Impressions of the 2022 Commonwealth Games host city, Birmingham. Video / Thomas Bywater
Birmingham, “B-Town”, the heart of the English Midlands. The host city of the Commonwealth Games has stepped onto the podium of a major sporting event transformed. After 11 days of athletics, one can’t help but wonder how they pulled off such a feat.
The scrappy underdog has emerged from the back of the pack as a serious contender for Britain's coolest city. I'm dead serious.
So, what changed to reinvigorate this Canal Capital, once dismissed for being "dull as ditch water"?
For an eternity Birmingham was the undisputed second city of the UK.
It sat as the hub in the centre of a network of canals that spread through the United Kingdom like the legs of a spider. You could find the world's riches on a fleet of narrow boats, which plied the waterways. The iron smelters lit the touchpaper of the industrial revolution, coating buildings in a layer of coal soot. 'Black Country' became a term that sparked pride in the hearts and emphysema in the lungs of Midlanders.
There’s a local myth which dates back to this period. It has inspired the stories of “Rip Van Winkle” and “Iron Man” by local metal head Ozzy Osborne: a man falls asleep under a tree and wakes up, decades later unable to recognise his surroundings. For many Midlanders the experience can’t have been far off. Birmingham went from bucolic market town to smoke stacks and smelters in a generation.
Victoria Square: Commonwealth Games host city Birmingham has been challenging tourists preconceptions. Photo / Thomas Bywater
Brum has gone through a lot, quickly. Yet, for the past few decades, if feels like the city has been going through a second extended snooze.
Since the since the eighties Brummies have ironically referred to their home as ‘Venice of the north’ – though you were more likely to find a discarded shopping trolley than a vaporetto in the Digbeth Branch Canal.
The post industrial slumber has saw Birmingham overtaken by Greater Manchester in population, and perhaps cultural status. For most tourists to the UK it dropped off the radar entirely.
So, when one billion viewers tuned in to opening ceremony of the 22nd Commonwealth Games it was a revelation. We were given a vision of a city altered further than Rip Van Winkle's wildest dreams.
Black Sabbath Bridge: Birmingham's heavy metal heritage is worn with pride. Photo / Thomas Bywater
The giant, mechanical Raging Bull, first seen in the opening ceremony has found itself as the most popular free attraction in the country. Parked up in Centenary Square, its daily displays, glowing eyes and mechanics mounted on a 17-tonne crane have appeared on hundreds of thousands of selfies. By popular demand, Birmingham is now looking for a permanent home to keep the 10-metre-high moving sculpture.
Brum is back on the world map and in the imaginations of sports fans and tourists.
To quote Ozzy: "Iron man lives again!"
Games host city Birmingham might be the coolest city in the UK this summer - no bull! Photo / Thomas Bywater
Word on the street
There has been a cultural revolution in Brum on scale with the one in the 1700s. So, what has reignited the fires of the Black Country?
It is inadvisable not to step foot within the city boundaries and Small Heath without paying respect to a certain organised crime syndicate. Peaky Blinders is everywhere. The hugely successful period drama about 1920s gangsters in the Midlands is hard to ignore. They did the impossible – making flat caps and Brummie accent sexy again. No small thanks to Cillian Murphy.
It has also transformed the Black Country Living Museum from a provincial museum and destination for reluctant school trips to the hottest ticket in Birmingham. The 26 acres of preserved canal ways and buildings host sell-out roaring 20s events, through September and November.
Sam Neill on the set of Birmingham gangster flick Peaky Blinders, filmed at the Black Country Living Museum. Photo / File
Digbeth the city’s creative quarter has also seen a boost. By order of Steven Knight – a new BBC studios is being constructed in the Typhoo Tea Works – to crank out some more midlands mythology on Chicago typewriters.
It's a drama that shouts loudly in a Black Country accent, but is hardly the only story belonging to the city.
Amerah Saleh is the "Voice of Brum" – or at least the Commonwealth games.
The spoken world artist invited the world to Birmingham, performing in the handover ceremony in the Gold Coast 2018. In the four years since she has been following the torch relay around the world on its 294-day long journey around the globe and recording voice overs for the 2022 games coverage.
"If you were in any of the stadiums and heard a voice explaining the rules, that's me." Her "Tourist in my City" was a poem that invited visitors to be challenged and explore. From beachy Queensland to Brum it was here job to prepare – to tell visitors might have to do a bit of thinking to find the real Birmingham.
Birmingham poet Amerah Saleh has been accompanying the Queen's Torch around the Commonwealth Games countries, spreading her love for Brum. Photo / West Midlands Growth, Supplied
"There's an old joke from the sixties which is still true today: 'Birmingham will be brilliant, when it's finished.'"
It's a warren of canals, tunnels old warehouses and wharfs. Despite being 250 years after the industrial revolution everything seems to be a work in progress. At the end of a high-speed train link from London, HS2, the city is a riot of roadworks and construction at the best of times.
Awkward City: The Bull Ring sits cheek by jowl with St Martin's Church in central Birmingham. Photo / Thomas Bywater
"It's the fact of our infrastructure – it's quite hilly. You walk around the city and you can find pockets of architecture and different cultures along the canals."
An army of volunteers in grey games tracksuits have been enlisted to shepherd lost tourists from Stratford Road to Somali Town, into Victoria place the arenas and fan zones.
“We’re not fake. We’re nice whether the games are here or not,” she insists. It feels like every nation has some home crowd support.
It’s some thing that she saw while following the Queen’s Baton around the 72 associated countries who enter athletes to the games.
“I was in Dubai with the Baton earlier this year visiting the Dubai Expo village – I loved the concept, they’ve literally built a pavillion to celebrate every culture around the world.
"We don't need to build a global village. It's already here, we just need to join it up."
Kilo Ziro: A zero waste bar and tap room. Photo / Thomas Bywater
Amerah Saleh's guide to Birmingham
Brum's best art
Digbeth – huge area of old warehouses are packed with art, music and trendy bars. "You'll find it in Digbeth," she says.
The Custard factory – an old Birdseye Powdered Custard works – has been transformed into a hub, containing studios and quirky businesses like Kilo Ziro, a zero-waste bar which allows customers to sample and take away their favourite tipple from a raft of local beer, gin and wines from micro producers. Yes, it's hip.
A work in progress: The Kennedy Memorial in trendy Digbeth overlooks infrastructure works to the city. Photo / Thomas Bywater
Brum's Best Food
Ladypool Road - The road on the Balti Triangle is said to be the birthplace of the Anglo-Indian dish. A kilometre and a quarter of shopfronts and restaurants dedicated to Southeast Asian food, Ladypool has found space for a lot of other foods and fusion cuisines.
"Just off Ladypool road there's a place called Tipu Sultan which has the best Indian in Birmingham." A bold claim.
Brum's Best Day Trip
The Malvern Hills – While many daytrippers take the 50 minute train to Stratford-upon-Avon to visit the birthplace of Midlands playwright Bill Shakespeare, Amerah says avoid the crowds and head West. The spa town is home to the Queen's favourite water and an imposing 13km ridge of iron age forts.
“They are absolutely beautiful on a good day – go, get some water.”
The Black Country Living Museum in North Birmingham has become a surprise hit following the Peaky Blinders TV series. Photo / West Midlands Growth, Supplied
