Area Guide

Birmingham

I love it and you will too!! Being the second-largest city in England and home to over 1.1 million people, it has a great mix of culture and history, with plenty of things to see and do. Here are some fascinating facts about Brum.

Firstly ‘Bab’, it’s our word as in “you alright bab”, used a friendly form of address. It’s ours and we love to use it.

Iconic brands such as Birds Custard, Cadbury Chocolate, Bournville Drinking Chocolate, HP Sauce and Typhoo Tea all started in Birmingham.

Birmingham has the largest public library in Europe – the innovative Central Library in Centenary Square. What a beautifully designed building too.

It is the youngest city in Europe, with almost 40%of the population being made up of under 25’s.

Thomas the Tank Engine was invented in Birmingham by Wilbert Vere Awdry, who was reverend at St Nicholas’ Church in Kings Norton…where I got married.

Tennis was invented on a lawn in Edgbaston in 1859.

We have more canals than Venice with 100 miles of canal navigations which us Brummies love to crow about!

Now these I am sure, are not the only reasons you would want to move into Birmingham, but also because of the high quality of life the city offers. It is home to The Bullring, which is a major shopping centre and when combined with Grand Central (to which it is connected via a link bridge) it is the United Kingdom’s largest city centre based shopping centre and has been an important feature of Birmingham since the Middle Ages.

Some of the best schools in the country are situated in Birmingham, such as King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys and St Paul’s School for Girls to name a few. Let’s not forget he University Of Birmingham which is home to the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, housing works by Van Gogh, Picasso and Monet; the Shakespeare Institute; the Cadbury Research Library, home to the Mingana Collection of Middle Eastern manuscripts; the Lapworth Museum of Geology; and the 100-metre Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower, which is a prominent landmark visible from many parts of the city. Academics and alumni of the university include former British Prime Ministers Neville Chamberlain and Stanley Baldwin, the British composer Sir Edward Elgar and eleven Nobel laureates.

In 2010 the fabulous Queen Elizabeth Hospital was built in Edgbaston, which is one of the largest single-site hospitals in the United Kingdom and is part of one of the largest teaching trusts in England.

Having lived in Birmingham all my life, I have experienced the joys this incredible City has to offer and have come to learn that you don’t have to travel very far to find something to do or see, whether it is weekly football matches at Villa Park (home of Aston Villa Football Club) or St Andrews (home of Birmingham City Football Club), enjoying the Cricket at Edgbaston watching the mighty Warwickshire Bears, visiting Cadbury World or getting lost in a world of discovery at Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum. Whatever it is you are interested in doing and seeing, there is plenty to do here in Birmingham.

lastly, being a City people forget about the absolutely stunning countryside and parks it has to offer such as: The Lickey Hills Country Park, The Beacon for which all of the City Centre can be visible, Cannon Hill Park, The Botanical Gardens & Glasshouses, in addition to many reservoirs and lakes located around this wonderfully diverse and great City. The very best of City and Country life, within easy reach of each other.

Things to do and places to visit in Birmingham

Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum: https://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/thinktank

The Back To Backs: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/birmingham-back-to-backs

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery: https://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/bmag

Birmingham Hippodrome: https://www.birminghamhippodrome.com/

Cadbury World: https://www.cadburyworld.co.uk/en

National Motorcycle Museum: https://www.nationalmotorcyclemuseum.co.uk/

Sea Life Centre: https://www.visitsealife.com/birmingham/

Resorts World Birmingham: https://www.resortsworldbirmingham.co.uk/

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