turn from the city's dialect name,
Brummagem, which may have been derived
from one of the city's earlier names, 'Bromwicham'.
There is a distinctive
Brummie dialect and accent, both of which differ from the
adjacent Black
Country.
History
Some of the earliest evidence of settlement in Birmingham are
artefacts dating back 10,400 years discovered near Curzon Street in
the city centre.
In the
early 7th century , Birmingham was an Anglo-Saxon farming hamlet on the banks of the River Rea
. It is commonly believed that the name
'Birmingham' comes from "Beorma ingas ham", meaning home of the
sons (or descendants) of
Beorma. Birmingham
was first recorded in written documents by the
Domesday Book of 1086 as a small
village, worth only 20
shillings. There were many variations on this name.
Bermingeham is another version.
In 1166
the holder of the manor of Birmingham, Peter de Birmingham, was granted a royal
charter to hold a market in his castle, which
in time became known as the Bull Ring
, transforming Birmingham from a village to a market
town. The de Birmingham family continued to be Lords of
Birmingham until the 1530s when
Edward de Birmingham was cheated out of
its lordship by the traitor
John Dudley.
As early as the 16th century, Birmingham's access to supplies of
iron ore and
coal meant
that
metalworking industries became
established.
By the time of the
English Civil
War in the 17th century, Birmingham had become an important
manufacturing town with a reputation for producing
small arms.
Arms manufacture in Birmingham became a
staple trade and was concentrated in the area known as the Gun
Quarter
. During the
Industrial Revolution (from the
mid-18th century onwards), Birmingham grew rapidly into a major
industrial centre and the town prospered. Birmingham’s population
grew from 15,000 in the late 17th century to 70,000 a century
later. During the 18th century, Birmingham was home to the
Lunar Society, an important gathering of local
thinkers and industrialists.
Birmingham rose to national political prominence in the campaign
for political reform in the early nineteenth century, with
Thomas Attwood's
Birmingham Political Union
bringing the country to the brink of civil war and back during the
Days of May that preceded the passing of
the
Great Reform Act in 1832.
The
Union's meetings on Newhall Hill
in 1831 and 1832 were the largest political
assemblies Britain had ever seen. Lord Durham, who drafted
the act, wrote that "the country owed Reform to Birmingham, and its
salvation from revolution".
By the 1820s, an extensive
canal system had been
constructed, giving greater access to natural resources to fuel to
industries.
Railways arrived in Birmingham
in 1837 with the arrival of the
Grand Junction Railway, and a year
later, the
London and
Birmingham Railway. During the
Victorian era, the population of Birmingham
grew rapidly to well over half a million and Birmingham became the
second largest population centre in England. Birmingham was granted
city status in
1889 by
Queen Victoria.
The city established
its own
university
in 1900.
Birmingham in 1886
Birmingham suffered heavy
bomb damage during
World War II's "
Birmingham Blitz", and the city was
extensively redeveloped during the 1950s and 1960s.
This included the
construction of large tower block estates, such as Castle Vale
. The Bull Ring reconstructed and New Street
station
was redeveloped. In recent years, Birmingham
has been transformed, with the construction of new squares like
Centenary Square and Millennium Place.
Old streets,
buildings and canals have been restored, the pedestrian subways
have been removed, and the Bull Ring
shopping centre has been completely
redeveloped.
In the decades following the
Second
World War, the ethnic makeup of Birmingham changed
significantly, as it received waves of immigration from the
Commonwealth of Nations and
beyond. The city's population peaked in 1951 at 1,113,000
residents.
Governance
Birmingham City Council is
the largest local authority in the UK and the largest council in
Europe with 120
councillors representing
40
wards.
Its headquarters are
at the Council
House
in Victoria Square
. No single party is in overall control and
the council is run by a Conservative/ Liberal Democrat
coalition.
The city is also the seat of regional government for the
West Midlands region of England as the home of the
region's
Government Office, the
regional development
agency Advantage West
Midlands, and the
West Midlands Regional
Assembly.
Birmingham's eleven parliamentary constituencies are represented in
the House of
Commons
by one Conservative, one Liberal Democrat, one Independent Labour and eight Labour MPs. In the European
Parliament
the city forms part of the West
Midlands European
Parliament constituency, which elects seven Members of the European
Parliament.
Birmingham was originally part of Warwickshire
, but expanded in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, absorbing parts of Worcestershire to the south and Staffordshire to the north and west.
The city
absorbed Sutton
Coldfield
in 1974 and became a metropolitan borough in the
new West Midlands
county. Up until 1986, the West Midlands County Council
was based in Birmingham City Centre
.
Law enforcement in Birmingham is carried out by
West Midlands Police, fire and rescue
by
West Midlands Fire
Service and emergency medical care by
West Midlands Ambulance
Service.
Geography
Birmingham is located in the centre of the
West Midlands region of England on the
Birmingham Plateau – an area of
relatively high ground, ranging around 500 to 1,000 feet (150–300
m) above sea level and crossed by Britain's main north-south
watershed between the basins of the
Rivers
Severn and
Trent.
To the south and west of the city lie the
Lickey
Hills
, Clent
Hills
and Walton
Hill
, which reach and have extensive views over the
city.
Much of
the area now occupied by the city was originally a northern reach
of the ancient Forest of Arden,
whose former presence can still be felt in the city's dense
oak tree-cover and in the large number of
districts such as Moseley
, Saltley
and Hockley
with names ending in "-ley": the Old English -lēah meaning "woodland
clearing".
Geology
Geologically, Birmingham is dominated by the
Birmingham Fault which runs diagonally through the city
from the Lickey Hills in the south west, passing through Edgbaston
, the Bull Ring to Erdington
and Sutton Coldfield in the north east. To the south and east
of the fault the ground is largely softer Keuper Marl, interspersed with
beds of Bunter pebbles and crossed
by the valleys of the Rivers Tame, Rea and Cole along with their
tributaries. Much of this would have been laid down during
the
Permian and
Triassic eras. To the north and west of the fault,
varying from 150 to 600 feet (45–180 m) higher than the surrounding
area and underlying much of the city centre, lies a long ridge of
harder
Keuper Sandstone.
Climate
The climate in Birmingham is classified as a
temperate maritime
climate, like much of the British Isles, with average maximum
temperatures in summer (July) being
around ; and in winter (January) is around . Extreme weather is
rare but the city has been known to experience
tornados – the most recent being in
July 2005 in the south of the city,
damaging homes and businesses in the area.
Occasional summer heatwaves, such as the one experienced in July
2006 have become more common in recent years, and winters have
become milder since the 1990s with snow becoming much less
frequent. Similar to most other large cities, Birmingham has a
considerable '
urban heat island'
effect.
During the coldest night recorded in
Birmingham (14 January 1982), for example, the temperature fell to
at Birmingham International
Airport
on the city's eastern edge, but just at Edgbaston,
near the city centre. Relative to other large UK
conurbations, Birmingham is a snowy city, due to its inland
location and comparatively high elevation.
Snow showers often
pass through the city via the Cheshire gap
on North Westerly airstreams, but can also come off
the North
Sea
from North Easterly airstreams.
Nearby places
Demographics
Birmingham is an ethnically and culturally diverse city. In 2005
the
ONS estimated
that 67.8% of the population was
White
(including 2.7%
Irish & 2.1%
Other White),
20.4%
Asian, 6.6% or
Black, 1.1%
Chinese, 3.1% of
mixed
race and 1.1% of other ethnic heritage. 57% of primary and 52%
of secondary pupils are from non-white British families. 16.5% of
the population was born outside the United Kingdom.
The population density is 9,451 inhabitants per square mile
(3,649/km²) compared to the 976.9 inhabitants per square mile
(377.2/km²) for England. Females represented 51.6% of the
population whilst men represented 48.4%. More women were 70 or
over. 60.4% of the population was aged between 16 and 74, compared
to 66.7% in England as a whole.
60.3% of households were found to be owner occupied and 27.7% were
rented from either the city council, housing association or other
registered social landlord. The remaining 11.8% of households were
rented privately or lived
rent free.
The Bimingham
Larger Urban Zone, a
Eurostat measure of the functional
city-region approximated to local government districts, has a
population of 2,357,100 in 2004.
In addition to Birmingham itself, the LUZ
includes the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull
and Walsall
, along with the districts of Lichfield
, Tamworth
, North Warwickshire
and Bromsgrove
.
Places of interest
- See also: Places of
interest in Birmingham
The
Birmingham Museum & Art
Gallery
is the main art gallery and museum in
Birmingham. It has renowned displays of artwork that include
a leading collection of work by the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and
the world's largest collection of works by
Edward Burne-Jones.
The council also owns
other museums in the city such as Aston Hall
, Blakesley
Hall
, the Museum of the Jewellery
Quarter
, Soho
House
, and Sarehole Mill
, a popular attraction for fans of J. R. R.
Tolkien.
Thinktank
in the Eastside is one of the newest museums in the
city, replacing the former Science & Industry Museum in Newhall
Street. The Birmingham Back to Backs
are the last surviving court of back-to-back
houses in the city.
Barber
Institute of Fine Arts
is both an art gallery and concert hall. It also
has one of the world's most detailed and largest coin collections.
Cadbury World is a museum
showing visitors the stages and steps of chocolate production and
the
history of chocolate and
the company.
There are over 8,000 acres (3,200
ha) of
parkland open spaces in Birmingham.
The largest of the parks is Sutton Park
covering 2,400 acres (970 ha) making it the largest
urban nature reserve in Europe. Birmingham
Botanical Gardens
are a Victorian creation, with a conservatory and
bandstand, close to the city centre. The Winterbourne
Botanic Garden
, maintained by the University of
Birmingham, is also located close to the city centre.
Woodgate
Valley Country Park
is in Bartley Green and Quinton.
The city
centre consists of numerous public
squares including Centenary Square
, Chamberlain Square
and Victoria Square. The historic Old Square
is located on Corporation
Street
. Rotunda Square and St Martin's Square are
two of the newest squares in Birmingham, being located within the
Bullring Shopping Centre.
Brindleyplace
also consists of three squares and the National Sea
Life Centre
.
Places of worship
Birmingham's diverse population uses a wide variety of religious
buildings in the city.
St Philip's
was upgraded from church to cathedral status in
1905. There are two other cathedrals, St
Chad's
, seat of the Roman
Catholic Province of Birmingham, and the Greek Orthodox
Dormition of
the Mother of God and St Andrew
. The original parish church of Birmingham,
St Martin in
the Bull Ring
, is Grade II*
listed.
The
oldest surviving synagogue in Birmingham is the 1825 Greek Revival Severn
Street Synagogue
, now a Freemason's Lodge
hall. It was replaced in 1856 by the Grade II* listed Singers Hill
Synagogue
. Birmingham Central Mosque
, one of the largest in Europe, was constructed
in the 1960s. However, during the late 1990s a mosque in the
Sparkhill area was re-developed in partnership with the City
Council, to supersede the Central Mosque as the largest in the
city.
Economy
Birmingham grew to prominence as a
manufacturing and
engineering centre, its economy today is
dominated by the
service
sector, which in 2003 accounted for 78% of the city's economic
output and 97% of its economic growth.
Data on sheet NUTS34, line 339
Two of Britain's largest banks were founded in Birmingham –
Lloyds Bank (now
Lloyds Banking Group) in 1765 and the
Midland Bank (now
HSBC Bank plc) in 1836 – and as of 2007
the city employed 108,300 in banking, finance and insurance. In
2009,
Cushman &
Wakefield stated that Birmingham was the second best place in
the United Kingdom to locate a business, and the 14th best in
Europe.
Tourism is also an increasingly important part of the local
economy.
With major facilities such as the International Convention
Centre
and National Exhibition Centre
the Birmingham area accounts for 42% of the UK
conference and exhibition trade. The city's sporting and
cultural venues attract large numbers of visitors.
With an
annual turnover of £2.2bn, Birmingham city centre is the UK's
second largest retail centre, with the country's busiest shopping centre – the Bullring – and the largest department store outside London – House of Fraser on Corporation
Street. The City also has one of only four
Selfridges department stores, and the second
largest branch of
Debenhams in the
country.
In 2004 the city was ranked as the third
best place to shop in the United Kingdom, behind the West End of
London
and Glasgow
, being described as a "world-class shopping
centre".
Despite
the decline of manufacturing in the city several significant
industrial plants remain, including Jaguar
Cars in Castle
Bromwich
and
Cadbury Trebor Bassett in
Bournville
.
Although the city has seen economic growth greater than the
national average in the 21st century
Data on sheet NUTS33, line 102 the benefits have been uneven, with
commuters from the surrounding area
obtaining many of the more skilled jobs.
The two parliamentary
constituencies with the highest unemployment rates in the UK –
Ladywood
and Sparkbrook and Small Heath
– are both in inner-city Birmingham.
Growth has also added to stresses on the city's transport.
Many
major roads and the central New Street
railway station
operate over capacity at peak times.
Transport
because of its inland central location, Birmingham is a major
transport hub on the
motorway,
rail, and
canal
networks.
The city is served by a number of major
motorways and probably the best known motorway junction in the UK:
Spaghetti
Junction
.
Over the
coming months, National Express
will be moving their UK headquarters to the city, alongside the
newly developed Digbeth Coach Station
, which forms the national hub of the company's
coach network.
The
nearest airport is Birmingham International
Airport
, located in the Borough of
Solihull to the east of the city. As of 2008, the
airport is the
sixth busiest by passenger traffic in the United Kindgom.
public transport is by
bus, local train and
tram. The number 11A and 11C
outer
circle bus routes are the longest urban bus routes in Europe,
being long with 272 bus stops. Bus routes are mainly operated by
National Express West
Midlands, which accounts for over 80% of all bus journeys in
Birmingham, however, there are around 50 other, smaller registered
bus companies.
The extensive bus network allows passengers
to travel to and from various districts of the city, while there
are longer bus routes which take passengers to areas further afield
such as Wolverhampton, Dudley
, Walsall
, West
Bromwich
, Halesowen
, Stourbridge
and the Merry Hill Shopping Centre
. The only towns in the West Midlands
conurbation that currently lack a direct public transport link
with Birmingham are Sedgley
, Kingswinford
, Wednesfield
and Willenhall
.
The
city's main railway station, Birmingham
New Street
, is at the centre of the national railway
network. Birmingham Snow Hill station
, another major railway station in the city centre,
is also a terminus for the Midland
Metro which operates between the station and Wolverhampton, also serving the nearby towns of Bilston
, Wednesbury
and West
Bromwich.
There are plans to extend the Midland Metro route further into
Birmingham city centre.
Birmingham has a large rail-based park and
ride network that feeds the city centre. see Birmingham
Rail Stations
Birmingham is also notable for its expansive
canal system, and the
city is often noted for having more miles of canal than Venice
. The canals fed the industry in the city
during the Industrial Revolution.
Canalside regeneration schemes such as
Brindleyplace have turned the canals into tourist
attractions.
Education
city council is England's largest local education authority, directly or indirectly responsible for 25 nursery schools, 328 primary schools, 77 secondary schools and 29 special schools. It also runs the library service, with 4 million visitors annually, and provides around 3,500 adult education courses throughout the year. The main library is Central Library
and there are 41 local libraries in Birmingham, plus a regular mobile library service.
Most of Birmingham's
state
schools are
community schools
run directly by
Birmingham City
Council in its role as
local education authority (LEA).
However, there are a large number of
voluntary aided schools within the
state system.
King Edward's School
is perhaps the most prestigious independent school in the city.
The seven schools of The King Edward VI Foundation are known
nationally for setting very high academic standards and all the
schools consistently achieve top positions in national league
tables.
Sutton
Coldfield College
merged with North Birmingham College in 2003 and
Josiah Mason College in 2006 to form one of the largest further
education colleges in the country. Matthew
Boulton College
is also located in the city and in 2005, the
Eastside
branch of the college was completed and
opened. Joseph Chamberlain College is the only
sixth form college in Birmingham and
Solihull to have been awarded both
Beacon
Status and an overall
OFSTED grade 1
(Outstanding).
Birmingham is home to three universities: the University of
Birmingham, Aston
University
, Birmingham City University
; and two university
colleges: Newman University College
and University College
Birmingham
. The Birmingham Conservatoire
and Birmingham School of Acting
, both now part of Birmingham City University, offer
higher education in specific arts subjects. BCU opened the
New Technology Institute
facility in the Eastside area in 2006. The Joseph
Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower
is a campanile located in Chancellor's court at the
University of Birmingham in the West Midlands of England. It
is the tallest free-standing clock tower in the world.
Sport
The NIA has hosted many national and
international sporting championships.
The city has played an important part in the history of sport. It
was the first city to be named National City of Sport by the
Sports Council. It was the place where
William McGregor moved to in 1870
who was instrumental in forming the
Football League.It is home of two of the
country's oldest professional
football teams:
Aston Villa (1874) and
Birmingham City (1875). The
Second City derby is an event in which the
two clubs:
Aston Villa and
Birmingham City F.C. play against each other. Aston Villa have won
50 matches as opposed to Birmingham City's 38 match wins.Both teams
have won trophies,with Villa notably winning the
European Cup in 1982.The following year saw
Duran Duran's charity concert at Aston Villa football ground
1983 and on May 28 2005
Duran Duran
staged a concert at Birmingham City`s St.Andrews football
stadium.
The
FA Cup Trophy was made in Birmingham
by Messrs Vaughton.
Birmingham is home to Warwickshire County Cricket
Club, whose Edgbaston
ground also hosts test
matches. The venue was the scene of the highest ever
score by a batsman, when
Brian Lara
scored 501 not out for Warwickshire. Edgbaston was also the venue
of the famous 2nd test of the 2005 ashes series. Trailing Australia
1–0 in the series, England looked to have secured an easy test
victory with the Aussies going into the final day the Australians
needing 107 runs with only 2 wickets in hand. But a spirited fight
from the Australian tailed enders got them within 2 runs of
winning. However Steve Harmisons famous bouncer was gloved behind
and caught by England wicket keeper Geriant Jones. It meant England
won the test by the smallest margain ever in ashes history and
ultimately went on to win the series, which was later proclaimed
the greatest. Birmingham was the host for the first ever Cricket
World Cup, a
Women's Cricket
World Cup in 1973.
International track and field meetings take
place at Alexander
Stadium
, the home of Birchfield Harriers which has many
international athletes amongst its members. The
GMAC Gymnastics
and Martial Arts Centre, alongside Alexander Stadium, opened in
2008 and houses an international standard gymnastics hall and three
martial arts dojos, including the headquarters of the
Aikido Fellowship of Great Britain.
The National
Indoor Arena
(NIA), opened in 1991, is a major indoor athletics
venue, hosting the 2007 European
Athletics Indoor Championships and 2003 IAAF World Indoor
Championships as well as many WWE wrestling
events.
The first ever game of
lawn tennis was
played by Major
Harry Gem and his friend
Augurio Perera in Edgbaston between
1859 and 1865 and
ATP international tennis
is still played at Edgbaston's Priory Club.
Birmingham also has a professional Rugby Union side, Moseley RFC, who play at
Billesley
Common
, and there is professional basketball team, Birmingham Panthers, as well as
professional boxing, hockey, skateboarding, stock-car racing, greyhound racing and speedway in the city.
Food & drink
's development as a commercial town was originally based around its
market for agricultural produce, established by
royal charter in 1166.
Despite the
industrialisation of subsequent centuries this role has been
retained, and the Birmingham Wholesale Markets
remain the largest combined wholesale food markets
in the country, selling meat, fish, fruit, vegetables and flowers and
supplying fresh produce to restauranteurs and independent retailers
as far as 100 miles away.
Birmingham is the only English city outside
London to have three Michelin starred
restaurants: Simpson's in Edgbaston, Turners in Harborne
and Purnell's in the city
centre.
Birmingham based
breweries included
Ansells,
Davenports and
Mitchells & Butlers.
Aston
Manor Brewery
is currently the only brewery of any significant
size. Many fine Victorian pubs and bars can still be found
across the city.
The oldest inn in Birmingham is the
Old
Crown
in Deritend
(circa 1450 ). The city has a plethora of
nightclubs and bars, notably along Broad Street.
The
Wing Yip food empire first began in the
city and now has its headquarters in the Chinese
Quarter
. The Balti, a
type of curry, was invented in the city, which
has received much acclaim for the 'Balti Belt' or 'Balti
Triangle
'.
Culture and arts
Arts
Birmingham has had a vibrant and varied musical history over the
last century. Birmingham bands have made a major contribution to
the musical culture of the United Kingdom, with many contemporary
bands citing Birmingham bands as a major influence. In the 1960s,
the "
Brum Beat" era featured
blues and early
progressive rock bands, such as
The Moody Blues. In the 1980s the reggae
band UB40 were formed in Moseley while boy band
Musical Youth lived in the Nechells part of
Birmingham. Europe's biggest music shop was in Birmingham called
Woodroffes Musical Instruments. The city is often described as the
birthplace of
heavy metal music,
with
Judas Priest,
Black Sabbath and two members of
Led Zeppelin being local. Then later on during
the 80s bands such as
Napalm Death,
joined the Birmingham heavy metal scene. In the 1970s, members of
The Move and The
Idle
Race formed the
Electric
Light Orchestra and
Wizzard. The 1970s
also saw the rise of
reggae and
ska in the city with such bands as
Steel Pulse,
UB40, and
The Beat, expounding racial unity with
politically leftist lyrics and multiracial lineups, mirroring
social currents in Birmingham at that time. Seminal 1980s pop band
Duran Duran are also from
Birmingham.
Jazz has a following in the city, and the annual Birmingham
International Jazz Festival is the largest of its kind in the UK.
Venues
for the festival are also located out of Birmingham in Solihull. It was first held in 1984.
The
internationally-renowned City of Birmingham
Symphony Orchestra's home venue is Symphony
Hall
. There is a
City Organist; since 1834 only
seven men have held this position. The current holder,
Thomas Trotter, has been in post since 1983.
Weekly
recitals have been given since the organ in Birmingham Town Hall
was opened but are now held in St. Philip's
Cathedral, until the Town Hall organ opens in October 2007,
following restoration. The Birmingham Royal Ballet resides in
the city as does the world's oldest vocational dance school,
Elmhurst
School for Dance
.
The
Birmingham
Triennial Music Festivals took place from 1784 to 1912. Music
was specially composed, conducted or performed by
Mendelssohn,
Gounod,
Sullivan,
Dvořák,
Bantock and
Edward
Elgar, who wrote four of his most famous choral pieces for
Birmingham. Elgar's
The Dream
of Gerontius had its début performance there in 1900.
Composers born in the city include
Albert William Ketèlbey and
Andrew Glover.
's other city-centre music venues include The
National
Indoor Arena, which was opened in 1991,
02
Academy
in Dale End which opened in 2000, The
CBSO Centre
, opened in 1997,
Barfly in Digbeth and the
Adrian
Boult Hall
, which was built along with
Paradise
Forum
and
Birmingham Central Library, at
Birmingham Conservatoire.
Among
the many theatres in Birmingham, the largest are the Alexandra
("the Alex"), The Rep
, the Hippodrome
and the Old Rep
. The Crescent Theatre
and Old Joint Stock Theatre
are other city centre theatres.
Outside
of the city centre are the Drum Arts Centre
(on the site of the former Aston
Hippodrome
) and mac
. The
Fierce!
festival collaborates with The Rep to present an annual series of
performances from local and national companies.
Literary figures associated with Birmingham include
Samuel Johnson who stayed in Birmingham for a
short period and was born in nearby
Lichfield
. The Birmingham Central Library holds some two
thousand volumes of his work.
Arthur
Conan Doyle worked in the Aston area of Birmingham whilst poet
Louis MacNeice lived in Birmingham
for six years. American author
Washington Irving produced several of his
most famous literary works whilst staying in Birmingham such as
Bracebridge Hall and
The Humorists, A Medley
which are based on Aston Hall. Other authors who were born in or
have resided in Birmingham include
David Lodge,
Jonathan Coe and
J. R.
R. Tolkien, who is said to have been inspired
by areas and buildings in the city. Influential poets associated
with Birmingham include
Roi Kwabena, who
was the city's sixth poet laureate, and
Benjamin Zephaniah, who was born in the
city.
Birmingham is the home of
the UK's longest-established
local science fiction group, launched in 1971 (although there
were earlier incarnations in the 1940s and 1960s) and which
organises the annual sf event
Novacon.
Birmingham
Museum & Art Gallery has one of the largest collections of Pre-Raphaelite art in the world.
Edward Burne-Jones was born in
Birmingham, spent his first twenty years in the city, later
becoming president of the Royal
Birmingham Society of Artists
. The Barber
Institute of Fine Arts was declared 'Gallery of the Year' by the 2004
Good Britain Guide. The Ikon Gallery
hosts displays of contemporary art.
Notable
local artists include David Cox,
David Bomberg, Pogus Caesar, Keith
Piper and Donald Rodney.OOM Gallery
a photographic archive has collaborated with
organisations such as Fazeley
Studios Three White Walls and
Kinetic AIU.
Birmingham's role as a manufacturing and printing centre has
supported strong local traditions of
graphic design and
product design. Iconic works by Birmingham
designers include the
Baskerville font,
Ruskin Pottery, the
Acme Thunderer whistle, the Art Deco branding
of the
Odeon Cinemas and the
Mini.
Festivals and shows
Birmingham is home to many national, religious and spiritual
festivals including a
St. George's Day
party. The
Birmingham Tattoo is a
long-standing military show.
The Caribbean
-style Birmingham International
Carnival takes place in odd numbered years. Birmingham Pride takes place in the gay
village and attracts up to 100,000 visitors each year. From 1997,
the city hosted an annual arts festival
ArtsFest, the largest free arts festival in
the UK. In December 2006, the City Council announced that it would
no longer hold Artsfest.
The city's largest single-day event is its
St. Patrick's Day parade (Europe's
second largest, after the one in Dublin
). Other multicultural events include the
Bangla Mela and the Vaisakhi Mela. The Birmingham Heritage Festival
is a
Mardi Gras style event in August.
Caribbean and African culture
are celebrated with parades and street
performances by buskers. Other
festivals in the city include
Moseley Folk Festival (since 2006),
which takes place in Moseley private park and mixes new with
established folk acts, the
Birmingham International
Jazz Festival, and the Birmingham Comedy Festival (since 2001),
which has been headlined by such acts as
Peter
Kay,
The Fast Show,
Jimmy Carr,
Lee Evans
and
Lenny Henry. The festivals, shows
and other activities make Birmingham are part of Birmingham's 2026
vision, publicised by Be Birmingham (a Local Strategic Partnership
to Birmingham) which aims to improve the range of public festivals
and activities in the city.
Media
Birmingham has two local daily newspapers – the
Birmingham Post and the
Birmingham Mail – as well as the
Sunday Mercury, all owned by
the
Trinity Mirror who also own
What's On magazine, a fortnightly listings title which has
been running for 30 years.
Forward (formerly
Birmingham Voice) is a
freesheet
produced by
Birmingham City
Council, which is distributed to homes in the city. Birmingham
is also the hub for various national
ethnic
media and the base for two regional Metro editions (east and west
Midlands).Birmingham has a long cinematic history.
The Electric
Cinema
on Station Street is the oldest working cinema in the UK, and Oscar Deutsch opened his first Odeon cinema in Perry Barr
during the 1920s. Birmingham-born architect
Harry Weedon collaborated with Oscar
Deutsch to design over 300 cinemas across the country, most in the
distinctive
Art Deco style.
Star
City
is said to be Europe's largest leisure and cinema
complex and is not far from the Britain's only permanent drive-in
cinema; both are in Nechells
. An IMAX cinema is
located at Millennium Point
in the Eastside. Birmingham has also been the location for
films including
Felicia's Journey of 1999, which used
locations in Birmingham that were used in
Take Me High of 1973 to contrast the
changes in the city.
As well as being the location for television dramas, Birmingham is
also a national hub for television broadcasting. The
BBC has two facilities in the city.
The Mailbox
, in the city centre, is the location for the
national headquarters of BBC English
Regions, the headquarters of BBC
West Midlands and the BBC Birmingham
network production centre, which were previously
located at the Pebble Mill Studios
in Edgbaston. The BBC Drama Village
, based in Selly Oak
, is a production facility specialising in television drama. It was
announced in October 2007 that BBC Birmingham was to lose 43 out of
2,500 jobs nationwide.
Central/ATV studios in Birmingham were the location for the
recording of many programmes for ITV including
Tiswas and
Crossroads until the complex was
closed. When Central TV moved to its current Gas Street studios, it
was also the main hub for
CITV until CITV was
moved to Manchester in 2004. All of ITV Central's output from
Birmingham now consists of the West and East editions of the
regional news programme
Central
Tonight.
The city is served by numerous national and regional radio
stations, as well as local radio stations. These include
96.4 BRMB,
Galaxy,
Heart FM,
Kerrang! 105.2,
New Style Radio 98.7FM,
Smooth Radio 105.7FM and
BBC WM.
The
Archers, the world's longest running radio soap, is
recorded in Birmingham for
BBC Radio
4.
Leisure
Two major developments have regenerated two parts of the city in
recent years.
Brindleyplace is a major canalside development with
restaurants and office buildings along with the National
Sea Life Centre. The other development was the Bullring
Shopping Centre, which replaced a previous shopping centre.
The Mailbox, a canalside development, features designer stores
as well as offices and apartments. The
Cube
, designed by MAKE
Architects is a 17 storey mixed-use development which is under
construction as part of the Mailbox masterplan. The National
Indoor Arena is one of the busiest large scale sporting and
entertainment venues in Europe. Outside of the city
centre is Star
City entertainment complex on the former site of
Nechells Power Station.
The
nightlife in Birmingham is concentrated mainly along Broad
Street
and into Brindleyplace. However, in recent years, stylish clubs
and bars have started to establish themselves outside the Broad
Street area.
The Medicine Bar
in the Custard Factory
, The Sanctuary
, Rainbow Pub and Air are large clubs and bars in
Digbeth
. Near Digbeth, there are bars and club
nights in areas such as the Arcadian and Hurst
Street
Gay Village by the Chinese Quarter
. Summer Row, The Mailbox, and St Philips/Colmore Row – where once a month
there is a party night held for Polish residents in Birmingham –
and Jewellery Quarter
also feature clubs. There are number of
late night pubs in the Irish Quarter
.
Architecture
[[File:Bell Edison Telephone Building.jpg|thumb|[[17 & 19
Newhall Street, Birmingham|17 & 19 Newhall Street]] in
Birmingham's characteristic Victorian
red brick and
terracotta]]Birmingham is chiefly a product of the 18th, 19th,
and 20th centuries; its growth began during the
Industrial Revolution. Consequently,
relatively few buildings survive from its earlier history, and
those that do are protected. There are 1,946
listed buildings in
Birmingham and thirteen
scheduled ancient monuments.
Birmingham City Council also operate a locally listing scheme for
buildings that do not fully meet the criteria for statutorily
listed status.
Traces
of medieval Birmingham can be seen in the
oldest churches, notably the original parish church, St Martin
in the Bull Ring. A few other buildings from the medieval and
Tudor periods survive, among them the
Lad in
the Lane
and The Old Crown, the 15th century Saracen's Head
public house and Old Grammar School in
Kings
Norton
and Blakesley Hall.
number of
Georgian buildings survive,
including
St Philip's Cathedral,
Soho
House,
Perrott's Folly
, the
Town Hall and much of
St
Paul's Square
. The
Victorian era saw
extensive building across the city.
Major civic buildings such as the
Victoria Law Courts
(in characteristic red brick and terracotta), the
Council House
and the Museum
& Art Gallery were constructed. St Chad's
Cathedral was the first Roman
Catholic cathedral to be built in the UK since the Reformation. Across the city, the
need to house the industrial workers gave rise to miles of redbrick
streets and terraces, many of
back-to-back houses, some of which were
later to become inner-city
slums.
Postwar
redevelopment and anti-Victorianism resulted in the loss of dozens
Victorian buildings like Birmingham New Street
Station, and the old Central Library. In
inner-city areas too, much Victorian housing was
redeveloped.
Existing communities were relocated to
tower block estates like Castle Vale.
Birmingham City Council now has an extensive tower block demolition
and renovation programme.
There has been a lot of construction in the
city centre in recent years, including the award-winning Future Systems' Selfridges building in the Bullring
Shopping Centre, the Brindleyplace regeneration project and the Millennium Point science and technology centre.
Highrise development has slowed since the 1970s and mainly in
recent years due to enforcements imposed by the
Civil Aviation
Authority on the heights of buildings as they could affect
aircraft from the International Airport, (e.g.
Beetham
Tower
).
Environment
Birmingham has many corridors of wildlife that lie in both informal
settings such as the Kingfisher Project and Woodgate Valley Country
Park and in a selection of parks such as Handsworth Park and Small
Heath Park. Wildlife is nurtured in a good many gardens and helped
along by Birmingham City Council's dedication to replanting street
trees when they die or are removed. The City's horticultural
training facility at King's Heath Park is paired up with Pershore
College.More traditional environmental concerns are constantly
raised by volunteer pressure group Birmingham Friends of the Earth.
That group advocate gentler travel such as through local rail
revival, walking and cycling, reduction in energy demand and waste
generally, and see a great future for environmental technologies in
the city.
Crime and policing
Digbeth Police Station
West Midlands Police serves
Birmingham and the West Midlands county. The headquarters are
located at Lloyd House in the city centre of Birmingham. Birmingham
has been the location for many high profile incidents such as the
31 January 2007
Birmingham raid, New Year Murders, the
2005 Birmingham race riots and in
1974, the
Birmingham pub
bombings.
Crime figures for 2008/2009 (shown below) demonstrated that
Birmingham was above the English average in most, but not all,
fields. Of England's
'core
cities' (Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester,
Newcastle, Nottingham, and Sheffield), Birmingham has the lowest
crime rate.
In 2006, Birmingham city centre was identified as having the
highest concentration of gun crimes in Britain, with three areas of
Birmingham being in the top 10 worst gun crime affected areas of
Britain. In 2008, gun crime continued to rise in Birmingham with
locals and the West Midlands Police in fear of gang related
shootings.
In an attempt to reduce crime in the city, a Crime and Disorder
Partnership has been established in the city, the largest of its
kind in the country. The partnerships work in developing five
neighbourhood based community safety projects in Birmingham was
recognised when it was awarded first prize at the European
Community Safety Awards in December 2004.
Crime rates are
particularly high in areas such as Aston
, Handsworth
, Small Heath
and Bordesley Green
.
Crime figures for 2008/2009 in Birmingham
| Crime |
Birmingham average
(per 1,000 of the population) |
English average
(per 1,000 of the population) |
| Total recorded offences |
94.92 |
86 |
| Violence against a person |
21.55 |
16 |
| Sexual offences |
1.24 |
1 |
| Robbery offences |
3.88 |
2 |
| Burglary |
12.19 |
11 |
| Offences against vehicles |
14.34 |
11 |
| Other theft offences |
15.24 |
20 |
| Criminal damage |
15.9 |
17 |
| Drug offences |
5.22 |
4 |
Notable residents
Birmingham has a number of notable residents from various walks of
life.
Joseph Chamberlain, who was
once mayor of Birmingham and later became an MP, and his son
Neville Chamberlain, who was
lord mayor Birmingham and later the British Prime Minister, are two
of the most well-known political figures who have lived in
Birmingham.
Politician Enoch
Powell was also born in Birmingham attending King
Edward's School. Author
J.
R. R. Tolkien was
brought up in Birmingham with many locations in the city such as
Moseley bog, Sarehole Mill and Perrott's Folly supposedly being the inspiration for various scenes
in The Lord of the
Rings. Writer
W. H. Auden grew up in
the Harborne area of the city. The American author
Washington Irving lived in Birmingham
during the 1820s and wrote both Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow whilst living in the city. Entertainers who were born
or who have lived in Birmingham include comedians
Sid Field,
Tony
Hancock, and
Jasper Carrott and
the actors
Trevor Eve,
Kay Parker, and
Martin
Shaw. Birmingham has also produced a number of popular bands
and musicians.
The Streets,
Steel Pulse,
UB40,
The Beat,
Ocean
Colour Scene,
Moody Blues,
The Move,
Judas Priest,
Black Sabbath,
Napalm Death,
Musical
Youth,
Electric Light
Orchestra,
Led Zeppelin, and
Duran Duran have all been popular bands,
whilst musicians
Jeff Lynne,
Ozzy Osbourne,
Carl
Palmer,
John Lodge,
Roy Wood,
Ruby
Turner,
Toyah Willcox,
Denny Laine and
Steve
Winwood all were very successful. Other famous residents
include award winning political playwright
David Edgar; and Booker Prize winning novelist
David Lodge.
Britain's Got Talent dancing star
Aidan Davis was born here.
The
'Walk of
Stars
', was unveiled on Broad
Street in July 2007 to honour the famous residents of
Birmingham.
See also:
Blue Plaques erected by the Birmingham Civic
Society.
Science and invention
Birmingham has been the location for some of the most important
inventions and scientific breakthroughs.
Local inventions and
notable firsts include: gas lighting,
custard powder, the magnetron, the first ever use of radiography in an operation, Lewis
Paul and John Wyatt's
first cotton Roller Spinning machine and the
UK's first ever hole-in-the-heart operation, at
Birmingham Children's
Hospital
.
Among
the city's notable scientists and inventors are Matthew Boulton, proprietor of the Soho
engineering works
, Sir Francis Galton, originator of
eugenics and important techniques in
statistics, Joseph Priestley, chemist and radical and
James Watt, engineer and
inventor who is associated with the steam
engine. Many of these scientists were members of the
Lunar Society, which was based in the
city.
Twin cities
Birmingham has seven
partner or sister
cities. They are:
There
are also Treaties of Friendship between Birmingham and Guangzhou
in China
, and between Birmingham and Mirpur
in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan
from where about 90,000 Birmingham citizens
originate.
Birmingham, Alabama
, USA, is named after the city and shares an
industrial kinship.
See also
References
-
http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/GenerateContent?CONTENT_ITEM_ID=26205&CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE=0&MENU_ID=12672
-
https://www.ukmediacentre.pwc.com/imagelibrary/detail.asp?MediaDetailsID=1562
- Bassett, Anglo-Saxon Birmingham, 2000
- " Birmingham (England, United Kingdom)".
Encyclopædia Britannica.
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