roundabout

Gas Street Basin / Birmingham, England
Even the canal system in city centre Birmingham has a roundabout. I used to refer to them as "suicide circles" when I lived outside of Boston because you required a death wish to enter one - fearing for one's life. Not so here; the Brits are much more civilized about the whole roundabout process - painfully so. Go - will you!

alien adventures

Selfridges @ the Bull Ring / Birmingham, England
Still one of the quirkiest examples of mainstream pop architecture, Selfridges gives off a particularly alien feel at night when the aluminum disks which cover the outside of the structure begin to give off a blue glow - reminding me of some far off one-eyed space aliens. It's a 2 minute walk from my flat in Brum and I never tire of shooting it - always an interesting shot.

reflections of progress

Livery Street / Birmingham, England
Reflections of something old, something new, and something yet to come. Not sure what the "something yet to come" is but the cranes were busy at work. Perhaps when I am back in Brum next week it will be identifiable.

of things to come

George Street (Jewellery Quarter) / Birmingham, England
The Jewellery Quarter is an area of Birmingham City Centre that is synonymous with the manufacture of jewelery and coins in Birmingham and has been the birthplace of many pioneering advancements in industrial technology. By the mid-1800s, the jewelery trade was considered the most lucrative in the city with jewelers being some of the best paid workers. There were more people employed in the trade than any other in Birmingham. The majority of the British Empire's finest jewelery was produced in the Quarter. The Jewellery Quarter's importance in the international jewellery industry has declined much throughout the 20th century and is now being transformed into a vibrant urban village and hub for creative businesses, eateries, and other support services. Numerous mixed-use developments are underway with most involving the refurbishment of existing manufacturing buildings no longer in use.

head west, young man

Birmingham Canal Main Line / Birmingham, England
I've posted several times about the extensive canal system in Birmingham - said to have more miles of canal than Venice. Here I was standing on a footbridge at the convergence of three major canals - the Worcester & Birmingham Canal, the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal, and the Birmingham Canal Main Line. The Main Line, pictured here looking west, was constructed in the 19th century and was a major connector of commerce between Birmingham and Wolverhampton. The canals now are used extensively for recreational purposes.

ye old contemptible

Edmunds Street / Birmingham, England
For a certain someone, today puts them one step closer to being an old contemptible - happy birthday birdshoes! And a thank you to the same for serving as guest poster for the past two weeks while I had no access to internet (initially) and then just became lazy - great job on the food porn. This is another in my occasional posting of interesting pub names in the UK and elsewhere. Based on what I was able to find out, the brave Tommies in the British Expeditionary Force proudly took on the nickname "The Old Contemptibles" with this Birmingham pub being a favorite watering hole of the veterans. Apparently, it has recently undergone a major restoration which has immediately made it attractive to the more well-heeled crowd. As one reviewer put it "Not a bad pub, though packed with suits weekday lunchtimes. Fortunately, they bugger off soon enough." Sounds to me like he's a bit of an old contemptible himself.

apocalypse now

Edmund Street / Birmingham, England
Yesterday morning I walked out of my flat in city centre Birmingham into - wtf? There was trash strewn everywhere - cars were tipped up on the sidewalks - spray paint graffiti - broken windows. My first thought was - how did I sleep through this - and what the hell happened. As I find out, I walked out of my door and on to the set of a shoot for the new yet-to-be-released BBC series "Survivor" - billed as "One virus. Millions dead. A few Survivors." For a brief moment, I did feel like a survivor.

birmingham bells

Temple Row / Birmingham, England
The Cathedral Church of Saint Philip is a Church of England cathedral and the seat of the Bishop of Birmingham. Built as a parish church and consecrated in 1715, St Philip's became the cathedral of the newly-formed Diocese of Birmingham in the West Midlands in 1905. St Philip's was built in the Baroque style by Thomas Archer and is the third smallest cathedral in England. Interestingly, the bells of St Philip's play an important role in the training and development of bell ringers. Since 1949 the Cathedral has been a regular peal tower - the "long practices" on Thursdays, and more recently Mondays, have proved a training ground for in excess of 500 accomplished 12-bell ringers in the last 50 years. That explains why on Mondays and Thursdays I hear non-stop ringing from the bell tower from 7-8pm (or longer).

father & son

High Street / Birmingham, England
It's rare to see the accordion being played much anymore - especially by a young boy. I suspect it was largely due to the particular song they were playing, but the scene had a very melancholy feel to it.

you spin me right round

Colmore Row / Birmingham, England
I like how this shot pieces together. The curves all seem to line up perfectly. I can envision everything starting to spin like an intricately geared machine. From one of my favorite areas of Brum taken last Sunday while strolling in the late afternoon - just off the square of St. Philips Cathedral, a baroque church designed by Thomas Archer and opened in 1715.

inner peace

Bath Row / Birmingham, England
St Thomas' Church on Bath Row was was built in 1825 and was one of two Greek Revival churches in Birmingham designed by Henry Hutchinson, a British architect described by some as a genius though having met to an untimely death at age 31. The church was bombed in 1940 by enemy action but the tower and west porticos remain standing; now serving as a monument to Peace, linking into a beautiful sanctuary of urban tranquility.

zig then zag then zig

Bratislava Castle / Bratislava, Slovakia
The steps leading up to Bratislava Castle are reflective of my morning drive into the office; it seems every road is under construction with one lane or the other closed. I decided last night to map out an alternate way in - google maps told me it would be about 15-20 minutes longer than my normal route but I figured I'd otherwise be sitting in traffic anyways. No sooner had I ventured past the point of no return on my alternate route when I came face to face with - road closed - with no detour direction. At that point I zigged and zagged through small little villages in the Black Country only to end up right at the major congestion point of my original route.

spring is in the air

Morningside Park / New York, New York
It's looking to be a beautiful day in Brum today - forecasted highs of 15c (approaching 60f). Amazingly, I have not seen a raindrop since I arrived last week which certainly helps the disposition.

birmingham cityscape

Broad Street / Birmingham, England
I landed back in Brum in the pre-dawn darkness of a clear but brisk morning. A quick stop at the apartment for a shower and then "hi ho, hi ho - off to work I go'd".

winter pastel

Birmingham Canal Main Line / Birmingham, England
As I've blogged before, the canal lines in Birmingham are delightful to walk on those rare winter days of clear skies. The miles of remaining towpaths make for scenic walking paths through both city and country. The Birmingham Main Line, designed by Thomas Telford and built in the 1770's, runs through the heart of the Black Country including city centre Birmingham. The Main Line runs straight as an arrow to Tipton before heading off to Wolverhampton, shortening the previous route to Birmingham - Wolverhampton route by over seven miles. And does Birmingham really have more miles of canal than Venice? The exact numbers depend on where you draw the city boundaries, but the whole Birmingham Canal system extends for over 100 miles in total. It is indeed one of the most intricate canal networks in the world.

worker bee

Morningside Park / New York, New York
My life of late - the role of a good little worker bee. Going on the 3rd weekend is a row that I've been in the office working away. After spending all day yesterday in Dublin at a public meeting, I arrived back into Birmingham late last night. To bed and up and at 'em early this morning for another day in the office. Fortunately for me it's winter - as the life span of a worker bee in the winter months is 4-6 months as opposed to the warmer months where it is 28-35 days.

on the move

On The B Line / New York, New York
On the move today. I'm headed to Dublin, Ireland for a meeting this afternoon and then back to Brum later this evening. It's a two minute walk from my apartment to New St Station where I'll jump on the train for a quick 10 minute ride right into Birmingham airport. Like going to JFK only six times faster!

city centroid

Council House on Victoria Square / Birmingham, England

The gilded dome of the Birmingham City Council House sits on Victoria Square and is often referred to as the centroid of Birmingham City Centre. It serves as the point from which local road sign distances are measured. The classical style building was completed in 1879 and has since been expanded several times with the first expansion (1883) designed to include the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery which has the largest collection of works by Edward Jones-Burne in the world. Jones-Burne, a Brum native, was a close associate of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood movement; a group of artists whose intention was to reform art away from the more classical poses and compositions of Raphael and others of his time. And for a bit of personal trivia - according to the small plaque outside my front door, my current apartment here is within the structure designated as the birthplace and childhood home of Edward Jones-Burne.

rainy day blues

British Telecom Tower / Birmingham, England
Just before the holidays, BT announced that it was cutting over 10,000 jobs from its workforce showering rainy day blues onto a number of employees . British telecom is the the privatised UK state telecommunications company and is the dominant provider of landline and broadband services in the UK. BT also operates in over 170 other countries around the globe. The tower was built in 1965 and houses 26 stories of offices and 5 levels of circular galleries at the top. Being among one of the tallest structures in Birmingham, it serves as a local landmark of the skyline.

black hackneys and double deckers

Temple Row / Birmingham, England
I've a feeling I'm not in Kansas anymore. I found myself surrounded by black hackney cabs and red double decker buses - both symbolic to London and other large English cities including Birmingham - when I stepped out to take a brief walk to the grocery store. Oh, and it was snowing.. brrr.