#18

yeah, shithole.
But let’s be honest, London is the only truly great city in the UK, with smaller places like Bristol, Bath, Edinburgh worth going to, but all the big pretenders - Manc, liverpool etc generally awful.
EOT

#19

I’ve got a conference/meal at the ICC this afternoon/evening. We are going out on the town afterwards.
As a night out, it isn’t that bad if you know where to go.

#23

Only ever been Bham when I was 12 so things to see:

Cadbury World
Drayton manor park
Sea life centre
Lots of my family

#24

I know you’re trolling but Liverpool is fucking fantastic, let it be known.

Never really got the fuss about Bristol myself, but every cunt in East London’s moving there at the moment.

2 Likes
#26

Forgot to mention the station, it is beautiful. I think anything would’ve been an improvement on the last one though.

1 Like
#27

Lived and worked in Birmingham from 2011-2015 and absolutely loved being there so gonna defend it. There’s tonnes of great stuff going on, it’s just often quite hidden and people don’t tend to shout about it so you need to either look it up first, or meet people who are in the know. Took me a good few months to settle when I first moved there.

Also the city itself is weirdly laid out due to all the redevelopment, and it’s tricky to get to the suburbs etc where interesting things are. Public transport was shit, basically. Last time I went the building work everywhere made things even worse for navigating, but the city centre itself is almost entirely walkable in half an hour.

Off the top of my head:

Art stuff
BMAG
Ikon Gallery
BOM
Vivid Projects
Eastside Projects
ORT Cafe/Gallery
Digbeth warehouses
Custard Factory
Millennium Point

Music/Cinema
THSH
Hare and Hounds
Sunflower Lounge
Flatpack Festival
Supersonic
Electric Cinema
Fierce Festival
Frontiers Festival
Rainbow Venues
Various warehouses in Digbeth often had interesting happenings

Food/Drink
Balti triangle and Balsall Heath for curry
All the little cafes in the city centre, often in the arcades - 6/8 Kafe, Faculty, Yorks, 200 Degrees, peel and stone bakery
40 23 - great cheap mediterranean food opposite new street station
3 Michelin Star restaurants with fairly affordable lunchtime or set menus for fancy food
Cherry Reds for food and beer
The Victoria, Wellington, Post Office Vaults all decent pubs

The more suburby areas of Harborne, Kings Heath, Balsall Heath and Moseley all had great pubs for food, interesting shops, and markets etc most weekends.

There’s lots more I can’t remember now, but you get the idea.

11 Likes
Things to do in Birmingham
#28

I’m from the Midlands hello

#29

I guess it depends on what you want to do? I think perhaps your first fault was not doing any research before you visited. Living here now I’d perhaps tend to agree that if a visitor turns up then it can seem a little bland but there are loads absolutely great places to eat and drink if you look in the right parts. Culturally Birmingham’s best parts are spread out into different areas not just the city centre, but living here it always feels like there is something happening here, lots of great cool events that aren’t just designed as tourist attractions. Brilliant for residents, maybe not so much for tourists visiting for the day.

1 Like
#30

this is truly an excellent list. Covered way more than I know/can remember. I only lived there for a year but still go back half a dozen times a year. Gonna check out some of the places i’m not familiar with.

One thing I hate about Birmingham is the Christmas market, absolute hell. Although I can appreciate it brings lots of people into the city.

2 Likes
#31

Thank you. I will look into this stuff when I go next. I think you sum it up best in your first point. It’s not obvious where all this stuff is, there’s no signage or maps anywhere. Plus, is it always really dead?

1 Like
#33

You’re probably right, but I think with most cities you can fill a couple of hours quite easily without doing any research, but I really struggled yesterday

#34

It’s not always really dead, when did you go?

#35

*best Alan Partridge voice

That’s a town, that’s a town, that’s a county, that’s a hot sauce.

1 Like
#36

The East Midlands was an odd place to grow up.

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#37

Yesterday from about noon to seven. I’m don’t want to compare it to London, but there was nobody rushing around or workers on lunch. We went to a Wetherspoons at lunchtime and it was like a ghost town.

#38

The market was hell. I used to work just off broad street, and getting anywhere on the other side of town from mid-Nov to Jan was impossible. Heard rumours some of it isn’t happening this year due to budget cuts, but reckon that’s more likely to be the stuff in the squad outside the library than the main market.

#39

It’s not like London no, we’ve all got proper jobs :wink:

3 Likes
#40

Big Beat m9

#41

also you massive homophobe

1 Like
#42

The market is a right pain, part of it isn’t happening this year because of the construction work around the old library so its impossible to fill that space from the new library down towards the council house.