Euston Arch

According to the London Evening Standard a nightclub and banqueting hall are to be built inside a reconstructed Victorian monument at Euston station under plans announced today. The Euston Arch stood in front of the station from 1838 until it was demolished by modernist town planners in 1962.

Built at Euston Grove, the station was for many years the only north-bound railway exit from London. Designed in the classical style, the most notable feature was the massive Doric Arch entrance. Euston Station was one of the glories of British railway architecture it served as the terminus for travellers to London from Birmingham and the North West. Its architecture, based on Greek temples, was deemed a fitting gateway to the capital and an introduction to the engineering marvels of the railway beyond.

Euston Station was the first mainline terminus station opened in a capital city anywhere in the world. It was opened on July 20, 1837, as the terminus of the London and Birmingham Railway constructed by Robert Stephenson. The architect was Philip Hardwick who worked with structural engineer Charles Fox. The station first had only two platforms, one for departures and one for arrivals.

It was also Hardwick who designed the Euston Arch, a 70 feet 6 inches high Doric propylaeum, the largest ever built and which formed the entrance to the station. The grit stone structure complemented the Ionic entrance to the Curzon Street Station in Birmingham (which still exists) which was the other end of the London and Birmingham Railway’s mainline.


Euston Station, 1851

Its demolition, with the rest of Euston Station was regarded as one of the greatest acts of Post-War architectural vandalism in Britain, the campaign to save it lead to the foundation of the Victorian Society and involved the indomitable Sir John Betjeman.

However British Rail’s cultural vandalism was worse than was realised even at the time. To block off any campaign to rebuild the Arch and despite an offer from the contractor to store the stonework British Rail demanded that it was all dumped and it has transpired the stones were thrown into a tributary of the river Lee in east London. This has now come to light as British Waterways has dredged the channel to salvage the discarded rock on behalf of the Euston Arch Trust as it carries out repair work to the waterways around the 2012 Olympic site. The stones are being lifted from the Prescott Channel, where they were used to fill a hole in the riverbed. Campaigners want to reconstruct the arch using as much of the original stone as possible.

Demolition was speedy and brutal - as recorded in various newsreel documentaries - with the stones being broken and much damaged as the arch was speedily cleared away. The new station was opened in 1968. Designed in the International Modern style, its somewhat bleak style has been variously described as "hideous", "a dingy, grey, horizontal nothingness", "an ugly desecration of a formerly impressive building", a reflection of "the tawdry glamour of its time" entirely lacking of "the sense of occasion, of adventure, that the great Victorian termini gave to the traveller", and "the worst of the Central London terminuses, both ugly and unfriendly to use". Writing in The Times, Richard Morrison stated that "even by the bleak standards of Sixties architecture, Euston is one of the nastiest concrete boxes in London: devoid of any decorative merit; seemingly concocted to induce maximum angst among passengers; and a blight on surrounding streets. The design should never have left the drawing-board - if, indeed, it was ever on a drawing-board. It gives the impression of having been scribbled on the back of a soiled paper bag by a thuggish android with a grudge against humanity and a vampiric loathing of sunlight".


Euston Station Today


The passenger friendly concourse?

Today’s Euston Station is a forgettable exercise in 1960’s functionalism except for the small matter that it doesn’t function very well on a number of levels. The windswept prairie in front of the station was the ostensible reason for the knocking down the Great Hall and Euston Arch to enhance the commercial value of the development. It contains two nondescript office blocks. One, 40 Melton Street, was the HQ of the much unlamented Railtrack which was the infrastructure company created at rail privatisation in April 1994. The other office block, conveniently, contains the office of a firm of accountants who wound them up when Railtrack went into administration in October 2001. They have now been succeeded by Network rail who are in the same offices.

Now walk across the windswept prairie into Euston and judge for yourself this “functional” station. You will see an expanse of cold, black stone flooring and everywhere you will see passengers camped out on this cold surface for there are hardly any seats for the thousands who must wait here. Whatever coherence the concourse had has been lost by the mish mash of tacky kiosks and retail outlets as Network Rail ”adds value” by increasing rental returns at the expense of passenger convenience. Go into the food court and you will see a place overflowing with passengers looking for seats whilst they enjoy the fast food delights on offer. Pay to use the toilets which reflect the municipal toilet ethos of the rest of the station. Disabled? Well, don’t bother trying to access the Virgin executive lounge or the Britannia Bar on the first floor as Network Rail ignores here (as elsewhere) its legal obligations since October 2004 under phase 3 of the Disability Discrimination Act.


One of the remaining gatehouses with the destinations inscribed on the quoins

Far better to leave now before you become too depressed and at the front onto Euston Road you will find all that remains of the Great Terminus which once stood here. In the centre is the war memorial and on either side are two decorative gatehouses with the destinations served carved into their quoin stones. These framed the Doric Arch and the only evidence of this is on the sign of the pub on the forecourt, ironic indeed as this was also part of the “commercial development” which required it to be demolished. Here too you will find the statue of the engineer for the lines into Euston, Robert Stephenson, known as the Father of the Railways. There is no history of weeping statues in front of train stations but as he surveys the mediocre morass for which history was swept away we could allow Robert a few tears.


Euston Arch stonework being recovered from the River Lee, East London

Now the trust has unveiled a £10 million design to rebuild the 70ft arch on the original site with a nightclub in the foundations and lifts rising up the pillars to the banqueting hall, seating 80. Buses and taxis will be able to drive through it.

"The Euston Arch was a powerful symbol of the optimistic spirit of the Victorian railway. Its demolition in the 1960's confirmed that blandness and lack of imagination had replaced the heroic vision of the past. Since then, the enormous popularity of the restored St. Pancras, soon to be followed by a restored King's Cross, has shown that celebration of the past and potential for the future is not mutually exclusive. The restoration of Euston Arch would restore to London's oldest mainline terminus some of the character and dignity of its great neighbours."

Michael Palin, Patron of the Euston Arch Trust

The Euston Arch Trust has as its patron Michael Palin who I met once and whilst he is famous as a world traveller as well as a member of the famous Monty Python comedy team he broke into a smile when I mentioned that I had a copy of his first every travel documentary “From Euston to the Kyle of Lochalsh.” For Michael is at heart a Sheffield lad from a railway family so his commitment to trains and public transport goes back some time. As the Euston Arch Trust says on its site;

“Network Rail and British Land have announced that they will redevelop Euston Station in a £1 billion project. This is a golden opportunity to rebuild the arch and return to Euston, the local community, London and Britain a building of major importance that should never have been demolished.


Great Hall


Platform in Euston Station before redevelopment

The redevelopment of St Pancras station has already shown how a world class station can combine the old and new. Euston can do the same. The Euston Arch would be a wonderful gateway to the new Euston. “

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/st-pancras-reborn.html

Historian Dan Cruickshank, who has led a 15-year campaign to reconstruct the monument, described it as "the first great building of the railway age". In 1994 Cruickshank discovered an estimated 60% of the 4,000 plus tons of the arch buried in the bed of the Prescott Channel at its junction with the Channelsea River that runs into the River Lea in the East End of London. A section of one of the columns was recovered from the river. The location of the rubble, for which he had been searching for 15 years, had been revealed by Bob Cotton, a British Waterways engineer, who stated that the rubble had been purchased in 1962 to fill a chasm in the bed of the Prescott Channel.


Curzon Street Station, Birmingham

The possible rebuilding of the Euston Arch should throw light on another of the threatened glories of railway history because the Arch was one of two “bookends” the other being the complementary Ionic Arch at the other end of the line in Birmingham. For in the Curzon Street Station you have arguably the oldest mainline rail terminus building in the world. It was here on 17th September 1838 that the first London to Birmingham train arrived at the very birth of railways. Built to the designs of Sir Philip Hardwick the architect of Euston Station, London, it echoed his magnificent design there which was so crassly demolished in 1962. It was designed in the style of a triumphant Roman Arch to echo his Euston Arch and provided two dramatic visual bookends to the first railway route between London and a major city. This Grade 1 listed building is currently unoccupied and at risk.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/04/birmingham-centre-of-england.html

The London to Birmingham Railway was the first rail service between two major cities and the muscular classical architecture was deliberately designed to give an impression of solidity and continuity to a public distrustful of this new fangled technology. They were visual propaganda for the technology which changed the world and made modern life possible and the propaganda was never more confident than Philip Hardwick’s two magnificent emphatic statements of Victorian confidence announcing the new world to the citizens of London and Birmingham. Let us rebuild the Euston Arch and save Curzon Street station as two interlinked and priceless pieces of this great Industrial Heritage. Maybe when this is done a smile may cross the face of the “Father of the Railways” Robert Stephenson whose statue in front of Euston Station has surveyed with a stern frown the architectural detritus which replaced the great triumphal entrance which met travellers to London.


Robert Stephenson, Father of the Railways

See also;

The Great Circle Line Journey

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/01/great-circle-line-journey.html

Euston Arch Trust

http://www.eustonarch.org


Euston Arch 1938

Euston Arch

According to the London Evening Standard a nightclub and banqueting hall are to be built inside a reconstructed Victorian monument at Euston station under plans announced today. The Euston Arch stood in front of the station from 1838 until it was demolished by modernist town planners in 1962.

Built at Euston Grove, the station was for many years the only north-bound railway exit from London. Designed in the classical style, the most notable feature was the massive Doric Arch entrance. Euston Station was one of the glories of British railway architecture it served as the terminus for travellers to London from Birmingham and the North West. Its architecture, based on Greek temples, was deemed a fitting gateway to the capital and an introduction to the engineering marvels of the railway beyond.

Euston Station was the first mainline terminus station opened in a capital city anywhere in the world. It was opened on July 20, 1837, as the terminus of the London and Birmingham Railway constructed by Robert Stephenson. The architect was Philip Hardwick who worked with structural engineer Charles Fox. The station first had only two platforms, one for departures and one for arrivals.

It was also Hardwick who designed the Euston Arch, a 70 feet 6 inches high Doric propylaeum, the largest ever built and which formed the entrance to the station. The grit stone structure complemented the Ionic entrance to the Curzon Street Station in Birmingham (which still exists) which was the other end of the London and Birmingham Railway’s mainline.


Euston Station, 1851

Its demolition, with the rest of Euston Station was regarded as one of the greatest acts of Post-War architectural vandalism in Britain, the campaign to save it lead to the foundation of the Victorian Society and involved the indomitable Sir John Betjeman.

However British Rail’s cultural vandalism was worse than was realised even at the time. To block off any campaign to rebuild the Arch and despite an offer from the contractor to store the stonework British Rail demanded that it was all dumped and it has transpired the stones were thrown into a tributary of the river Lee in east London. This has now come to light as British Waterways has dredged the channel to salvage the discarded rock on behalf of the Euston Arch Trust as it carries out repair work to the waterways around the 2012 Olympic site. The stones are being lifted from the Prescott Channel, where they were used to fill a hole in the riverbed. Campaigners want to reconstruct the arch using as much of the original stone as possible.

Demolition was speedy and brutal - as recorded in various newsreel documentaries - with the stones being broken and much damaged as the arch was speedily cleared away. The new station was opened in 1968. Designed in the International Modern style, its somewhat bleak style has been variously described as "hideous", "a dingy, grey, horizontal nothingness", "an ugly desecration of a formerly impressive building", a reflection of "the tawdry glamour of its time" entirely lacking of "the sense of occasion, of adventure, that the great Victorian termini gave to the traveller", and "the worst of the Central London terminuses, both ugly and unfriendly to use". Writing in The Times, Richard Morrison stated that "even by the bleak standards of Sixties architecture, Euston is one of the nastiest concrete boxes in London: devoid of any decorative merit; seemingly concocted to induce maximum angst among passengers; and a blight on surrounding streets. The design should never have left the drawing-board - if, indeed, it was ever on a drawing-board. It gives the impression of having been scribbled on the back of a soiled paper bag by a thuggish android with a grudge against humanity and a vampiric loathing of sunlight".


Euston Station Today


The passenger friendly concourse?

Today’s Euston Station is a forgettable exercise in 1960’s functionalism except for the small matter that it doesn’t function very well on a number of levels. The windswept prairie in front of the station was the ostensible reason for the knocking down the Great Hall and Euston Arch to enhance the commercial value of the development. It contains two nondescript office blocks. One, 40 Melton Street, was the HQ of the much unlamented Railtrack which was the infrastructure company created at rail privatisation in April 1994. The other office block, conveniently, contains the office of a firm of accountants who wound them up when Railtrack went into administration in October 2001. They have now been succeeded by Network rail who are in the same offices.

Now walk across the windswept prairie into Euston and judge for yourself this “functional” station. You will see an expanse of cold, black stone flooring and everywhere you will see passengers camped out on this cold surface for there are hardly any seats for the thousands who must wait here. Whatever coherence the concourse had has been lost by the mish mash of tacky kiosks and retail outlets as Network Rail ”adds value” by increasing rental returns at the expense of passenger convenience. Go into the food court and you will see a place overflowing with passengers looking for seats whilst they enjoy the fast food delights on offer. Pay to use the toilets which reflect the municipal toilet ethos of the rest of the station. Disabled? Well, don’t bother trying to access the Virgin executive lounge or the Britannia Bar on the first floor as Network Rail ignores here (as elsewhere) its legal obligations since October 2004 under phase 3 of the Disability Discrimination Act.


One of the remaining gatehouses with the destinations inscribed on the quoins

Far better to leave now before you become too depressed and at the front onto Euston Road you will find all that remains of the Great Terminus which once stood here. In the centre is the war memorial and on either side are two decorative gatehouses with the destinations served carved into their quoin stones. These framed the Doric Arch and the only evidence of this is on the sign of the pub on the forecourt, ironic indeed as this was also part of the “commercial development” which required it to be demolished. Here too you will find the statue of the engineer for the lines into Euston, Robert Stephenson, known as the Father of the Railways. There is no history of weeping statues in front of train stations but as he surveys the mediocre morass for which history was swept away we could allow Robert a few tears.


Euston Arch stonework being recovered from the River Lee, East London

Now the trust has unveiled a £10 million design to rebuild the 70ft arch on the original site with a nightclub in the foundations and lifts rising up the pillars to the banqueting hall, seating 80. Buses and taxis will be able to drive through it.

"The Euston Arch was a powerful symbol of the optimistic spirit of the Victorian railway. Its demolition in the 1960's confirmed that blandness and lack of imagination had replaced the heroic vision of the past. Since then, the enormous popularity of the restored St. Pancras, soon to be followed by a restored King's Cross, has shown that celebration of the past and potential for the future is not mutually exclusive. The restoration of Euston Arch would restore to London's oldest mainline terminus some of the character and dignity of its great neighbours."

Michael Palin, Patron of the Euston Arch Trust

The Euston Arch Trust has as its patron Michael Palin who I met once and whilst he is famous as a world traveller as well as a member of the famous Monty Python comedy team he broke into a smile when I mentioned that I had a copy of his first every travel documentary “From Euston to the Kyle of Lochalsh.” For Michael is at heart a Sheffield lad from a railway family so his commitment to trains and public transport goes back some time. As the Euston Arch Trust says on its site;

“Network Rail and British Land have announced that they will redevelop Euston Station in a £1 billion project. This is a golden opportunity to rebuild the arch and return to Euston, the local community, London and Britain a building of major importance that should never have been demolished.


Great Hall


Platform in Euston Station before redevelopment

The redevelopment of St Pancras station has already shown how a world class station can combine the old and new. Euston can do the same. The Euston Arch would be a wonderful gateway to the new Euston. “

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/st-pancras-reborn.html

Historian Dan Cruickshank, who has led a 15-year campaign to reconstruct the monument, described it as "the first great building of the railway age". In 1994 Cruickshank discovered an estimated 60% of the 4,000 plus tons of the arch buried in the bed of the Prescott Channel at its junction with the Channelsea River that runs into the River Lea in the East End of London. A section of one of the columns was recovered from the river. The location of the rubble, for which he had been searching for 15 years, had been revealed by Bob Cotton, a British Waterways engineer, who stated that the rubble had been purchased in 1962 to fill a chasm in the bed of the Prescott Channel.


Curzon Street Station, Birmingham

The possible rebuilding of the Euston Arch should throw light on another of the threatened glories of railway history because the Arch was one of two “bookends” the other being the complementary Ionic Arch at the other end of the line in Birmingham. For in the Curzon Street Station you have arguably the oldest mainline rail terminus building in the world. It was here on 17th September 1838 that the first London to Birmingham train arrived at the very birth of railways. Built to the designs of Sir Philip Hardwick the architect of Euston Station, London, it echoed his magnificent design there which was so crassly demolished in 1962. It was designed in the style of a triumphant Roman Arch to echo his Euston Arch and provided two dramatic visual bookends to the first railway route between London and a major city. This Grade 1 listed building is currently unoccupied and at risk.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/04/birmingham-centre-of-england.html

The London to Birmingham Railway was the first rail service between two major cities and the muscular classical architecture was deliberately designed to give an impression of solidity and continuity to a public distrustful of this new fangled technology. They were visual propaganda for the technology which changed the world and made modern life possible and the propaganda was never more confident than Philip Hardwick’s two magnificent emphatic statements of Victorian confidence announcing the new world to the citizens of London and Birmingham. Let us rebuild the Euston Arch and save Curzon Street station as two interlinked and priceless pieces of this great Industrial Heritage. Maybe when this is done a smile may cross the face of the “Father of the Railways” Robert Stephenson whose statue in front of Euston Station has surveyed with a stern frown the architectural detritus which replaced the great triumphal entrance which met travellers to London.


Robert Stephenson, Father of the Railways

See also;

The Great Circle Line Journey

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/01/great-circle-line-journey.html

Euston Arch Trust

http://www.eustonarch.org


Euston Arch 1938

Birmingham – The centre of England

The Bullring

So, off on Easter Saturday for a leisurely rail trip through some of the lovely countryside of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire from Prince’s Risborough to the city which bills itself as the Heart of England. Birmingham has changed quite dramatically in recent times and the city centre has undergone huge changes. For this trip we went on the more civilised route to Birmingham picking up the train from Marylebone at Prince’s Risborough for a scenic trip through Shakespeare Country and the heritage towns of Warwick and Leamington Spa. Regular Blogistas will know I particularly dislike Euston Station where the alternative and more expensive Virgin Trains depart from but this was not an option on this busy Bank Holiday weekend as once again, disgracefully, Network Rail had been allowed to shut down Britain’s main West Coast railway line just when people would want to travel!

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/01/great-circle-line-journey.html


Plaque commemorating the restoration of Moor Street

Another advantage of taking this route is that you arrive in Birmingham not at the soulless 60’s concrete disaster known as New Street Station but at the wonderfully restored Moor Street which was the Great Western Railway’s (GWR) Birmingham Station and has been restored in authentic 30’s style with paintwork in GWR brown and authentic signage. Birmingham Moor Street railway station is one of three main railway stations in the city centre of Birmingham, England. The Grade-II listed building has been partially renovated to its 1930s condition at a cost of £11 million. Original architecture was preserved and some remaining pieces of the old (demolished) Snow Hill station used to further enhance it. Refurbished in 1930s style, the station now has reproduction lamps, clock, seating and signage. Passengers are routed through the old station, which now provides the booking office and ticket area for the new station. Passengers for London-bound trains cross a new footbridge to platform 1. The renovation won the Railway Heritage Trust award for 2004 and The Birmingham Civic Society's Renaissance Award for 2005. The station became home to the second GWR 2884 Class 2-8-0 No. 2885 steam locomotive.




Moor Street Station Concourse


GWR 2884 Class 2-8-0 No. 2885 steam locomotive

Strange then to think that this station lay unused and crumbling for many years with one wall dangerously cracked after a bus crashed into it! In a reversal of fortune the post war redevelopment which resulted in the destruction of the Victorian New Street and its replacement by a precast concrete horror with the Palisades Shopping Centre above it, which is equally past its “sell by date”, looks peculiarly short sighted as New Street, scene of many a brief encounter, is limited in capacity by the sharp turn on the approach tunnel and the commercial development and cannot cope with increased passenger numbers. As a result additional trains are being routed into Moor Street. This state of affairs is even sadder when you consider Birmingham’s unique place in railway history. For in the Curzon Street Station you have arguably the oldest mainline rail terminus building in the world. It was here on 17th September 1838 that the first London to Birmingham train arrived at the very birth of railways. Built to the designs of Sir Philip Hardwick the architect of Euston Station, London, it echoed his magnificent design there which was so crassly demolished in 1962. It was designed in the style of a triumphant Roman Arch to echo his Euston Arch and provided two dramatic visual bookends to the first railway route between London and a major city. This Grade 1 listed building is currently unoccupied and at risk.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/09/euston-arch.html


Curzon St. Station


Birmingham's New Street Station

The other advantage of going to Moor Street Station is that it is directly opposite Selfridges and the Bullring Shopping Centre. Out of towners are discovering what Brummies have known for years that Birmingham is a great and well priced shopping destination but more than that it offers great variety and human interest. For it has six main shopping centres, a whole complex of indoor and outdoor markets, atmospheric Victorian arcades, a jewellery quarter where 40% of Britain’s jewellery is manufactured, a Chinatown and interesting waterside developments such as Brindleyplace Square and the Mailbox. All this against a backdrop of ethnic diversity which sees shopkeepers and restaurants from many traditions and cultures makes for a highly engaging mix.




Bullring Centre

Birmingham is home to one of the largest shopping centres in Europe - The Bull Ring, whose most dramatic feature is the Selfridges Department Store. The British architects Future Systems designed this new store with the blob-skin of the building is clad in 15,000 aluminium discs. According to the architects the facade refers to the dresses with metal discs of designer Paco Rabanne of the sixties, but also to the stonework on the facade of the 16th century Gesu Nuovo in the city of Naples, Italy. In the 16th century a man called John Cooper was given the right to bait bulls at a site opposite St Martins Church, this became known as the Bull Ring, hence the name of the shopping centre and the rather robust sculpture of a snarling bull which adorns the public space.








Selfridges

Opposite the Bullring Shopping centre you will find the veritable Aladdin’s cave of markets which lend so much athmosphere to shopping in Birmingham and provide such an antidote to clone town Britain. The original Market Hall, with room for 600 stalls and an ornamental fountain, was built in 1835 but destroyed in WW11, like much of Birmingham’s centre. So today the replacements are not of the same (or indeed any!)architectural merit but here you will find the Bullring Indoor and Outdoor Markets, The Rag Market which reminds us of the textile manufacturing heritage of the Midlands, the New Street Farmers market and the bohemian Custard Factory is a discovery in itself. Its Sunday Flea market is an arts and crafts fest where you discover the remarkable. Sometimes the extraordinary. And occasionally, the downright ‘I’ve not seen one of them in 20 years’. It’s slap bang in the middle of Birmingham’s art quarter. This 5-acre sprawl of riverside factories was built 100 years ago by Sir Alfred Bird, the inventor of custard. At one time he had a thousand people making the stuff. Some even say it helped create the British Empire. But by the early 1980s it had long since lost its mysterious appeal and the factories fell derelict. Alfred Bird was a chemist who invented baking powder and invented his instant custard as his wife was allergic to eggs.


A Jelly Belly Bully!




Outdoor Markets


Covered Market

Birmingham’s many immigrant communities from Asia, Caribbean and Africa have embraced and animated the markets to which they have literally added spice and their own unique brand of entrepreneurship. Six days a week, stallholders sell while they yell their great deals. The Indoor Market is famous for its selection of fresh meats, fish and produce - no supermarket can touch it for choice, price or atmosphere. Discover oodles of goodies; sweets, lingerie, bits and bobs for your gardens or pets. You name it. They’ve got it.


The Midlands of England

Generally the ambience in the pedestrianised city centre is relaxed with the characteristic Brummie friendliness and familiarity to the fore. I discovered a dramatic example of this in the manic Primark store in New Street. For those who don't know Primark it is an Irish managed company (The original store where the business model was developed is Penneys in Dublin) which is Britain's most successful fashion retailer specialising in "instant" fashion of well priced items. Suffice to say the ambience is minimal, the footfall huge and the stores get trashed, particularly today at 4.30 on a Saturday. In the menswear department I asked the girl who was tidying the trashed displays did they have a certain size of jacket which was not on the display. To my amazement (cos, I wouldn't have dared ask in London!) she went off to to the storeroom and came back smiling with my size. So really excellent customer service at the end of a tiring day young Monica in menswear and I hope Primark's MD Arthur Ryan picks up on an employee they can be proud of! People from Birmingham are known as 'Brummies', a term derived from the city's nickname of Brum. This comes in turn from the city's dialect name, Brummagem, which is derived from one of the city's earlier names, 'Bromwicham'. There is a distinctive Brummie dialect and accent, both of which differ from the adjacent Black Country.


Birmingham Town Centre

Other shopping options for the visitor are the elegant Victorian arcades such as the Great Western and Piccadilly Arcades. The Great Western Arcade is an important part of the City of Birmingham’s proud Victorian heritage. Built in 1876 to a design influenced by the Great Exhibition at London’s Crystal Palace in 1851, the Arcade spans a tunnel created for the railway line between Snow Hill and Moor Street stations.


Piccadilly Arcade

The Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham is a bustling reminder of the metalworking skills of the midlands (Jewellery in Birmingham, watches and Clocks in Coventry) which drew industrialists to the skilled workforce at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. The Jewellery Quarter still makes 40% of UK jewellery and many shops have their own craftsmen and women, so if you are not tempted by the wide variety on offer you can also commission something to your own design. Whether it is birthstone jewellery for a gift, a necklace or a diamond ring for somebody special, from Valentine’s Day and Christmas to Engagements and Weddings, the Quarter is the place to shop. The Quarter also boasts Europe’s largest School of Jewellery and many of the graduates have set up business in the area. Their contemporary jewellery can be seen at outlets in the area such as Artfull Expression in Warstone Lane, Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, St Paul’s Square and the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, Vyse Street. For a different experience try a visit to Fellows Auctioneers in Augusta Street, the UK’s largest jewellery auction house which also holds auctions ranging from antique furniture to watches and clocks. This tradition of fine metal working is reflected still in the Birmingham Mint and that Birmingham has one of the four official Assay Offices for the U.K. whose marks on jewellery certify the quality of the precious metals used. The shops of the Jewellery Quarter are centred around the Chamberlain clock tower on Warstone road and spread out over about half a mile or so. Most of the shop only date from the 1970's and are therefore not exactly architectural gems themselves.The gems themselves are of course the draw - the standard of diamonds that you can purchase here, after a bit of shopping around, often equate to about half the purchase price in a high-street Jeweller.




Gas Street Canal Basin

Birmingham is 'Britain's canal city'. As such, it has many canal-side walks and much industrial heritage is still present with canals that were built over 200 years ago. The same is true of buildings that site alongside. Birmingham was, until the 18th century, a small and relatively insignificant settlement on the banks of the River Rea. However, it shot to prominence with the coming of the Industrial Revolution, not least because of its natural position at the crossroads of a canal and river system which extended from London to Liverpool and from Bristol to the Humber estuary. There were also rich mineral deposits around the Black Country. The effect of this was to produce the most extensive urban waterway in the world - over 160 miles of navigable canal, mostly between Birmingham and Wolverhampton but also extending some way northwards into Staffordshire, with vast numbers of basins and wharves. Five canal systems converge in Birmingham as the BCN, the Birmingham Canal Navigation, giving the city the most waterways of any city in Britain. Birmingham's Gas Street Basin and the whole of the waterfront area has undergone something of a radical change in recent years, with tumbledown warehouses replaced by low level offices and trendy pubs, restaurants and many other leisure orientated buildings. The once derelict land giving way to glaring multi-storey hotel and conference complexes. This has brought new life into these canal side areas and the new appearance coupled with easy access walkways, has rekindled public interest in these once forgotten city centre cuts. Some idea of the complexity of the BCN can be gained from the fact that it contains 27 navigable junctions within the city.



The arrival of the railways in the mid 19th century heralded a change in fortunes for the waterway network nationally. However, the subsequent widespread abandonment, decay and dereliction did not extend to the BCN as a whole, partly due to the fact that local industry was heavily canal orientated. So whilst goods were rail bound for longer journeys, Birmingham and Black Country industry was encouraged to collect cargoes by boat from numerous rail/canal interchange basins which sprang up around the region. Birmingham became a hub of the railway system with many competing and overlapping lines which even after the depredations of the Beeching closures in the 1960s still provide an extensive Birmingham commuter belt with travel times London commuters would envy. For instance, Codsall beyond Wolverhampton in South Staffordshire is only 28 minutes from Birmingham New Street. It still retains the characteristic GWR style rural station building which, in a sign of the times, is now a pub!


Codsall Station

Today Birmingham is at the centre of the UK’s motorway network being surrounded by a complete ring of motorways which connects all the major routes. The most famous or notorious of these junctions and a notorious traffic blackspot is the Gravelly Hill Interchange or more commonly known as Spaghetti Junction.


Spaghetti Junction

The good transport links have made Birmingham the UK’s distribution and Exhibition Centre as well as a popular corporate location with lower costs than the Greater London area. Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the most populous of England's core cities, and is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,010,200 (2005 estimate). Often considered to be the second city of the United Kingdom, the City of Birmingham forms part of the larger West Midlands conurbation, which has a population of 2,284,093 (2001 census) and includes several neighbouring towns and cities, such as Solihull, Wolverhampton and the towns of the Black Country.

The city's reputation was forged as a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution in England, a fact which led to Birmingham being known as "the workshop of the world" or the "city of a thousand trades". Although Birmingham's industrial importance has declined, it has developed into a national commercial centre. It is also the fourth-most visited city by foreign visitors in the UK. In 1998, Birmingham hosted the G8 summit at the International Convention Centre, on the site of Bingley Hall, the world's first purpose-built exhibition hall, and remains a popular location for conventions today along with the National Exhibition Centre in nearby Solihull. The Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in the 1940s is one of the country’s leading non-professional symphony orchestras, with members from all walks of life throughout the Heart of England. It enjoys close links with both the Birmingham Conservatoire and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.


Chamberlain Memorial


Statue of Joseph Chamberlain


The Council House

Birmingham has a wealth of splendid architecture in its older buildings, around the centre of the city, of the muscular Victorian variety championed by the late Sir John Betjeman. Among those not to be missed are The Town Hall, built in the 1830's it is a magnificent example of Victorian Architecture, inspired by the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Roman Forum it has 40 Corinthian columns of Anglesey marble. The great hall can seat 2000 people, and has one of the finest organs in the country. The Council House, built in Renaissance style in the 1870's has a clock known locally as "Big Brum". Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, is one of the finest outside London. Among its vast art treasures is one of the finest collections of Pre-Raphaelite art, there are interesting displays relating to the history of the city and a changing programme of exhibitions and events. Art lovers should also visit the Ikon Gallery, one of Europe's premier venues for new art; also the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, situated at the University of Birmingham, this is one of the world's finest small galleries, with works by Degas, Gainsborough, Monet, Renoir and Turner.


Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery


City Hall

Although best known as the Victorian ‘workshop of the world’, Birmingham has a rich heritage dating back to the Middle Ages. Highlights include the Jacobean splendour of Aston Hall (due to reopen in July 2009 following a £12.5 million restoration project), the remarkable industrial time-capsule of the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter and Soho House, home of Matthew Boulton and meeting place of the world famous Lunar Society. To fully appreciate the extraordinary range of the city’s heritage, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery is a must-see. It’s internationally significant collections of art and history include the largest collection of Pre-Raphaelites in the world. Outside of the city centre, visitors can enjoy delightfully restored Blakesley Hall, an Elizabethan yeoman’s house in Yardley, and magical Sarehole Mill in Hall Green – which formed the inspiration for local boy JRR Tolkien’s ‘Hobbiton’ in The Lord of the Rings.




The Blitz Memorial - "The Tree of Life"

Birmingham and nearby Coventry were integral to the British war effort, producing a vast share of the arms, machinery and military supplies for the allied forces. Throughout World War Two more than 6,000 Birmingham homes were destroyed along with many of the city’s grandiose Victorian public buildings. The worst of the bombing raids occurred between August 1940 and May 1941 and on August 25 1940 Birmingham’s city centre was bombed, gutting the market hall which once occupied the site where the Bull Ring now stands. The aftermath of that night was recorded by war artist Roland Pitchforth whose paintings are currently displayed at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. During the Blitz in Birmingham 2,241 people were killed, and 3,010 seriously injured. A further 3,682 sustained lesser injuries. 12,391 houses, 302 factories and 239 other buildings were destroyed, with many more damaged. Overall, around 2,000 tons of bombs were dropped on Birmingham making it the third most heavily bombed city in the United Kingdom in World War II, only behind London and Liverpool. The massive bomb damage on civilian housing in Birmingham led to the development of many large housing estates across the city for some 20 years after the Second World War. These neighbourhoods included Castle Vale and Chelmsley Wood. Some of the bomb-damaged inner city areas such as Ladywood and Highgate were redeveloped with modern housing after the war. The blitz impacted on my family as my father was born in Coventry, the centre of the UK motor industry just 10 miles from Birmingham. Ireland was neutral during the Second World War but many served in the British forces and many also worked in England both to survive and help the war effort. These included my Grandfather and two uncles who travelled on British Legion travel warrants and worked for the electronics firm Lucas in Birmingham during the war whilst living in a company dormitory during the Blitz.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/11/moonlight-sonata_14.html

My father at the age of ten and his family on the other hand came in the other direction as refugees from the devastating blitz on Coventry which destroyed their home and business.


St. Philip's Cathedral

Today’s Birmingham is a more cheerful and positive place but there is no gainsaying its place in history. Along with the “Dark Satanic Mills” of Lancashire and Yorkshire this was the crucible of the industrial revolution which launched the modern industrial world. From the motor and cycle manufacturing city of Coventry, to the “workshop of the world’” of Birmingham, the steel mills of Wolverhampton, the foundries of the Black Country, the coal mines of South Staffordshire and the kilns of The Potteries this was the manufacturing heartland not just of England but of the British Empire. One change has been the demise of coal and of heavy industry in since WW11 – as they say locally the Black Country isn’t so black anymore!



So you could do worse than visit this interesting friendly, bustling and thriving city situated right in the heart of England. Whether you come to Birmingham on business or pleasure, you will be delighted by the variety of things to see and do. Eating out in Birmingham is a cosmopolitan experience; you can sample the best food from countries around the world. There are many specialist restaurants in the city centre offering food from countries around the world to simple good food in old fashioned English pubs. Birmingham's China Town has a choice of restaurants, supermarkets and cafes offering great Chinese food. For authentic Kashmiri food, discover Birmingham's "Balti Mile" a short distance from the city centre, where there are over 40 restaurants in the space of one mile. My own personal favourites are both overlooking the Bull in the Bullring. Mount Fuji Japanese Bento Restauraunt attracts both Japanese and knowing locals for its superb and authentic bento boxes and its superb Japanese deserts and pastries, preferably washed down with plum wine. It also offers a mail order service for Japanese specialities.

www.mountfuji.co.uk

Just opposite in the Bullring stands St. Martin, the parish church of Birmingham. Its Arts Café at the side of the church provides a respite from the hustle and bustle outside as well as good value beverages and snacks – toasted tea cakes appear to be the local favourite.

www.stmartinscentre.org


St. Martin

So this is no mean city and certainly a lot less darkened and smoky than my father remembers as a child. Being home to the famous City of Birmingham Orchestra, and Birmingham Royal Ballet, Birmingham is a city of world class culture. You can discover Birmingham's history in the museums and art galleries, stroll through its centre and enjoy the diversity of shopping, from well known department stores to intriguing shopping malls and street markets. Birmingham is also the perfect base to tour from with Shakespeare’s countryside and many more attractions close by. And if you use the scenic train route from London Marylebone to reach the Heart of England you’ll save money and be delivered relaxed into the centre of the city.