Birmingham, the heart of england

The city of Birmingham, England, has never attracted the attention given to London, or smaller cities like Oxford and Liverpool. Yet, this city, built on iron and steel and coal, was the powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution, and has long been the second largest city in the United Kingdom.

A thousand years ago, it was a small hamlet, and it remained so until the Middle Ages. By the fifteenth century, it was a market town with a large leather and wool trade. When coal and iron were discovered nearby, it took up the business of metal bashing. In the English Civil War, the Royalists captured the town, but the citizens continued to build a manufacturing base. Birmingham exploded during the Industrial Revolution, when canals and then roads and railways radiated from its location in the Midlands to connect it with London and the great ports of England. Coal and iron were mined locally, and the factories and foundries of the city and its surrounding satellite towns churned out guns and jewelry, steam trains and screws, nails and motorcycles, glass and heavy machinery, paint and delicate electrical equipment. Birmingham became known as 'The City of 1001 Trades.'

Joseph Chamberlain was mayor of Birmingham during the 1870s when the city enjoyed a period of rapid growth and development. Slums were cleared, and the city became one of the first to have a municipal bank, a comprehensive water-supply system, and town planning. Neville Chamberlain, his son, traveled a bit, then went into the local copper-brass business. He was active in local politics, and in 1915 was, like his father, elected Lord Mayor. He used this as a stepping-stone to national politics, and later became Prime Minister. Despite his travels, he was a parochial and naïve man. Ignoring the warnings of Winston Churchill and others, he followed a policy of appeasement towards Hitler. He lived to see his city heavily bombed by the German Luftwaffe.

After the war, Birmingham rebuilt. Although hit by the relative decline of manufacturing as an economic factor, it continues to prosper as an administrative center, a producer of sophisticated industrial equipment, and lately, as a cultural and an emerging tourist center. The Greater Birmingham area, consisting of the city, and associated factory towns within a 50-mile radius is now home to over six million people.

Despite, or perhaps because of its rich history, Birmingham has never felt the need to exaggerate its attractions. The natives cheerfully admit to being 'Brummies,' and the town is nicknamed Brummagem, which means tawdry, tinsel, or fake. Brummagem still turns out cheap jewelry, toys and instruments - all of them good value. It's still a major industrial center, producing vehicles, chemicals, plastics, machine tools and electrical equipment.

As befits a large city, the population is diverse and cosmopolitan. Jews, Welsh, and Irish flocked to the city in the 1800s; Poles arrived during the Second World War. Sikhs and other Indians, Pakistanis, Africans and West Indians arrived in great numbers during the boom years of the 1950s. Birmingham and its environs contain Sikh temples, Mosques, Synagogues and Cathedrals. There's a Chinatown, scores of family-owned Indian and Pakistani shops, and the city is home to some of the best curry restaurants in the world.

A visitor should be warned that the local accent is sometimes difficult to understand, especially outside the business areas. Nevertheless, an outing to a local - as opposed to tourist - pub, will certainly repay the effort. The local pubs tend to be big, with well-worn wooden surfaces and bar areas, backed by massive smoky glass mirrors. Pubs are friendly places, and it's not unusual to see turbaned Sikhs, Africans, and veterans from the wartime foundries, still with wooden-hard muscles, all talking together in the rough, nasal accents of the Midlands. Some of the regulars here have been 'stopping in here for a quick one' for fifty years or more. The local beer is flat and smooth, and stronger than you might think, and the food in these locals is plain and tasty; pork pies, pickles, cheese and onions, or perhaps curry and chips. There are hundreds of local pubs. Popular ones are the Shakespeare in the old center of the city, the Barlycorn in Bearwood, and an old picture book place called 'The Old Chapel' in Smethwick, about four miles north of the city center. Watch your step at night, though. The pub is in the middle of a graveyard.

For those with a nose for popular sports, the area has several long-established soccer teams in the premier, first and second divisions; Birmingham City, Aston Villa, West Bromwich Albion, Wolverhampton Wanderers. Brummies take their soccer seriously, and the fans are loud and enthusiastic. Resulting sore throats usually require liberal application of soothing beer, served in dimpled pint mugs. For quieter types, there's cricket at Edgbaston, major tennis tournaments, and International Athletics at the National Indoor Arena.

Outside of the working-class areas, the city is as cosmopolitan as any in Europe. Birmingham has many trendy clubs, bars and restaurants, ranging from the famous Legs Eleven strip club, through Ronnie Scott's Jazz club, to the venerable Yates' Wine Cellar. There are some casinos, but by law, a visitor must register two days prior to being granted membership. This is definitely not Las Vegas. Chinese, Italian, and Indian restaurants are plentiful here. Fish and Chips, and the almost as traditional Curry and Chips, are sold from small restaurants that have been doing business for a century or more. A rather upscale restaurant at New Street railway station might surprise Americans. It serves good wine and good food on clean white tablecloths with sparkling silverware. It's the local McDonalds.

Birmingham is architecturally diverse, with new skyscrapers blending with dignified Victorian architecture. The town Hall, built in 1834, was modeled after the temple of Castor and Pollux in Rome. St Phillip's cathedral was built in the 18th century, St Chad's in the 19th. In the suburb of Edgbaston is the Oratory of St Philip Neri, a Roman Catholic shrine, and once the parish house of Cardinal Newman. The Victoria Law Courts and nearby Methodist Central Hall are eye-catching nineteenth century Terracotta buildings. Throughout the city stand solid Victorian edifices that housed the factory owners and industrialists who forged the iron sinews of the British Empire.

The heart of the city lies in the Bull Ring with its imposing centerpiece, the Rotunda building. The Bull Ring has been a functioning market for almost a thousand years. The current parish church, St Martins, was built there in 1873, but churches have occupied the same site since before 1166, when Henry II granted a charter for a market. St Martins, badly bombed during the war, continues to operate, square in the middle of a modern business and shopping complex, developed in the early 1960's. The Bull Ring Center was the most advanced such development in Europe. The concept was new, and mistakes were made. The resourceful Brummies are again redeveloping the site. St Martins and the Rotunda will remain.

The city boasts many tourist attractions. Visitors can stroll through the old Jewelry Quarter, or walk along the redeveloped canal banks at Gas Street Basin and Brindleyplace, with its upscale pubs and restaurants. Chinatown is home to some of the best clubs and bars in town. Close by, bargain hunters can visit the Rag Market, one of many open air markets where anything from food to fabrics is sold with a great deal of noise and gusto. Other lively areas cluster around Birmingham and Aston Universities, catering to the student population.

For the more sedate, there are several museums, including the City Museum and Art Gallery, with an outstanding pre-Raphaelite collection, the Museum of Science and Industry, a Transport museum, and the Railway Museum, run by enthusiastic volunteers. Birmingham University has its own museum, the Barber Museum of Fine Art. The Central Library, with its extensive collection of the works of William Shakespeare, is a magnet for area scholars and researchers. The Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is world-renowned, and the Royal Ballet has a division based at the Hippodrome theatre.

International Rock and Pop stars perform at the National Exhibition Center, and the massive international Convention Center hosts large assemblies of all kinds. There are three professional theatres, the Hippodrome, the Rep, and the Alexandra, with a myriad of smaller ones. Children and adults can enjoy the National Sea Life Center and the Euro zoo, and the Botanical Gardens displays a wide variety of plants and flowers.

Birmingham is surrounded by areas of great beauty and interest. South of the city is the planned village of Bournville, built by the Cadbury family for their workers. A little further south is Coventry, with it's famous Cathedral. Just north is the 'Black Country,' so called because the soot from the foundries used to darken the sky and settle on buildings and fields alike.

There is an unusual Black Country museum, well worth spending a full day at. It's a reconstruction of an old Black Country village. Visitors can go down an old coalmine, journey through the re-opened canal tunnel, visit an old foundry, and drink beer in a nineteenth-century pub. Be prepared. The accents of the Black Country are very broad.

The Birmingham Railway museum recently launched a regular Sunday steam train service to Stratford on Avon, birthplace of William Shakespeare. The journey takes about thirty minutes, and is well worth making. Also close to the city are Warwick and Dudley castles, and Dudley zoo. A little further out is the countryside of the Cotswolds, Nottingham with its Cathedral, and the historic Potteries area.

Businessmen and tourists arrive in Birmingham in increasing numbers, flying into the International airport, arriving at the historic train stations at New Street and Snow Hill, speeding into the city on the motorways. This is a place on the move. The city motto is, simply, 'Forward', and that's where Brummies are going. Birmingham has weathered wars, depressions, and the decline of manufacturing. The city is big and bold, and it's moving confidently into the twenty-first century. It's well worth a visit.