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See also Birmingham, Alabama in the USA, and other places called Birmingham.
File:Birmingham (UK) skyline - Centenary Square 700.jpg
The city from above Centenary Square. (Alternative View)
City of Birmingham
Birmingham
Shown within the West Midlands
Geography
Status: Metropolitan borough,
city (1889)
Region: West Midlands
Ceremonial county: West Midlands
Area:
- Total		 Ranked 169th
267.77 km²
ONS code: 00CN
Demographics
Population:
- Total (2003 est.)
- Density		 Ranked 1st
992,100
3,697 / km²
Ethnicity: 70.4% White
19.5% S. Asian
6.1% Afro-Carib.
Politics
Birmingham City Council
http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/
Leadership: Leader & cabinet
Executive: Conservative & Lib Dem

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the UK's second largest and most ethnically diverse city and continues to be considered the country's "second city". The City of Birmingham has a population of 992,100 (2003 estimate); the Birmingham metropolitan area (the West Midlands county) has a population of 2,575,768. More than five million people live in the surrounding region.

The city is commonly known by its nickname Brum (from the local name Brummagem), and its people as Brummies. Birmingham is home to the distinctive Brummie accent and dialect.

Birmingham is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the UK, with large populations from the Caribbean and Indian sub-continent: according to the 2001 census, 29.7% of the population of Birmingham is non-white. Birmingham also has a large Irish community, and the city hosts the third largest St. Patrick's Day parade in the world, after Dublin and New York. Birmingham's balti restaurants produce some of the finest 'Indian' cuisine in the UK.

About 22 million people visit Birmingham every year and the city was voted second best place to shop in England 2004 after the West End of London. Its top attractions include Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Millennium Point, Bull Ring, Selfridges Building, Cadbury World, Tolkien Trail [1], Birmingham Royal Ballet, and the National Sea Life Centre.

Birmingham has 35 miles (60 km) of canals within the city boundaries, of which most are navigable; the canals were once the lifeblood of the city's industries during the Industrial Revolution but are now used mainly for pleasure. It is often quoted that Birmingham has more miles of canal than Venice. This is in fact true (Venice has 26 miles) although Birmingham is much larger than Venice [2].

File:New Street Birmingham 700.jpg
New Street in central Birmingham

History

Main article: History of Birmingham

The Birmingham area was occupied in Roman times, with several military roads and a large fort. Birmingham started life as a small Anglo-Saxon hamlet in the dark ages. It was first recorded in written documents by the Domesday Book of 1086 as a small village.

From the 12th century onwards Birmingham developed into a market centre. And by the 17th century had become an important manufacturing town with a reputation for producing small arms. Birmingham manufacturers supplied Oliver Cromwell's forces with much of their weaponry during the English Civil War.

During the Industrial Revolution from the mid 18th century onwards, because of abundant nearby sources of coal and iron ore and a skilled workforce, Birmingham grew into a major industrial centre. Birmingham became a centre of the British canal and later railway networks in the early 19th century.

Canals in central Birmingham

In Victorian times, the population of the city grew rapidly to well over half a million and Birmingham became the second largest population centre in Britain, it became known as the "City of a thousand trades" due to the wide variety of manufacturing industries located there. Birmingham gained city status in 1889.

Birmingham suffered heavy bomb damage during World War II, and partly as a result of this the city-centre was extensively re-developed during the 1950s and 1960s with many concrete office buildings, ring-roads, and now much-derided pedestrian subways. As a result, Birmingham gained a reputation for ugliness and was frequently described as a "concrete jungle".

However, in recent years the city centre has been extensively renovated and restored with the construction of new squares, the restoration of old streets, buildings and canals, and the removal of much-derided pedestrian subways and the old Bull Ring shopping centre.

Economy

Birmingham is by far the UK's largest manufacturing and engineering centre, employing over 100,000 people in the industry and contributing billions to the national economy with two of the largest car plants in Britain, MG Rover and Jaguar, not counting Land Rover in nearby Solihull. - over 25% of UK exports originate in the greater Birmingham area. The main products from Birmingham include: Motor vehicles, vehicle components and accessories, weapons, electrical equipment, plastics, machine tools, chemicals, food, jewellery and glass.

Over 500 law firms exist in the city and is Brum is Europe's second largest insurance market. Attracting over 40% of the UK's total conference trade.

In recent years Birmingham's economy has diversified into service industries, retailing and tourism, which are now the main employers in the city. Scientific research including the controversial nano technology at Birmingham University is expanding in the city and will possibly play a part in the city's economic future. More details about the Birmingham economy.

The city has quitely developed into one of the most important research centre's for cancer research in the world, following in the footsteps of the victorian era for medical research such as the use of X-rays for medical purposes which was pioneered by Major John Hall-Edwards in 1908, see herefor more information.

The Industrial Revolution flourished in Birmingham and the surrounding Midlands towns, allowing many factories, foundries and businesses, including sword, gun and pistol manufacturers, watchmakers, jewellers, goldsmiths, attorneys, physicians, surgeons, apothecaries metallurgists and chemists to prosper.

Out of these many professions were born great inventors and possibly one of the most significant was Alexander Parkes who invented the very first celluloids which were eventually combined with electroplating to give birth to film. Parkes also showcased parkesine at the Great International Exhibition in London which is the first ever form of plastic. This substance -- which the public dubbed parkesine -- was an organic material derived from cellulose that could be molded after heating, but retained its shape when it cooled. (As opposed to Bakelite, which is entirely synthetic.)

The city's workmen designed and constructed railway carriages, steam engines, and even - unusually for somewhere so far from the sea - ships, which were made as pre-fabricated sections, then assembled at the coast.

Famous brands from the "city of a thousand trades" include Bird's Custard, Typhoo Tea, Brylcreem, Chad Valley Toys, BSA, Bakelite and the Birmingham Wire Gauge.

Lloyds Bank (now Lloyds TSB) began here in 1765 and The Midland Bank (now part of HSBC) opened in Union Street, in August 1836. Until 2003, coins were manufactured at the Birmingham Mint, the oldest independent mint in the world.

Breweries Ansells, Davenports and Mitchells & Butlers had their origins in Birmingham, as do Cadburys chocolate, HP Sauce and the MG Rover Group. The motor and transport industries have played a significant role in Birmingham's economy. The Motor Show takes place every other year, at the National Exhibition Centre, and in 2003 was moved to May from the usual October.

Architecture

Birmingham grew out of dozens of small villages, towns and farmsteads, particularly during the Industrial Revolution. The need to house the many industrial workers that flocked to the city from other areas led to many Victorian streets and terraces of back-to-back houses, some of which were later to become inner-city slums.

Although Birmingham has existed as a settlement for over 1000 years, today's city is overwhelmingly a product of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, with relatively little surviving from its early history.

St. Martin's Church in the centre of the Bullring was Birmingham's original parish church, a church has stood on the site since the 11th century. It was extensively re-built in the 1870s although retaining some original walls and foundations. Inside the church can be seen an effigy of Sir William de Bermingham - a medieval lord of the manor, dating from 1325. This is one of the few surviving links to Birmingham's medieval past.

Some of the city's older black and white timber buildings can still be seen today like 'The Old Crown' public house in Digbeth, the 'Stone' public house in Northfield and Stratford House in Sparkbrook.

City of Birmingham Council House, with Dhruva Mistry's 'The River' in the foreground (commonly known as 'the floozie in the jacuzzi')

Many Georgian, Tudor, Edwardian and Elizabethan buildings still survive dotted around the city. These include Bournbrook Hall (Bournville), Selly Manor (a Tudor manor house), Minworth Greaves (a medieval hall), the 15th Century "Saracen's Head" and "Old Grammar School" (both Kings Norton), Handsworth Old Town Hall (1460; an example of early cruck timber frame construction), Soho House (Handsworth, 1766), The Old Birmingham Workhouse in Lichfield street (1734) and the 29m metre high Perrots Folly Ladywood which was built in 1758 by John Perrot and which was an inspiration to Tolkien.

The Victorian era saw an extensive building programme right across the city, examples of which can still be seen, with many churches and public buildings like the Birmingham Law Courts, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, the Town Hall and the City of Birmingham Council House. Many of the public buildings were built usng red brick and terracotta. New Street and Corporation Street in the city centre have retained many of their fine Victorian buildings, providing an insight into how the city once looked.

Part of the legacy of a unique aspect to the Victorian era can be followed in Birmingham by the survival of the Green men of Birmingham or foliate heads which consist of many unusual human heads carved of stone with vegetation growing out of their faces and can be found at selected locations across the city.

Birmingham's industrial importance in World War II led to some of the heaviest bombing raids during the Blitz. This claimed many lives and many beautiful buildings too, but the destruction that took place in post war Birmingham was also extensive: dozens of fine Victorian buildings like the intricate glass-roofed Birmingham New Street Station, and the old Central Library, were destroyed in the 1950s and 1960s. These planning decisions were to have a profound effect on the image of Birmingham in subsequent decades, with the mix of concrete ring roads, shopping malls and tower blocks often referred to as a 'concrete jungle' or a city with no soul. The largest high-rise estate in Britain was constructed at Castle Vale with over 30 huge tower blocks in one small area. Birmingham has since learnt from this with one of the largest tower block demolition and renovation programmes anywhere in Europe, and the construction of new buildings, squares and green spaces.

The new Selfridges building

Birmingham's grade I listed Town Hall closed to the public in 1996, for a £31 million City Council-initiated major renovation. The redbrick Victoria Law Courts in Corporation Street, built in 1887, and Curzon Street Station are also Grade I listed.

Many Grade II listed buildings also remain in the city, for instance the recently-listed, though empty, Grand Hotel on Colmore Row (1875, with additions in 1876, 1891 and 1895) and the popular 200ft-high Rotunda, a circular tower block at the South end of New Street. St Philip's Cathedral, built as a parish church, is in the heart of the city, and has glass by Edward Burne-Jones, The City of Birmingham Council House (see picture above) is also Grade II listed.

More up-to-date architecture includes the award winning Future Systems' Selfridges building which is an irregularly-shaped structure, covered in thousands of reflective discs (see picture). Brindleyplace and Millennium Point are also examples of recent rejuvenation. Many new projects are planned for the city, including a new Library of Birmingham in the developing Eastside, Holloway Circus Tower (a 122 metre high skyscraper under construction), John Rocha's 'fashion first' Orion Tower (under construction) and Arena Central on Broad Street.

Places of interest

Education

One of the most prestigious schools in England, the King Edward's School is located in Edgbaston. Birmingham also has three universities: The University of Birmingham, Aston University and The University of Central England (UCE, formerly Birmingham Polytechnic). The UCE has asked Aston to consider a merger. The Birmingham Conservatoire, now part of the UCE, was established over 100 years ago and is recognised as one of the major national colleges of music which focuses on performance and composition.

The city also hosts many 'Urban Workshops' for modern music including street level DJ mixing tuition and dance hosted by many experienced musicians from ground roots enteprises like for instance Punch Records in New Town.

Mansfield College, one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, was founded (under the name of Spring Hill College) in Birmingham but later moved to Oxford with the relaxation of non-conformists in 1886.

Sport

Sport has always played a massive part in the Birmingham ecology, from the hundreds of diverse grass roots sports clubs to the more internationally known venues and sporting clubs:

Culture and arts

Black Sabbath

Below are some facts about the Birmingham music scene that you are unlikely to hear when speaking to a Brummie, no brash, boastful run down just the raw information from an innovative musical city.

In the late 1960s heavy metal music first evolved in the city and its neighbouring districts with bands such as Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, The Fortunes, The Move and Led Zeppelin which included Robert Plant. Early progressive rock and blues bands to evolve from the city in the Brum Beat era included: The Rockin Berries, The Honeycombes, Wizzard, The Spencer Davis Group, Idle Race, The Moody Blues, Judas Priest, Traffic, and The Electric Light Orchestra.

Other successful Birmingham singer/songwriters and musicians include Joan Armatrading, Steve Gibbons, Mike Kellie (of Spooky Tooth), Jeff Lynne, Phil Lynott (who formed Thin Lizzy), Carl Palmer (of Emerson Lake and Palmer), Steve Winwood, Roy Wood and Nick Mason.

Mothers rock venue ran in Erdington from 1968 - 1971 and The list of bands who played there reads like a roll call of rock legends: Pink Floyd recorded part of Ummagumma, The Who performed Tommy and Traffic staged their debut gig. The club was voted number one rock venue in the world by America's Billboard magazine.

Birmingham-based tape recorder company, Bradmatic Ltd helped develop and manufacture the mellotron. Over the next 15 years, the mellotron had a major impact on rock music and is a trademark sound of the era's progressive bands.

During the 1970s Birmingham's large West Indian population spawned what is arguably one of the earliest roots reggae bands in the UK, Steel Pulse. With their ground breaking 1970s album Handsworth Revolution they proved that English Reggae music could offer something more than just sound system. They were soon followed by the first truly mixed race UK dub reggae band, UB40. Other 1970s Reggae orientated groups were 2 tone band The Beat, and Musical Youth who (along with UB40, Pablo Falconer and Pato Banton) were part responsible for bringing UK reggae into the homes of everyday 1980s Britain. More recent successful Reggae artists include the Brummie Rasta MC Chesire Cat who wrote and rapped on the Leftfield album 'Rhythm and Stealth' and MC Ebu who toasts at various events across the UK.

File:DuranDuran UK PressKit 1981.jpg
Duran Duran

The 1980s brought New Romantic super-group Duran Duran, who formed in the city and worked in Birmingham's famous Rum Runner nightclub in the 1970s. Also Stephen "Tintin" Duffy emanated from late 1970s/early 1980s Birmingham, as did Dexy's Midnight Runners.

The Birmingham Hip Hop scene evolved alongside London in the early eighties, inspired by a U.S. culture of Electro, breakdance and graffiti art a popular pirate radio station called 'Fresh F.M.' broadcast from Birmingham. The station played hip hop and breakdance records and inspired a rap crew called Jump who released two records, 'We Come to Jam' and 'Feel It', as early as 1985.

In the mid and late 1980s, Grindcore music, a blend of punk and heavy metal was created in Birmingham. Bands such as Napalm Death, Bolt Thrower, Godflesh and Benediction arose in that era.

The late 1980s/1990s Indie music scene saw bands such as Birdland, The Charlatans, Dodgy, Ocean Colour Scene, WonderStuff, Pop Will Eat Itself, Electribe 101, Fine Young Cannibals and Ned's Atomic Dustbin who all eminated from the city and its surrounding satellite towns.

Bhangra Rap evolved in Handsworth in the early 1990s with Apache Indian who later went on to host his own radio show on BBC Radio 1. Many other Bhangra bands are based in the city.

Jazz is popular in the city. The Birmingham International Jazz Festival takes place annually and is the largest of its kind in the UK. Some of the city's jazz musicians include Soweto Kinch and King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys.

Birmingham has embraced house music since the late 1980s. Acid House nights such as Spectrum took place at the Digbeth Institute (now the Sanctuary) and the Hummingbird (now the Carling Academy Birmingham). Some of the UK's most influential dance nights including Gods Kitchen, Chuff Chuff, Wobble, Miss Moneypenny's, Gatecrasher, Sundissential, Atomic Jam, House of God and the original C.R.E.A.M. have their roots in the city and have been supported by local figures such as the late Tony De Vit, Steve Lawler and Steve Kelley.

More recent artists include electro dub creators Rockers Hi-Fi; Big Beat musicians Bentley Rhythm Ace; Garage/House band The Streets; and Electronica bands Broadcast, Pram, Plone, Surgeon, Add N to X and Avrocar. R&B singer Jamelia is also from the city as is Kelli Dayton of The Sneaker Pimps and the rock band Ocean Colour Scene.

Party in the Park is Birmingham's largest music festival, at Cannon Hill Park, where up to 30,000 revellers of all ages enjoy popular chart music.

Some of Birmingham's other music venues include Academy 2, the National Exhibition Centre's Indoor Arena and Symphony Hall, Scruffy Murphy's, the Custard Factory, Edward's No. 8, mac (Midlands Arts Centre), and the Drum Arts Centre.

Classical music

The internationally-renowned City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's home venue is Symphony Hall, where it gives frequent performances. The equally world-renowned Birmingham Royal Ballet also resides in the city as will the world's oldest vocational dance school, Elmhurst.

The Birmingham Triennial Music Festival took place from 1784 - 1912 and was considered the grandest of its kind throughout Britain. Music was written for the festival by Mendelssohn, Gounod, Sullivan, Dvorak, Bantock and most notably Elgar, who wrote four of his most famous choral pieces for Birmingham.

Albert William Ketèlbey was born in Alma Street, Aston on 9 August, 1875, the son of a teacher at the Vittoria School of Art, Ketèlbey attended the Trinity College of Music, where he beat the runner-up, Gustav Holst, for a musical scholarship.

Birmingham's other city- centre music venues include The National Indoor Arena (NIA), CBSO Centre, Adrian Boult Hall (ABH) at Birmingham Conservatoire and the Birmingham Town Hall,currently closed for refurbishment, which played host to many classical and popular music performances from the late 1800s.

Literature

Many famous literary figures have been associated with Birmingham:

The city also has literary publishers such as Tindal Street Press.

Comedy

Theatre

There are many theatres in Birmingham. The three largest professional theatres are the Alexandra Theatre ("the Alex"), Birmingham Repertory Theatre ("The Rep") and the Birmingham Hippodrome. The actors in the long-running Radio 4 serial The Archers live in and around Birmingham, where the supposedly rural programme is recorded.

Art

Birmingham has one one of the largest collections of Pre-Raphaelite art in the world at The Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. Edward Burne-Jones was born in Birmingham.

David Cox was a famous Birmingham watercolour artist and President of the Associated Artists in Water Colour in 1810.

The Barber Institute of Fine Arts is housed at the University of Birmingham and although only a small gallery it was declared 'Gallery of the Year' by the Good Britain Guide 2004.

The Ikon Gallery is housed in a neo-gothic former school in Brindley Place and showcases modern art. Number 9 The Gallery is close by.

The Halcyon Gallery is located inside the International Convention Centre, with major sale- exhibitions by artists as diverse as Rolf Harris, Mackenzie Thorpe, L.S._Lowry and Birmingham-born Govinder Nazran, who was nominated for the Fine Art Trade Guild's 'Best Selling Artist 2004'.

Graffiti (or "spraycan art") culture appeared in the early 1980s, with the area featuring in Channel 4 documentary Bombing. Birmingham also hosted the largest spraycan art competition in Britain, which brought together Goldie, Bronx Graffiti Supremo Brim, Mode and 3D, who later went on to found Massive Attack. Graffiti events are still held in the Custard Factory and Selly Oak ball park.

The Old Bird's Custard Factory is now one of the largest thriving media and arts villages in Europe, with exhibitions and an array of exciting modern sculpture and water features.

The mac hosts theatre performances, concerts, literature and poetry showcases, courses, film screenings and art exhibitions.

The Drum Arts Centre features works of local, regional, national and international African, Asian and Caribbean contemporary artists.

Festivals and shows

Birmingham is home to many national, religious and spiritual festivals including a St. George's Day party and the third largest St. Patrick's Day parade in the world, after New York City and Dublin.

The Birmingham Tattoo is a military show that has taken place in the city for several years. The currently biennial Caribbean- style Birmingham International Carnival was originally the Handsworth Carnival, held in Handsworth Park from 1984, but now takes place biennially in Perry Barr Park. Birmingham Pride takes place in Birmingham's gay village and attracts up to 100,000 visitors each year. The Fierce Festival teams with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre ("The Rep") to present an series of quirky performances from local and national companies. The Birmingham Film Festival takes place annually at various Broad Street venues. It highlights local talent as well as a wide spectrum of international productions. The Young Book Reader UK festival also takes place in the city as well as the Birmingham International Jazz Festival. The millennium saw the birth of the Birmingham International Festival.

Film and media

Celluloid was invented by Brummie, Alexander Parkes (1813-90) in Birmingham, this man is thus responsible for the further development and evolution of film and photography.

The Electric Cinema on Station street is the oldest working Cinema in the UK and was once reputedly a haunt of George Bernard Shaw.

Albert Austin (born 13 December 1881 or 1885) was an actor, film star, director and script writer, primarily in the days of silent movies. He was born in Birmingham. He worked for Charlie Chaplin's Stock Company and played supporting roles in many of Chaplin's films, and working as his assistant director.

Famous Brummie T.V. presenters and actors include Tony Hancock, Cat Deeley, Pat Roach, Julie Walters

In the 1920's Jewish Brummie Oscar Deutsch opened his first Odeon cinema in the UK in Perry Barr. By 1930 the Odeon was a household name and still thrives today.

  • Local newspapers include The Birmingham Post, Sunday Mercury and Evening Mail [6].
  • The BBC have had a regional headquarters in the Convention Quarter for many decades, many T.V. and radio programes are produced in the city including the long running The Archers radio soap.
  • ATV had their headquarters in Birmingham for many years recording T.V shows in the city. Central Independent Television later took the place of ITV and had their headquarters in Birmingham for many years.
  • The more recent ITV plc have recently moved their headquarters from Nottingham to Birmingham.
  • Local radio stations include BRMB, Galaxy, BBC WM and Heart FM, and Kerrang, Birmingham's first dedicated rock station.
  • The city also plays host to one of oldest community radio (or pirate radio) stations in the UK, in the form of P.C.R.L., which began in the early 1980s and mainly plays reggae. It could be argued that more pirate radio stations transmit from the Birmingham area (per square mile) than any other UK city on average since the late 1980's.

Inventors & Inventions

People from the West Midlands are the most successful innovators in Britain.

Statistics published by the UK’s patent office confirm that in 2002 more than a quarter of all applications filed with the Patent Office by West Midlands residents were granted.

The exact figure for the region was 28.7 per cent, well above the national average of 16.4 per cent.

At the heart of the West Midlands lies Birmingham and some of the City's more groundbreaking inventions include - Frederick William Lanchester's original patent for automobile disc brakes in 1902, even though his innovation was only widely adopted over half a century later. He joined the Forward Gas Engine Company of Birmingham in 1889, and in 1893 set up his own workshop. Amazingly in 1896 he and his brother built the first petrol car in England at the Birmingham works.

George Richards Elkington and Henry Elkington founded the electroplating industry in England in the early 1800's. In 1840 they aided John Wright who discovered that potassium cyanide was a suitable electrolyte for gold and silver electroplating. Wright first showed that items could be electroplated by immersing them in a tank of silver held in solution, through which an electric current was passed.

Matthew Boulton was proprietor of the Soho engineering works, his partnership with James Watt made the steam engine into the power plant of the Industrial Revolution, the term "horsepower" was invented in Brum by Watt.

Watt also invented the letter copying machine, forerunner of the photocopier.

William Murdock, who worked for Boulton and Watt at Soho, Handsworth, invented gas lighting. His cottage at Soho Foundary was the first domestic building to be lit by gas in 1798.

X-Ray photography for medical purposes was pioneered by Major John Hall Edwards; he took the first x-ray in Birmingham in 1896.

In 1921 the first British patent for windscreen wipers was registered by Mills Munitions of Birmingham.

Possibly one of the most significant inventors from Birmingham was Alexander Parkes who invented the very first celluloids which were eventually combined with electroplating to give birth to film. Parkes also showcased parkesine at the Great International Exhibition in London which is the first ever form of plastic. This substance -- which the public dubbed parkesine -- was an organic material derived from cellulose that could be molded after heating, but retained its shape when it cooled. (As opposed to Bakelite (also a primarily Birmingham produced substance), which is entirely synthetic.)

Famous residents

Neville Chamberlain, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Ozzy Osbourne are amongst the many famous names associated with Birmingham.

For a full list see Famous people from Birmingham.

Nearby places

Twin towns and partner cities

(see twin towns)

See also

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