For several years I have been travelling to Europe and visiting interesting cities but whilst I have been happy to go to Seville and Venice, Prague and Warsaw, Riga and Moscow I have rather neglected to visit towns and cities in my own back yard. This year I have decided that I need to see more of the UK.
Recently whilst visiting friends I had the opportunity to visit England’s second city – Birmingham. Some people wonder why anyone would visit Birmingham, it has a reputation for being dull and grimy, when Queen Victoria was passing through the region by train, she allegedly asked for the blinds to be drawn.
For many, the perception is that Brum is a place you either pass through as quickly as possible or escape from as soon as you can but I was keen to go and see.
To try and tempt people the official guidebooks are keen to remind visitors that it has more canals than Venice, more trees than the Bois de Boulogne, it has the Royal Ballet and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. There are also two famous football clubs, a world-famous cricket ground, a Capability Brown-designed golf course in the heart of Edgbaston and, of course, the Balti belt.
It also has towns and cities named after it all over the World including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland and the United States where sixteen of the fifty states have a place called Birmingham with Alabama being perhaps the most well known.
What I wanted to see most was the civic centre and after arriving by train at New Street Station we made our way to Victoria Square where the Council House and the Town Hall dominate a nineteenth century memorial to the glories of industrial Birmingham, the basis of its wealth, power and influence.
This is a square with statues.
It was formerly known as Council House Square but was renamed on 10th January 1901, to honour Queen Victoria, and a statue of her was erected and unveiled. It must have been a shock to her. She drew down the blinds and died just twelve days later.
Another highlight is Antony Gormley’s sculpture, Iron Man, a six-ton, twenty foot high statue based on a pharaoh’s tomb. It seems to have dropped out of the sky and thudded into the pavement, lurching at a crazy angle, it is supposed to symbolise the golden age of industrial supremacy that is now rusting away. Not everyone likes it, not all local people appreciate it and, there were rumours that when Diana, Princess of Wales, came to officially reopen Victoria Square in 1994, the statue was covered up and hidden from her view so as not to offend her. Rather like Queen Victoria then!
In front of the Council House are two curious statues that seem oddly out of place. A pair of enormous beasts, somewhat sphinx like, but perhaps more akin to the Abyssinian figures in the British Museum. They are made of stone, and entitled The Guardians.
The statue of economist, reformer and Birmingham Member of Parliament, Thomas Attwood in Chamberlain Square is a brilliant work of art but he sits likes a beggar or a homeless person at the bottom of a set of steps. Nearby is the philosopher Joseph Priestly and a gilded bronze statue of the industrialists Matthew Boulton, James Watt and William Murdoch.
I was looking for a statue of Joseph Chamberlain who is perhaps the greatest Brummie of all but surprisingly there isn’t one.
In November 1873, the Liberal Party swept the municipal elections and Chamberlain was elected mayor of Birmingham. As mayor, Chamberlain promoted many civic improvements, leaving the town ‘parked, paved, assized, marketed, gas & watered and improved’. Prior to his tenure in office, the city’s municipal administration was notably lax with regards to public works, and many urban dwellers lived in conditions of great poverty.
Chamberlain forcibly purchased two competing gas companies on behalf of the borough even offering to purchase the companies himself if the ratepayers refused. The city’s water supply was considered a danger to public health – approximately half of the city’s population was dependent on well water, much of which was polluted by sewage. Deploring the rising death rate from contagious diseases in the poorest parts of the city, in 1876, Chamberlain forcibly purchased Birmingham’s waterworks creating Birmingham Corporation Water Department.
In July 1875, Chamberlain introduced an improvement plan involving slum clearance in Birmingham’s city centre and purchased fifty acres of property to build a new road through Birmingham’s overcrowded slums. The area was redeveloped and slum dwellers were rehoused in the suburbs where health improved and the death-rate decreased dramatically.
During Chamberlain’s tenure of office public and private money was used to construct libraries, municipal swimming pools and schools. The Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery was enlarged and a number of new parks were opened. Construction of the Council House was begun while the Victoria Law Courts were built on Corporation Street.
There is a statue of Chamberlain in the House of Lords in London but it is not on prominent display and there is currently a campaign to transfer it to the city of Birmingham.
After the civic centre and the statues we moved on to the canals…
There’s some good stuff in your backyard! Is the Balti Belt a restaurant, or what??
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It is an entire area of restaurants!
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Can’t help but wonder how they keep that last set so shiny?
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Must be a lot of polishing!
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I’ve seen all of these statues as my daughter lived in Birmingham for a few years! We were very impressed when we visited the city as it was much nicer than we were expecting. Thanks for the reminder!
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Never been to Birmingham (except the NEC) but now I’m tempted. Those statues are incredible, love the variety. There are talking statues in Manchester and London – have you seen them? Apparently you swipe your phone and the statue “tells” you their story. Wonder if these talk too?
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Loads of new statues have arrived in Brum today – statues of owls for kids to find in the summer holidays called The Big Hoot. Were you a fan of Birmingham?
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I liked it enough to want to go back.
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Sounds like an interesting place. I wonder if the people of Birmingham, Alabama know where their city’s name came from.
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That is an interesting question?
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That statue of Queen Victoria looks like one only a mother could love. Looks like they also don’t clean as often as the last set.
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The nickname Brum is new to me, but now that I’ve learned it, I’ll keep it. You drop so many jokes into your posts. A shocking unveiling indeed. You keep me laughing, Andrew.
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People from Birminham are proud to call themselves Brummies, those from Newcastle are known as Geordies and people from Lincolnshire are called yellow bellies because soldiers from a Lincolnshire regiment wore yellow waistcoats!
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Oh! Even more nicknames. Thanks for this info. I’m glad you explained the yellow waistcoats so I didn’t assume they were named for being cowards. Do you have that expression “yellow-bellied” there?
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Yes of course. It usually means cowardly but not in the case of the Lincolnshire regiment. I live in lincolnshire and people have car stickers that say – Proud to be a Yellowbelly!
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Truly brilliant.
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Interesting parallel between Victoria and Diana. According to the TV documentary I watched, it was the first time that Victoria had ever seen working class people or poverty, insofar as she was brought up in a large country house and never went anywhere. When she became queen, it was then her husband who spent a lot of time telling her that unless the British improved the inequalities of their society, they risked having a revolution break out. Two famous football clubs? You jest!
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It must have been wonderful to live the privileged life of Victoria.
I have never been a fan of publicity seeking Diana.
Two famous football clubs? OK one, we must surely agree that AV have a great English football heritage even though they will be relegated this season.
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Careful Andrew what you say about my beloved AVFC even though I know in my heart of hearts that it’s highly probable!
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They let me down last night. I was hoping for an improbable win!
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That first goal wasn’t one and Lady Luck deserted the boys big time. The Red Devils playing really well.
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Andrew we too have been spending more time exploring our own ‘backyard’. It looks more mountainous and currently waist deep in snow. I adore the statue of Attwood on the steps. Brilliant.
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Your backyard is a bit bigger than mine! He looks as though he has been out on the booze don’t you think? Not a very flattering pose!
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Haha maybe he was exercising running up and down the stairs and collapsed. 🙂
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i really liked your articles and description. i lived in Birmingham for a few years we were very impressed when we visited the city nice work keep it up.
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Thanks. I Remember Birmingham from the 1970s so was pleased to see the improvements.
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Covid-19 has seen a huge uplift in the number of Australians seeing parts of Australia that only the adventurists used to see. I think most people are reluctant to look in their own backyard.
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So true and I aiming to put that right over the next couple of years. Covid has taught me a thing or two.
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I think it might have taught a lot of people new things
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Unless Chamberlain has a murky past, I think his statue should replace Queen Victoria whose family wealth was largely based on being among the biggest slavers in the world during the 17th and 18th centuries.
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I was wondering about that myself. Victoria reigned over a vast Empire fall of inequality. There would be a lot of scrap metal available if all the statues came down.
As for Chamberlain he was Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1895 to 1903 and was a big pal of Cecil Rhodes so is unlikely to get a statue now.
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The last time I was in Birmingham was in the seventies. I was neither impressed not unimpressed, it seemed just the same as any other city. I was glad I wasn’t the driver because Spaghetti Junction would have had me completely lost.
We were told to spend time shopping at the Bull Ring, we didn’t stay long preferring to browse on the side streets where we bought two paintings, my choice is still on display today.
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It has changed a great deal Sue and is probably worth a return visit.
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I can imagine it has, Andrew. Leeds has changed beyond all recognition, I need a guide when I venture inwards!
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An informative post. I liked the similarity between Queen Victoria and Lady Diana.
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Royalty can be so snooty!
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I’ve only been to Birmingham once and I basically saw the inside of a library supply company and nothing else. I’ve always had a slightly negative (undoubtedly prejudiced) view of it. However, Jo did a Monday Walk along the canals once which made it look much more appealing. So does this. Someday I’d like to visit properly.
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I made the same decision, to see more of the UK this year, but sadly it’s not to be. I did make a start late last year by visiting Liverpool which I loved and would happily return to, but having seen those statues in Birmingham I can’t wait to get there and see them up close. I agree about the Attwood statue. Maybe the sculpture didn’t like him and portraying him as a fall-down drunk was his way of showing it!
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