Birmingham must dread each and every Jane Austen anniversary that rolls around. Along with a slew of new books/films/TV shows appraising, revising and contextualising her work, someone is bound to trot out Mrs Elton’s remark: “Birmingham is not a place to promise much… One has no great hopes of Birmingham. I always say there is something direful in that sound.” Leaving aside the fact that provincial industrial cities were not exactly Ms Austen’s strong suit, it ought to be remembered that her fictional character, Mrs Elton, was a name dropping snob whose opinion shouldn’t count for anything in the real world.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
It lingers though. True the city probably didn’t do itself any favours with its post-WWII planning policy which seemed intent on an obliteration of its past as well as the creation of a no-go area for people at its municipal heart. As a visitor I’ve never understood why they haven’t made more of their illustrious industrial heritage. To return to the fictional motif, the Birmingham evoked by a much more sympathetic writer, Jonathan Coe, in The Rotters’ Club, is hardly more flattering. And if you ask me the city has a lot to answer for when it claims to be the birthplace of Heavy Metal – I wouldn’t be crowing about that if I was them.
Exiting New Street Station today you’d be hard pushed to agree with Mrs Elton’s “not a place to promise much” jibe as you would be forgiven for supposing you’d walked onto a huge building site. Indeed the only way to tell the commuters from the workers is the hard hats and high vis jackets worn by one group. All the noise, action and general hustle & bustle is nothing if not a promise of something bigger, better and brighter.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
While on the one hand the almost sole reliance on the retail industry to regenerate our inner cities seems short-sighted the pedestrianisation this brings must delight most walkers. And even if you’re not a shopaholic a quick stroll to Birmingham’s revamped Bullring with a special trip to the modernistic Selfridges is well worth your time. The area has been transformed sympathetically and is just one of many imaginative developments dotted around. I’d come up for a spot of sightseeing, urban canalside walking, friend visiting and to see the NME Awards concert.
A medium sized market town in medieval times, by the late 18th-century the city could justifiably claim to be the cradle of the Industrial Revolution. By 1791 it was being hailed as the first manufacturing town in the world. Birmingham’s distinctive economic profile, with thousands of small workshops practising a wide variety of specialised and highly-skilled trades, encouraged exceptional levels of creativity and innovation and provided a diverse and resilient economic base for industrial prosperity that was to last into the final quarter of the 20th-century
In 1765 Matthew Boulton opened the Soho Manufactory, pioneering the combination and mechanization under one roof of previously separate manufacturing activities, through a system known as rational manufacture. As the largest manufacturing unit in Europe this came to symbolize the emergence of the factory system. The Manufactory produced a wide range of goods from buttons, buckles, and boxes to japanned ware (collectively called toys), and later luxury products such as silverware and ormolu (a type of gilded bronze). It was also home to the first steam-powered mint, whose presses were subsequently used at the first Birmingham Mint. The Manufactory was demolished in the middle of the 19th-century and the site used for housing.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
The canal system that it used to transport all the goods it made still exists though. Indeed it’s often said that Birmingham has more miles of canals than Venice and they are a great way of getting out of the city centre to the surrounding towns, villages and countryside. At their working peak there were 160 miles (257 km) of canals and today just over 100 miles (160 km) are still navigable. So on a lovely late winter morning (and I don’t recall too many of those lately) I set off from Gas Street Basin towards Soho. It’s just over 3 miles to Smethwick and I seemed to have the network to myself.
There’s a further mile or so to the actual site of the Manufactory and it feels very strange that something that played such an integral part in this country’s dominance of the world is barely even acknowledged at all at the place. No display board or plaque or anything I could find easily. Then after poking around for a while, I located one on St Michael’s Hill. The Birmingham City Council website has less than 200 words about the site. It’s a shame more isn’t made of this sort of heritage, as opposed to country homes, castles and royal palaces – the Downton Abbey effect if you will.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Back in the centre I checked out the giant Gormley in Victoria Square and the recent development of the Mailbox. Oh yeah, nearly forgot – the NME Awards gig was pretty good as well, I especially liked Peace (who are local boys) and Django Django, and I learned that these days some local hipsters refer to the place as B-Town in the Madlands.
Didn’t have time to visit Birmingham’s excellent Get Walking Keep Walking project but the Zombie Walk Birmingham 2013 looks very interesting. When I next go back I’d also like to check out the Saheli (a Hindi name for girls meaning friend, so literally girlfriend) women’s’ project that has a health walks programme. All in all Birmingham appears to be teeming with healthy walks. Wonder what Mrs Elton would’ve made of that, though I reckon Jane Austen would’ve peppered her novels with references from them.
Useful links:
- The Ramblers
- Birmingham
- Jane Austen
- Jonathan Coe
- Heavy Metal
- New Street Station
- NME
- Matthew Boulton
- Soho Manufactory
- Downton Abbey
- Antony Gormley
- The Mailbox
Listen to:
- California Daze by Peace
- Best of Friends by Palma Violets
- Morning Comes by Miles Kane
- Storm by Django Django
- Ozzy Osbourne – Bark At The Moon
- Snow by The Staves
- The Fray – Boulder To Birmingham
Follow me @walkngclasshero