You live in Birmingham? Oh well never mind Part I

This blog has taken me a while to write as it needs to be discussed but I don't want to it to be a rant.

The title of the blog "You live in Birmingham?  Oh well never mind."  is genuinely something people has said to me.  I mean firstly why is it considered okay to insult people you have never met before just based on the city they happen to live in?  And do people from say Hull or Southampton get that sort of comment, if not why not?

So to try and find out why these comments come about I did a Google search "What's wrong with Birmingham" and overwhelmingly I got "It's grey", seriously am I colour blind because don't see that any more than any other big city and "there has never been anyone of any significance to come from Birmingham", well I have 2 words for that one John Cadbury you're welcome world!!!  

A more detailed write up was:
This sounds mean but because its a huge city, second largest in the UK by population and land area, yet has little cultural significance and absolutely nothing interesting goes on there, it ends up being a large patch of insignificantness. People will also think it has no charm as its stuck between the north and the south, so is part of neither.

So all very interesting and if you know Birmingham at all very, very false, but I don't want to just pooh, pooh these opinions I'd rather try and see where they come from and address them head on.

Firstly it's grey.  Well the city centre and surrounding areas did take quite a battering during the Second World War, that may surprise you as Coventry got a lot more publicity but that was wartime propaganda don't let the Germans know how badly they've hit us.  At the time Birmingham was one of the most key manufacturing areas in the country.

Birmingham Small Arms Company (known as the BSA) at the start of the war was the only company in Britain producing rifles. And at Castle Bromwich there was a second Spitfire manufacturing plant, to supplement the original factory in Southampton.

Grey?

So this meant a lot of areas had to be rebuild some of it badly and in concrete admittedly, but those aside the majority of buildings in the city centre date back to the Victorian era and in keeping with fashion at the time are red brick.  These buildings and other modern examples regularly stood in for London in the TV series Hustle.  

Grey?

Grey?

Okay this one is grey.

So why do people think it's grey?  My theory is the A38M, yes the Aston Expressway is to blame (isn't is always?).  People not familiar with the city will follow the old SatNav route into the centre which is always the M6 and on to the A38M and let's face it this route is quite industrial.  So yes, probably a bit grey.  The other popular route is of course the train, again the main line from London comes in through the factories and industrial estates.  So people are judging the entire city based on one or two route into the centre.  That's like saying the whole of London is like the A40?!?!?  If you approach from the M42, M40 or the M5 you are driving between green fields and as you get closer to the city you are going through some lovely residential areas.

Let me tell you about another city I know where you go into to it through factories, industrial estates and soulless retail parks, that would be Milan.  Yes. I have approached one of the fashion capitals of Europe from both train and motorway both of which are similar to the routes into Birmingham.  This is very much a case of judging a book by it's cover erroneously. 

But did you know Birmingham has over 570 parks, gardens and green spaces?  This is more than any other European city.  Included in this total is Sutton Park in the north of the city which at 2,400 acres is the largest urban nature reserve in Europe.  So rather than being a grey city it is actually a very green city, if you bother to look at it.  

I say come in to Birmingham properly and have a look around, then tell me where all this depressing grey is?  Is it in the Victorian factory buildings now home to artists, in the Jewellery quarter, the modern glass and steel offices in the business district, in the parks and gardens, around the canals with the luxury apartments, in Edgbaston with the million pound mansions and tennis courts (where lawn tennis was invented), or in Bournville where the houses for the Cadbury factory workers still stand beautifully preserved by the Bournville trust?  

Of course you will show me a couple of industrial estates and say "ha there you are!"  but consider Birmingham is extremely proud of it's industrial heritage.   Before the phrase was used about China, Birmingham was indeed the workshop of the world.  

So in Part II I will discuss the historical and cultural heritage of the city and mention a few people and facts that will prove that Birmingham is not a large patch of insignificantness.

What's on this week:

Abba Mania - New Alexandra Theatre
Aladdin - The Hippodrome
Moscow State Circus - The Symphony Hall
National Theatre Live, Les Liaisons Dangereuses - Odeon Broadway Plaza and The Electric Cinema
Strictly Come Dancing Live - The NIA