Visiting Birmingham

At a public inquiry into the planning strategy for the East Midlands a few years ago someone said with horror that Nottingham could get like Birmingham in a few years. She meant big and sprawling but it was said as a put down for Birmingham, which is a pity. J and I have been visiting Birmingham regularly since I retired, primarily to go to the afternoon symphony concerts in the best concert hall in the country, but there is a richness about the heritage of Birmingham that is very attractive.
There is a new library being built that will be a big draw in a couple of years. But go to the empty site now, in Centenary Square, and you can see the archaeology from a viewing platform. Two old canal basins and remains of a Victorian brassworks that provided the middle classes with brass bedsteads for a couple of generations! On a previous trip we went to the Jewellery Quarter museum and saw a workshop that was unchanged from when it was in full flow, churning out gold earrings and brooches. There were people giving the tour who had worked there until the 1980s but the technology was a century old.
Another huge attraction is the artistic tradition, especially in Edward Burne-Jones, a local lad, and the work of other mid Victorian "Pre-Raphaelites" you can find in Birmingham. We saw the stained glass windows in the cathedral last week that Burne-Jones designed and William Morris made using magnificent shades of red and other bright colours. In the Museum and Art Gallery we disovered the original "Farewell to England", a painting of migrants to Australia by Ford Maddox Brown : http://www.bmagic.org.uk/objects/1891P24 . I love the fact that the Museum lets you see its collection online. It also has a free listening guide to all the paintings in the circular entrance gallery. And its Edwardian Tea Room, aspidistras and all, is just great value.
Other discoveries to follow, as and when we make them...