UK 2012 ISSUE 17

B'ham Facade

Our time here is slipping away and we are trying to make the most of it with day trips to nearby sights.  Our first destination was Birmingham (pronounced brr ming gum by the locals) to see the Back to Backs or courtyard housing.  Despite all my questions I never did quite understand how they were constructed . . . were they built to fill a  square city block or what.  In the end, the essence of them is one half of a series of units face the street while their mirror opposite face a courtyard all the while they share a common back wall.  I think perhaps it was more like a row each, on two parallel streets while the other two ends were a blank wall or contained things like privies and storage.  The units we visited were the last remaining such buildings and have been preserved by the National Trust.

Just a quick pitch for the National Trust, we purchased memberships earlier this year, which has meant our admission to all of their  properties has been free (well kinda) and we have seen many.  They own in excess of 300 properties in Great Britain and Wales and have reciprocal agreements with the National Trust organisation in Scotland.  Their raison d'etre is the preservation of historical properties.  Many are stately home that have been donated by the owners who can no longer pay the death duties or otherwise do the necessary maintenance on the buildings.  Little Moreton Hall, the black and white Elizabethan building I blogged about earlier, was one such property.  It was bequeathed to the National Trust when there were no surviving family members.  Others we have visited have been factories and mills that were shut down due to the changing economic climate or because they have become obsolete.  In the end they provide a museum like atmosphere and help preserve the history of the industrial revolution and beyond.

Back to Back Courtyard

So back to Birmingham and the Back to Backs.  The National Trust  provides a guided tour that takes you through four of the units with each representing a different era in their existence.  The buildings are three story brick construction and there is a common wash house and privies in the courtyard. The earliest "re-creation" dates to the 1840's and has no running water, gas or electric while the last is a tailors shop that was last in use in the 1970's.  My understanding is that they were middle class dwellings designed for the working man and his family but that often meant Mom, Dad, three or more children and a lodger; all this in two bedrooms above a living/dining/kitchen space on the ground floor. 

Back to Back Scullery

There were blocks and blocks of this style of dwelling built in the early 1800's to house the growing population needed to supply workers for the factories.

We lived in Birmingham in the early '70s and Mick did his Masters at the University of Aston in Birmingham, which is right in the downtown and not far from the Back to Backs.  We were appalled, amazed and overjoyed at how little we actually knew about a place we lived for more than two years.  For example, they have major Jewelry Quarter of which I was totally unaware.  We did a little wandering around and took a tour of a jewelry manufacturing facility which was a going family concern during the period 1880-1960.  This business, much like those belonging to the National Trust, was shut up and left with all the machinery and artifacts in place when the last remaining relative died.  Someone quite literally locked the doors and walked away leaving bookwork and records, tools and machinery, tea bags and jars of marmite.  We also stumbled on a pen museum which was not so much a museum but an overwhelming collection of old pens and pen paraphernalia and some of the machinery that was used in the production of nibs for fountain pens. The volunteer that was there that day was having a grand time demonstrating some of the equipment to a group of young people.

Bull Ring Shopping Centre

We re-discovered the Bull Ring Shopping Centre, which, although it existed when we lived there has been totally renovated/reconstructed/reconfigured.  It is reputed to be the largest shopping centre in Western Europe but in the end there is nothing out of the ordinary there.  It is like every other shopping centre, an endless parade of  the same shops and business you see pretty much the world over.  Large corporations have a lot to answer for.  I'll get off my soap box long enough to allow as how the spaces they created were pleasant enough to encourage us to walk around. 

Birmingham Square

We explored the canal basin and walked some of the canal that ran through the city centre.  Some of it was old and quite rough but there was a general veneer of renewal about Gas Street and it's environs.  One area of new construction particularly pleased Mick, what with his predilection for New Urbanist Design standards.   There appeared to housing above commercial at street level and well designed public spaces.  Despite the fact that the weather was tending toward damp people seemed to using the space, sitting and reading, eating lunches and relaxing. 

This next image is of a building called the Rotunda.  It was brand new when we lived in Birmingham as were the shops on New Street Station.  Now the Rotunda is a Grade II listed building, which means it is a building of special historical or architectural interest.   When it was new

The Rotunda

it was considered to be something of a joke and an eyesore, at least by those students with which we associated at the University.  Now, although they may be able to mess around with the interior,they must maintain the exterior and it cannot be demolished without permission from Parliament!  What it was in the '70's I don't recall but now it is high end apartments and flats. 

New Street Station was also new in the 70s. It was our shopping destination of choice.  They had Mothercare and Habitat, Boots the Chemist and W.H. Smith Booksellers.  It was also the source of an ongoing joke about not being caught without a penny on New Street Station.  Back in the day it was not entirely uncommon to find you needed to insert a penny in to the door of the toilet to gain access.  There were also attendants always present to maintain the cleanliness and ensure all necessary paper products were available, so a penny was not an unreasonable fee.  Despite the necessity to pay there was always at least one stall that was free, read that as

Groby Fishing Pool

unmaintained.  When new Street Station was completed there were no free toilets, hence "don't get caught short on New Street Station without a penny."  Also paying for the used of a toiled would seem to be the genesis of the euphemism for going to the toilet of needing to "spend a penny".  Oh yes, asking for the restroom or bathroom over here may get you the necessary directions but if your accent doesn't give you away as an American this word usage definitely will.  You will find the "facilities" labelled either Toilet or WC (water closet). 

New Street Station is a railway station, of which there are at least two others in the the city centre.  By the look of the number of people we saw in the area I would imagine it, along with Moor Street and Snow Hill stations are the major means of transportation in and out of the downtown shopping district.  Parking is limited and navigating the city centre crazy making.  About five square blocks, or possibly more, of the centre have been pedestrianised, ie., no vehicular traffic is allowed during business hours.  Where cars are allowed it is a one way system intersected with block square roundabouts and lousy signage.  Just in case that is not intimidating enough much of the access from outside the centre goes through tunnels that twist and turn so that once above ground you still have no earthly idea of where you could possibly be.  There are streets and building that I would love to photograph that I saw when we were in the car, but for all the walking we did I never saw them again.   How we got around with a car is beyond me and if it weren't for the Pagoda that is in the middle of one of the roundabouts (making it easily identifiable) we might still be going round and round looking for our way home. 

Think it must be time to get this out there in to the ether before it gets too long.  Next time out the Staffordshire Hoard, Taylors Bell Foundry, Pottery and Bone China and a little history of Richard III and the Battle of Bosworth Field.  


Things I have learned:

1.  On the A5 there is a town called Weston Under Lizard as well as Crackleybank.  Wikipedia has failed me, I cannot find an explanation for the names.
2.  The Welsh National Bread is Bara Brith which translates spotty bread.
The name is understandable when you realise it has raisins and currants in it. 
3.  The phrase most commonly used to describe a senior discount or price is concessionaires.  Other Britishisms for those of a certain age. . . OAP or Old Age Pensioner and a little less pc Wrinklies.