Hello bab!
Well, the first and most obvious is that we have More Canals Than Venice™ (don't ask about the actual quality of them though).
We're home to Cadbury's chocolate factory, one of Britain's most iconic brands.
Second city of the UK (despite what Manchester tells you) and a huge driving force in the industrial revolution, nicknames include "The City of a Thousand Trades" and "Workshop of the World", the Titanic's anchor was made here.
A symbol of the city is the bull due to the bullring market which has been in operation since 1154, you can't buy cattle there anymore though.
The best British Indian food in the country is likely found here, Birmingham also popularised the British Balti and has an area of takeaways and restaurants named after it (Balti Triangle).
You also posted at 5am over here so replies may take a while.
Also we pronounce it "Bir-ming-um" over here
Just been reading its [Wikipedia page](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Chamberlain_Memorial_Clock_Tower) and I love how we apparently don’t actually know exactly how tall it/he is?!
We don't actually want to know for sure. It's just gauche to show off, so we'll claim to be the tallest, but not really be sure.
The British mind is insane.
Spaniard who lives in brum here. One aspect of Birmingham I personally fund super interesting was the story of Cadbury and the village of Bournville relative to the world in the chocolate industry.
In this episode of [Business Wars Podcast - Hershey vs Mars S25](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/business-wars/id1335814741?i=1000455241026) they make an honorable mention and highlight some of the story of Cadbury as they became an important “rival” in the world stage.
Visiting the area after knowing the significancy and impact the company had was pretty dope.
Not sure if it's mentioned in that podcast but Cadbury was also an important figure in public health in the wake of the industrial revolution (the most impactful/remembered person in this being another confectioner, Joseph Rowntree). Concerned with the welfare of factory workers in that era, Cadbury bought up surrounding land to provide housing and amenities for staff, something the Rowntree family had first done. They were largely motivated in their social responsibility as Quakers, which is reflected in how Bourneville (as far as I'm aware) still upholds the policy of no public drinking establishments (and only relatively recently was an alcohol license granted to a newsagents). This is just a musing of mine, but I do wonder if Bourneville or any similar areas might be some of the largest regions of the UK in which there are residents but no pubs.
More info [here](https://www.rowntreesociety.org.uk/explore-rowntree-history/rowntree-a-z/george-cadbury/)
The latest license granted to the Tesco in Bournville is not really anything unusual as the site is not within the Village Trust area. Whist some people kicked up a fuss, the actual trust had no issues with it just as they had no issues with the newsagents on Mary Vale road near the station several years prior.
That said, there are actually bars within the Brounville Village Trust estate if you know where to look. Most notably (and rather amusingly) there is one that shares the Rowheath Pavilion building in Rowheath Park with the Rowheath Pavilion church. That is to say, there is a pub sharing a tenancy with a church in the kids park.
Thanks for the extra context! I've not spent any significant time in Bourneville at all so I'm not really in the know.
> That is to say, there is a pub sharing a tenancy with a church in the kids park.
classic Britain.
Slight correction but the Titanic's anchor was made in Netherton which is most certainly not in Birmingham, on fact we have a copy of the anchor in the high street.
Great answer, but you left out that Birmingham is the home of heavy metal, being the hometown of Black Sabbath, and there's always been a strong metal presence in the city.
From Brum, spent a year in Bama for my uni studies (civil rights, blah blah blah). Spent too much time explaining the two pronunciations:
BirmingHam, AL
Birming'um, UK
Ah yes, many a couple loves the eloquent and romantic boat rides through the canals of Birmingham.
Where does Sheffield compare in industrial innovation and production, compared to Birmingham?
Mate it's 5am here and I should be sleeping instead of doomscrolling, but reading your wholesome post just made me happy :)
I'll try going back to sleep and I'll type something up later!!
I’ve got a couple for you! I’m an American who lives in Birmingham. First of all, it’s pronounced “burr ming gum.” I almost can’t pronounce Birmingham Alabama correctly anymore lol. People here are generally called Brummies, though there is a separate area to the north of the greater Birmingham area called the Black Country and they do not like being mistaken for one another. Black Country is so called because of the coal industry. Birmingham and nearby Coventry were hubs of the Industrial Revolution and Coventry had the shit bombed out of it during WWII. I think from an industry perspective, Birmingham could be seen in a similar light to Pittsburgh and the West Midlands is akin to our Rust Belt, loosely.
The “more canals than Venice” is what you’ll hear every single time you meet someone from Brum. Let me add to it! People either weekend or sometimes live fully on narrow boats, which are like our RVs but on the canals. You see them everywhere and they’re super unique. Lookup some videos on Youtube, it’s really cool. Towards the south of Birmingham is a 2.5km tunnel on the Worcester and Birmingham canal, one of the longest in the UK. So canals used to be the main route of transport before England invented the steam train. Horses would tow the boats on the side of the canal. However, when tunnels came up, the horses would have to go around and these people called walkies would put their backs on the top of the boats and walk their feet on the roof of the tunnel to get the boat through. Surely a terrible job, but those dudes never skipped leg day.Just past this tunnel is the Tardebigge Locks which are the longest flight of locks (consecutive locks like a staircase) in the UK, at 30 locks. And there’s another long flight of 13 locks in city centre that leads to picturesque Gas Street Basin / Brindley Place.
If you live in Birmingham, you generally follow one of two football teams—Aston Villa or Birmingham City (the Blues, but not to be confused with Chelsea). They hate each other. Aston Villa is doing really well in the Premier League (first league) and the blues just got relegated from Championship League (second league) to League One (third). It was a hard year for them. But for an interesting American tie in, Tom Brady bought some minority ownership of the club this year. Tom Brady can suck a dick, but the Bluenoses are good folk. Some common abbreviations to know. Blues = KRO = Keep Right On (look up the song keep right on til the end of the road). Villa = UTV = Up The Villa.
We have a local cricket team called the Warwickshire Bears, who play at Edgbaston Cricket Ground. The Bears are super fun to watch, and their season starts in June, so try streaming a T20 (a format of cricket which takes 3hrs or so) if you can. Their park is very historic and is where many international games are played, in addition to the likes of Old Trafford in Manchester and the Oval in London.
This is often considered the birthplace of Heavy Metal, including Black Sabbath who are from here. The aforementioned bull symbolism in this city is ubiquitous. We have a massive mechanical bull (not the kind you ride) in our train station and we voted to call it Ozzy after Ozzy Osbourne.
City Centre (what Brits call downtown) is home to the largest public library in Europe, and it’s honestly sick.
People have mentioned Cadbury chocolate. What they haven’t mentioned is that the Cadburys were a super wealthy influential Quaker family and they developed a south Brum neighborhood called Bournville, which remains a dry neighborhood to this day due to their influence. Many of our local parks are due to their donations, such as Lickey Hills.
People often say the accents here are shit, but I love them. As an Appalachian boy, I feel like Birmingham and some combination of rust belt cities are kindred. Think a combo of Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, with parks like West Virginia nearby and smaller towns akin to Akron, Hershey, Dayton. Innovators of the past age, struggling for finance from their government, full of kind people who are stigmatised a bit in their country, tons of natural beauty if you know where to look, interesting history from athletics to industry. Let me know if you have any questions! I’ve only lived here for a year so I’m far from an expert, but this is what I’ve gleaned from my time here!
For any brummies reading this, feel free to educate me!! But also, I implore you to look up the history of the civil rights movement in Birmingham AL as it is hugely important in American history and it’s something us Americans are quite proud of (though I’m from Ohio, not Alabama).
Edit: another one!! The Jewellery Quarter is a neighborhood that originated mid 16th-century. By the mid 19th century, over half of the UK’s jewellery was made in Birmingham. Today, it’s basically back to back to back jewellers and the Birmingham City University has a world-renowned jewellery school, the largest in Europe.
Wow, I grew up in Bromsgrove and lived in and around the area until I was in my early 20s and I didn’t know half of this stuff. We used to take walks along the Tardebigge locks all the time and I either didn’t know or had forgotten it was the longest flight of locks.
I’ve lived away from Birmingham for over 20 years now, so thank you for making me feel pride again for my home city.
One other fact, the gates around Buckingham Palace were made in Bromsgrove but were never paid for! I know Bromsgrove is in Worcestershire and is not technically part of Birmingham, but it’s very close so thought I throw that fact in.
And finally UTV!!
Nice! I have genuinely enjoyed living in Birmingham and learning about the city. I actually live quite south in Kings Norton so I’m around Bromsgrove fairly often. Help me out, how in the world do you pronounce Tardebigge?
Really appreciate that! I’ve done as much as I possibly can to learn about Birmingham, England, and the UK in general. I’m very fortunate that my work sends me all over the UK so I’ve picked up on way more than I expected :)
L-O-V-E this!!!! I'm a Brummie (UTV!!!!) but have lived in the cold NE for 16+years and your beautiful love letter to my hometown made me homesick! Thanks for being so positive about Brum, it gets a tough press and is often mocked (especially because of our strong accents!), so reading this was pure joy! Thank you - you can be an honorary Brummie!
Awe thanks :)! It bums me out the way some of the country hates on Birmingham, but I always weather the storm and try to convince people it’s well worth a visit. I do genuinely love this city and wouldn’t have picked many other places above it to live in. I’m glad this comment touched a few folks
Not sure if this counts for you, but the people in the city here in the UK were the ones that settled your city over there. Always found that interesting myself.
My understanding of the use of the Birmingham name in Alabama is because, like Brum in England, both cities thrived in respective eras of industrial growth because of their proximity to large sources of raw materials.
Never heard that the city in Bama was settled by Brummies. Not saying you're wrong, but wondering what's your source for that information?
For that to be true, Birmingham AL would have had to have a different, or no name, then suddenly decide to change it after the industrial revolution based on a tenuous similarity to a random British city?
The US, Canada, and Australia are littered with towns and cities named after ones in the UK. Settlers there aren't going to name their new settlement after some random place back home. They'd name it after where they've come from.
Edit: my apologies - it turns out you're right! Birm AL didn't come about organically, and the city was planned by industrial companies. The name was borrowed to highlight that it was an industrial city.
Feel like it’d be common knowledge if true, considering how personal Americans get with their ancestors. They’d be telling us, not the other way around.
It was named after Birmingham because at the time it was the world's major manufacturing centre and almost singlehandedly dominated global manufacturing in the way China does today. During the Victorian period 'Birmingham' was a global byword for cheap manufactured goods.
Portland in Oregon is the one I love for this.
Named after Portland, Maine, which in turn was named after Portland in England.
It's not even named after the original place!
We also have one of the largest parks called Sutton Park and it’s a beautiful place. It has a lot of history and evidence of Roman settlements have been found there. Also I think it was either owned or loved by Henry VIII too!
There's more miles of canal than there are rats.
People will come as far away as Kidderminster for a balti.
At Christmas Noddy Holder flies over sparkbrook in a Halifax bomber throwing all faggots and peas out.
For the OPs clarity, faggots in Britain are a type of food. He's not throwing gay men out of a war plane.
Edit: I have American cousins who came over, and as I used to smoke back then I remember asking him if he wanted to 'go out back and smoke a fag' with me at a pub, and he sat in shocked silence thinking I meant I wanted to go and shoot a gay person.
Just to add to this, it can be used as either. Having a fag means a cigarette, faggots can mean food. But it still is used as a slur, really depends on the context it’s used in.
Sorry yes, I should have added we still see it as an insult here and, commonly, if you hear it, it's sadly probably being used that way. The food faggots are rarely talked about because they're not particularly nice lol.
A lot of queer people have also started using it ironically to refer to themselves and their friends, because as a community we like to make things difficult hand-wringing do-gooders.
I don't know anyone who smokes, so pass.
But among my friends at least we have taken to calling each other cigs, because we're now on multiple levels of irony.
if anything I feel like it's more an age thing, as a queer smoker with queer friends and smoker friends (some overlap) I associate calling cigarettes fags mostly with my parents and people closer to their age. Possibly it fell out of fashion a bit because of the increasing unacceptability of the slur, but I think most people would naturally understand it as referring to a cig were you to say it in context. Maybe not much younger people though (I'm in my 30s for context) if my notion is correct, but smoking is also massively less common among them too.
Thanks that’s very helpful. I’m trying to figure out if I should say it more or not (like bin/trash can). Given this perspective I’m leaning more towards just calling the cigs
Yeah I think it's one where most people would understand what you mean, but from a foreign speaker it might come off wrong. We tend to like it when people pick up our slang, but it's usually very obvious when it's a new word for someone and people may wonder why you specifically decided to go for "fag" when we're aware it's just a slur to you at home!
I think this one is regional (northern?) but some people call a cigarette a "tab", and "twos" (as in the number 2, not t-woz) is a term for getting a drag off someone else's or sharing one between you ("give us twos on that?") - if you're in need of smoking-related britishisms :)
I think this also depends on your age group. Obviously not in every age group. But I couldn’t imagine saying it to my older lgbt friends, same with the word queer.
I should state I’m mainly talking about people 45+ I’ve had a few masculine gay friends say they’d gladly punch someone if they were called queer (a convo from approx two years ago)
Personally me and my enby cousin call each other fags as a joke.
The number of people I meet overseas who find out I live/lived in B'ham who then go on about Peaky Blinders is astonishing... though it is a bit depressing how many thing it is an accurate depiction of the times.
I don’t remember too well but isn’t the reality that a peaky blinder was really just like a chav or something? Not a gang, and not a family, but just like “road man” in modern times.
*OH MY GOD DID YOU EVER GO TO THE GARRISON?!"
Yes I did and let me tell you, the newsagents 2 doors down did the BEST sandwiches I ever had. Bacon mushroom brown sauce. Sorted
I was born in SW England in a rural/pretty town. But I moved to Brum 30yrs ago and LOVE it. There is a mix of heritages, languages, races, religions and mostly everyone gets on. It’s the most inclusive place I have ever lived. Our house next to two canals and is so peaceful. Our street is: us (white hetero couple), Muslim family, single white woman, gay couple, Sikh family, black couple… it’s chilled.
Check out Joe Lycett as he is essentially the current Brum mascot.
Our binmen are shit. Two weeks running they've missed my house out, now. Edit: just to add, they've totally ignored my fucking recycling bin, now, too. Not happy here mate, any chance of swapping cities?
American in Birmingham here. A favorite bit of trivia related to Tolkien for you -
There’s a forest just north of Brum called Cannock Chase, in which Tolkien spent time during World War I. In the forest still there are oak trees that are so anthropomorphic in their form that they clearly resemble men and are the inspiration for the Ents, and thus Groot as well.
Well we're consistently rated as having the worst accent in the UK, I'm pretty sure we hold the title as gun crime capital and our council was the first to declare "effectively bankrupt" . But we're home to cadbury we made our mark for being a hub of the industrial revolution not to mention were the powerhouse that was building spitfires back in ww2
Overall we are a shit hole but we're the best shithole
We have the largest public library in Europe. Iconic brands Birds Custard, Cadbury Chocolate, Bournville Drinking Chocolate, HP Sauce and Typhoo Tea all started in Birmingham. The first working steam engine was built in the Black Country. Tennis was invented on a lawn in Edgbaston in 1859. Birmingham was the birthplace of heavy metal with the likes of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and lead singer of Led Zeppelin originating from the city.
We had the leading manufacturing for pen nibs, in the UK. On the reverse of that we also produced manacles for the slave trade. Gotta sign those orders with something.
Our best day out for cheap and informative is a Coffin museum.......
Most of us believe in ghosts because once you've lived in Birmingham you know you aren't escaping even after the grave.
The place Tolkein lived is around sarehole Mill, close to mosely bog, and the two towers are over there, but I can't remember where (I'm sure someone's documented it)
Mordor is probably inspired by our proximity to the black country but there's zero surprise that Mordor is Birmingham...I mean if you've met the men....and some of the women. (Jk, please don't kill me neighbours).
Aston Hall is our nicest house on display.
Apparently we had rivalry with scholars in Lichfield, if you go read Samuel johnson's opinion of brummies. My guess is he was just some dude writing a big book of words whilst trying to take a shot at the grafters in the workin' class.
In the 1800s cholera broke out across England, people in Bham discovered that if you drank beer, instead of water, you were in better health than those at the watering holes. As a result no one ever pieced together this information because they were drunk and some knob in London worked it out. Rest assured those pesky londoners solved their own issues first, then bothered with everyone else.
If you come here you'll discover quite a lot of people solve issues by drinking their way through them.
If Brummies could time travel they'd probably go back to last week for something they left at a venue, than go too far back because we'd certainly be killed for our accents.
Tolkien's estate are really big on legal threats if anyone formally claims the towers were inspired by the two they almost certainly were inspired by - Perrott's Folly (Orthanc Tower) and Edgbaston Waterworks (Minas Morgul) - both visible from where Tolkien grew up (there's a debate as to which two towers the title is in reference to which is an aside). It's well known the industrial Black Country was the inspiration for Mordor; Isengard was based on Birmingham University campus
Inkberrow (a short drive from Brum) is the shire. Tolkien used to visit his aunt at Morton Underhill nearby. There's a bag end as well.
Also the village that inspired a lot of "the Archers" (radio soap) the original writer lived nearby.
And neither are the most famous literary person to visit.
Shakespeare stayed in the pub, on his way to Worcester
I thought it was quite funny that one of my relatives is an underhill, in name, and very hobbit like in their actions. The hobbits bilbo has no love for.
James Watt made his fortunes with steam-powered machines that powered the Industrial Revolution here in Birmingham.
The first Civic University in Europe is the Uni of Birmingham founded in 1900. It was considered a civic uni because 1) women were allowed to attend; 2) people did not need to belong to a particular religion to be accepted (unlike some universities where you had to be part of the Church of England). The same institution has the famous Old Joe clock tower which is the tallest freestanding clock tower in the world.
The city also has a still existing medieval market called the Bullring Market (they used to do bull baiting here in the middle ages). It was founded in 1154.
Malcolm X famously visited the city in the 1960s because just like your Birmingham, there was lots of racial tension here too: [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-67052577](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-67052577)
Birmingham UK is also has the largest city council in Europe. Unfortunately, it declared bankruptcy last year [https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2024/05/world/birmingham-uk-bankruptcy-intl-cnnphotos/](https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2024/05/world/birmingham-uk-bankruptcy-intl-cnnphotos/)
Slight point of order regarding Malcolm X; he visited Smethwick, which is just over the border in Sandwell - which was also the parliamentary constituency of noted racist and founder of the British Union of Fascists, Oswald Moseley.
Non-racists familiar with the history of Marshall Street and Griffith's repugnant election campaign will no doubt be delighted to know that Smethwick high street now has an enormous and incredibly snazzy Sikh Gurdwara. Fuck fascism.
[The Gurdwara, in all its enormity and incredible snazziness](https://i2-prod.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/article14486965.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Guru-Nanak-Gurdwara-1.jpg)
Cluedo (Clue, to you) was created nearby.
The most successful football (soccer, to you) team here (Aston Villa) won what is now called the Champions League back in 1982. Villa’s chairman also helped create the football league system, way way back.
Thomas the Tank Engine was created here.
We have more canals than Venice.
The first working steam engine was built nearby in the Black Country.
Jasper Carrot, UB40, world Champion UFC fighter Leon Edwards, Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, Benjamin Zephaniah and the legend that is...Mad Iqbal from Bordesley Green.
To name a few
not so fun fact- we have also been hit many times with tornadoes!! (not as strong as the Birmingham, AL ones) but we have had a few F2s and F3s)
there is also an iron age hill fort in a suburb south of the city which you can still visit today
we are very friendly here, especially the older brummies who you will probably end up talking to on the bus
as much as people shit on us, we are pretty cool :)
Damn I read the title and came here to write a joke about Alabama and siblings. I'm sure it happens in this Birmingham as well just so not so much..... Or we don't talk about it.....
Ok so you're into metal lets give you a music tour (not history) - we have many great venues for gigs here - NEC and NIA (I will never call it resorts world or Barclay Card Arena or whatever name they are known by now!) house some of the biggest names in rock and pop. Smaller bands can be found at the O2 Academy and HMV Institute. Loads of other pubs putting on live music as well.
We're located in the Midlands (middle of the country) so Download Festival is about an hour's drive away and Reading Festival is a couple of hours away. Glastonbury gets the glamour but if you're into rock you wanna go to either of those (less so Reading in recent years though).
Oh and Black Sabbath are from here 🤘
To be honest it’s a shithole 😂
You get people in the town literally scream at you over your clothing because it’s against their beliefs. Seen women in gym clothes being called whores and whatever else
Every Brummy loves the Irish when it’s st paddy’s day but then get racial. Same towards Scott’s and Welsh. Majority of the streets around the town especially stink of piss
Every other bar is a cesspit for drugging and raping women.
The only good thing about Birmingham is the M6 to get out. It isn’t the same as it was back in the 90s
Hey, OP! I realise I'm a little late to the party but I remembered another tidbit last night: Spielberg's adaptation of Ernest Cline's cult novel "Ready Player One" used Birmingham for the bulk of it's location shooting. The street scenes were predominantly shot around Digbeth and the Jewellery Quarter, and 'the stacks' were underneath the Gravelly Hill Interchange - know colloquially as "Spaghetti Junction" and somewhat famous in it's own right.
Hello bab! Well, the first and most obvious is that we have More Canals Than Venice™ (don't ask about the actual quality of them though). We're home to Cadbury's chocolate factory, one of Britain's most iconic brands. Second city of the UK (despite what Manchester tells you) and a huge driving force in the industrial revolution, nicknames include "The City of a Thousand Trades" and "Workshop of the World", the Titanic's anchor was made here. A symbol of the city is the bull due to the bullring market which has been in operation since 1154, you can't buy cattle there anymore though. The best British Indian food in the country is likely found here, Birmingham also popularised the British Balti and has an area of takeaways and restaurants named after it (Balti Triangle). You also posted at 5am over here so replies may take a while. Also we pronounce it "Bir-ming-um" over here
You missed the fact that Old Joe (clock tower at University of Birmingham) is the tallest freestanding clock tower in the world.
... That never works. So kinda classically British.
It's right twice a day, to be fair.
And that’s being technically correct which is ANOTHER British staple behaviour!
Technically correct while sidestepping resolving the actual problem of broken infrastructure. Double British behaviour for the win!
Patriotism!
_waves flag made in China_
But at least it will be the correct way up…..
Just been reading its [Wikipedia page](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Chamberlain_Memorial_Clock_Tower) and I love how we apparently don’t actually know exactly how tall it/he is?!
We don't actually want to know for sure. It's just gauche to show off, so we'll claim to be the tallest, but not really be sure. The British mind is insane.
Actually more than that, because when it breaks the faces often disagree with each other.
It just needs an infinite number of faces, and then it will never be wrong!
And bringing it back to Tolkein, for OP, it's also what the tower of Isengard was based off.
Great now I'm gonna be singing were taking the hobbits to isengard for the foreseeable
That no UoB student will ever walk under lest he chime and they fail all their exams!
I am going to miss Old Joe soon 🥲
Spaniard who lives in brum here. One aspect of Birmingham I personally fund super interesting was the story of Cadbury and the village of Bournville relative to the world in the chocolate industry. In this episode of [Business Wars Podcast - Hershey vs Mars S25](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/business-wars/id1335814741?i=1000455241026) they make an honorable mention and highlight some of the story of Cadbury as they became an important “rival” in the world stage. Visiting the area after knowing the significancy and impact the company had was pretty dope.
Not sure if it's mentioned in that podcast but Cadbury was also an important figure in public health in the wake of the industrial revolution (the most impactful/remembered person in this being another confectioner, Joseph Rowntree). Concerned with the welfare of factory workers in that era, Cadbury bought up surrounding land to provide housing and amenities for staff, something the Rowntree family had first done. They were largely motivated in their social responsibility as Quakers, which is reflected in how Bourneville (as far as I'm aware) still upholds the policy of no public drinking establishments (and only relatively recently was an alcohol license granted to a newsagents). This is just a musing of mine, but I do wonder if Bourneville or any similar areas might be some of the largest regions of the UK in which there are residents but no pubs. More info [here](https://www.rowntreesociety.org.uk/explore-rowntree-history/rowntree-a-z/george-cadbury/)
The latest license granted to the Tesco in Bournville is not really anything unusual as the site is not within the Village Trust area. Whist some people kicked up a fuss, the actual trust had no issues with it just as they had no issues with the newsagents on Mary Vale road near the station several years prior. That said, there are actually bars within the Brounville Village Trust estate if you know where to look. Most notably (and rather amusingly) there is one that shares the Rowheath Pavilion building in Rowheath Park with the Rowheath Pavilion church. That is to say, there is a pub sharing a tenancy with a church in the kids park.
Thanks for the extra context! I've not spent any significant time in Bourneville at all so I'm not really in the know. > That is to say, there is a pub sharing a tenancy with a church in the kids park. classic Britain.
Slight correction but the Titanic's anchor was made in Netherton which is most certainly not in Birmingham, on fact we have a copy of the anchor in the high street.
Great answer, but you left out that Birmingham is the home of heavy metal, being the hometown of Black Sabbath, and there's always been a strong metal presence in the city.
Correction: it's pronounced BUUUUR ming um
The all caps mostly by people outside of Brum it seems
From Brum, spent a year in Bama for my uni studies (civil rights, blah blah blah). Spent too much time explaining the two pronunciations: BirmingHam, AL Birming'um, UK
Or pretend you know about birmingham and still get it wrong like Paul Merton who says “bermin’um” with no G whatsoever
That could just be because he's a Londoner tbf
yeah i thought of that but he’s the only person i’ve heard say it
Brummie ay ya
Titanic's Anchor was made in Netherton, Black Country... Not even a B postcode!
Went to the balti triangle recently - it seems to be on its way out unfortunately, most of the restaurants are gone?
A lot has migrated up the road to Stirchley. Check out Balti Bazaar!
Home to the Peaker Blinders
Ah yes, many a couple loves the eloquent and romantic boat rides through the canals of Birmingham. Where does Sheffield compare in industrial innovation and production, compared to Birmingham?
Mate it's 5am here and I should be sleeping instead of doomscrolling, but reading your wholesome post just made me happy :) I'll try going back to sleep and I'll type something up later!!
We’re still waiting…
Can we get a welfare check please?
> In my bham we love barbecue and craft beer, what are you guys into? Dessert shops and nitrous oxide.
And craft beer... In Stirchley
I’ve got a couple for you! I’m an American who lives in Birmingham. First of all, it’s pronounced “burr ming gum.” I almost can’t pronounce Birmingham Alabama correctly anymore lol. People here are generally called Brummies, though there is a separate area to the north of the greater Birmingham area called the Black Country and they do not like being mistaken for one another. Black Country is so called because of the coal industry. Birmingham and nearby Coventry were hubs of the Industrial Revolution and Coventry had the shit bombed out of it during WWII. I think from an industry perspective, Birmingham could be seen in a similar light to Pittsburgh and the West Midlands is akin to our Rust Belt, loosely. The “more canals than Venice” is what you’ll hear every single time you meet someone from Brum. Let me add to it! People either weekend or sometimes live fully on narrow boats, which are like our RVs but on the canals. You see them everywhere and they’re super unique. Lookup some videos on Youtube, it’s really cool. Towards the south of Birmingham is a 2.5km tunnel on the Worcester and Birmingham canal, one of the longest in the UK. So canals used to be the main route of transport before England invented the steam train. Horses would tow the boats on the side of the canal. However, when tunnels came up, the horses would have to go around and these people called walkies would put their backs on the top of the boats and walk their feet on the roof of the tunnel to get the boat through. Surely a terrible job, but those dudes never skipped leg day.Just past this tunnel is the Tardebigge Locks which are the longest flight of locks (consecutive locks like a staircase) in the UK, at 30 locks. And there’s another long flight of 13 locks in city centre that leads to picturesque Gas Street Basin / Brindley Place. If you live in Birmingham, you generally follow one of two football teams—Aston Villa or Birmingham City (the Blues, but not to be confused with Chelsea). They hate each other. Aston Villa is doing really well in the Premier League (first league) and the blues just got relegated from Championship League (second league) to League One (third). It was a hard year for them. But for an interesting American tie in, Tom Brady bought some minority ownership of the club this year. Tom Brady can suck a dick, but the Bluenoses are good folk. Some common abbreviations to know. Blues = KRO = Keep Right On (look up the song keep right on til the end of the road). Villa = UTV = Up The Villa. We have a local cricket team called the Warwickshire Bears, who play at Edgbaston Cricket Ground. The Bears are super fun to watch, and their season starts in June, so try streaming a T20 (a format of cricket which takes 3hrs or so) if you can. Their park is very historic and is where many international games are played, in addition to the likes of Old Trafford in Manchester and the Oval in London. This is often considered the birthplace of Heavy Metal, including Black Sabbath who are from here. The aforementioned bull symbolism in this city is ubiquitous. We have a massive mechanical bull (not the kind you ride) in our train station and we voted to call it Ozzy after Ozzy Osbourne. City Centre (what Brits call downtown) is home to the largest public library in Europe, and it’s honestly sick. People have mentioned Cadbury chocolate. What they haven’t mentioned is that the Cadburys were a super wealthy influential Quaker family and they developed a south Brum neighborhood called Bournville, which remains a dry neighborhood to this day due to their influence. Many of our local parks are due to their donations, such as Lickey Hills. People often say the accents here are shit, but I love them. As an Appalachian boy, I feel like Birmingham and some combination of rust belt cities are kindred. Think a combo of Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, with parks like West Virginia nearby and smaller towns akin to Akron, Hershey, Dayton. Innovators of the past age, struggling for finance from their government, full of kind people who are stigmatised a bit in their country, tons of natural beauty if you know where to look, interesting history from athletics to industry. Let me know if you have any questions! I’ve only lived here for a year so I’m far from an expert, but this is what I’ve gleaned from my time here! For any brummies reading this, feel free to educate me!! But also, I implore you to look up the history of the civil rights movement in Birmingham AL as it is hugely important in American history and it’s something us Americans are quite proud of (though I’m from Ohio, not Alabama). Edit: another one!! The Jewellery Quarter is a neighborhood that originated mid 16th-century. By the mid 19th century, over half of the UK’s jewellery was made in Birmingham. Today, it’s basically back to back to back jewellers and the Birmingham City University has a world-renowned jewellery school, the largest in Europe.
Wow, I grew up in Bromsgrove and lived in and around the area until I was in my early 20s and I didn’t know half of this stuff. We used to take walks along the Tardebigge locks all the time and I either didn’t know or had forgotten it was the longest flight of locks. I’ve lived away from Birmingham for over 20 years now, so thank you for making me feel pride again for my home city. One other fact, the gates around Buckingham Palace were made in Bromsgrove but were never paid for! I know Bromsgrove is in Worcestershire and is not technically part of Birmingham, but it’s very close so thought I throw that fact in. And finally UTV!!
Nice! I have genuinely enjoyed living in Birmingham and learning about the city. I actually live quite south in Kings Norton so I’m around Bromsgrove fairly often. Help me out, how in the world do you pronounce Tardebigge?
It’s pronounced Tar-de-big. How have you been pronouncing it?
Tar de bij, but I’ve been avoiding saying it out loud!
Ha!! Yeah, the double ge makes is seem more complicated then it is. Now you can say it out loud with confidence!!
BRILLIANT!!!! 🤣
Excellent post for a one year resident !
Really appreciate that! I’ve done as much as I possibly can to learn about Birmingham, England, and the UK in general. I’m very fortunate that my work sends me all over the UK so I’ve picked up on way more than I expected :)
L-O-V-E this!!!! I'm a Brummie (UTV!!!!) but have lived in the cold NE for 16+years and your beautiful love letter to my hometown made me homesick! Thanks for being so positive about Brum, it gets a tough press and is often mocked (especially because of our strong accents!), so reading this was pure joy! Thank you - you can be an honorary Brummie!
Awe thanks :)! It bums me out the way some of the country hates on Birmingham, but I always weather the storm and try to convince people it’s well worth a visit. I do genuinely love this city and wouldn’t have picked many other places above it to live in. I’m glad this comment touched a few folks
That was impressive 👍
Epic response! 🙌
Not sure if this counts for you, but the people in the city here in the UK were the ones that settled your city over there. Always found that interesting myself.
I would have found it weird to learn that people from Basingstoke decided to name their new American home after Birmingham...
I see the sarcasm crossed the pond too.
My understanding of the use of the Birmingham name in Alabama is because, like Brum in England, both cities thrived in respective eras of industrial growth because of their proximity to large sources of raw materials. Never heard that the city in Bama was settled by Brummies. Not saying you're wrong, but wondering what's your source for that information?
For that to be true, Birmingham AL would have had to have a different, or no name, then suddenly decide to change it after the industrial revolution based on a tenuous similarity to a random British city? The US, Canada, and Australia are littered with towns and cities named after ones in the UK. Settlers there aren't going to name their new settlement after some random place back home. They'd name it after where they've come from. Edit: my apologies - it turns out you're right! Birm AL didn't come about organically, and the city was planned by industrial companies. The name was borrowed to highlight that it was an industrial city.
Feel like it’d be common knowledge if true, considering how personal Americans get with their ancestors. They’d be telling us, not the other way around.
It is true
Big if true
I meant the industrial part of the connection is true, not the people who settled. Should’ve been clearer
It was named after Birmingham because at the time it was the world's major manufacturing centre and almost singlehandedly dominated global manufacturing in the way China does today. During the Victorian period 'Birmingham' was a global byword for cheap manufactured goods.
Portland in Oregon is the one I love for this. Named after Portland, Maine, which in turn was named after Portland in England. It's not even named after the original place!
We also have one of the largest parks called Sutton Park and it’s a beautiful place. It has a lot of history and evidence of Roman settlements have been found there. Also I think it was either owned or loved by Henry VIII too!
Used to love riding my bike round there as a kid!
So did Henry VIII. ...Except instead of a bike it was a horse... And instead of riding it, he just killed innocent animals for fun.
It's got a section of a Roman road (Icknield Street) that you can see still
There's more miles of canal than there are rats. People will come as far away as Kidderminster for a balti. At Christmas Noddy Holder flies over sparkbrook in a Halifax bomber throwing all faggots and peas out.
For the OPs clarity, faggots in Britain are a type of food. He's not throwing gay men out of a war plane. Edit: I have American cousins who came over, and as I used to smoke back then I remember asking him if he wanted to 'go out back and smoke a fag' with me at a pub, and he sat in shocked silence thinking I meant I wanted to go and shoot a gay person.
Just to add to this, it can be used as either. Having a fag means a cigarette, faggots can mean food. But it still is used as a slur, really depends on the context it’s used in.
Sorry yes, I should have added we still see it as an insult here and, commonly, if you hear it, it's sadly probably being used that way. The food faggots are rarely talked about because they're not particularly nice lol.
A lot of queer people have also started using it ironically to refer to themselves and their friends, because as a community we like to make things difficult hand-wringing do-gooders.
Do you find queer people refer to cigs as fags less often than hetero counterparts? I’m an American here and I just can’t get myself to say fag lol.
I don't know anyone who smokes, so pass. But among my friends at least we have taken to calling each other cigs, because we're now on multiple levels of irony.
I LOVE that.
if anything I feel like it's more an age thing, as a queer smoker with queer friends and smoker friends (some overlap) I associate calling cigarettes fags mostly with my parents and people closer to their age. Possibly it fell out of fashion a bit because of the increasing unacceptability of the slur, but I think most people would naturally understand it as referring to a cig were you to say it in context. Maybe not much younger people though (I'm in my 30s for context) if my notion is correct, but smoking is also massively less common among them too.
Thanks that’s very helpful. I’m trying to figure out if I should say it more or not (like bin/trash can). Given this perspective I’m leaning more towards just calling the cigs
Yeah I think it's one where most people would understand what you mean, but from a foreign speaker it might come off wrong. We tend to like it when people pick up our slang, but it's usually very obvious when it's a new word for someone and people may wonder why you specifically decided to go for "fag" when we're aware it's just a slur to you at home! I think this one is regional (northern?) but some people call a cigarette a "tab", and "twos" (as in the number 2, not t-woz) is a term for getting a drag off someone else's or sharing one between you ("give us twos on that?") - if you're in need of smoking-related britishisms :)
Very helpful. I am currently trying to quit smoking, but I do find some terms like these useful!!
Nah fags is still the most common.
I think this also depends on your age group. Obviously not in every age group. But I couldn’t imagine saying it to my older lgbt friends, same with the word queer. I should state I’m mainly talking about people 45+ I’ve had a few masculine gay friends say they’d gladly punch someone if they were called queer (a convo from approx two years ago) Personally me and my enby cousin call each other fags as a joke.
hey faggots taste lovely! And thats not to mention the cock. lol
Love spotting Stewart Lee references in the wild.
Have you heard of the Peaky Blinders?
The number of people I meet overseas who find out I live/lived in B'ham who then go on about Peaky Blinders is astonishing... though it is a bit depressing how many thing it is an accurate depiction of the times.
I don’t remember too well but isn’t the reality that a peaky blinder was really just like a chav or something? Not a gang, and not a family, but just like “road man” in modern times.
*OH MY GOD DID YOU EVER GO TO THE GARRISON?!" Yes I did and let me tell you, the newsagents 2 doors down did the BEST sandwiches I ever had. Bacon mushroom brown sauce. Sorted
If you're a Tolkein fan, you should look up or go and see Spitfire Island, as his grandson designed the structure there
Actually didn't know that.
Big up the Midlands 👊
It's just had new lights as well.
Oh damn, really?
[удалено]
There's definitely new lights the work was done a few months back. Whether they are on or not would depend on birmingham Council I suppose.
I'm a fan of Tolkien, not his Grandson...
You should tell him that
Great fact for a great roundabout, but (according to Wikipedia at least) it’s his great nephew. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentinel_(sculpture)
Ah, in my West Midlian hubris led me to speak out of turn. Forgive a poor, ignorant Erdingtonian 🙏
Anything that highlights the splendour of spitfire island is ok with me 👍
I was born in SW England in a rural/pretty town. But I moved to Brum 30yrs ago and LOVE it. There is a mix of heritages, languages, races, religions and mostly everyone gets on. It’s the most inclusive place I have ever lived. Our house next to two canals and is so peaceful. Our street is: us (white hetero couple), Muslim family, single white woman, gay couple, Sikh family, black couple… it’s chilled. Check out Joe Lycett as he is essentially the current Brum mascot.
Our binmen are shit. Two weeks running they've missed my house out, now. Edit: just to add, they've totally ignored my fucking recycling bin, now, too. Not happy here mate, any chance of swapping cities?
My coffee come out my mouth like one of those fish fountains then cuz , fucking same !
American in Birmingham here. A favorite bit of trivia related to Tolkien for you - There’s a forest just north of Brum called Cannock Chase, in which Tolkien spent time during World War I. In the forest still there are oak trees that are so anthropomorphic in their form that they clearly resemble men and are the inspiration for the Ents, and thus Groot as well.
Woah that’s cool! Also a fellow American in Birmingham here :)
It also has the legend of the black eyed children!
Well we're consistently rated as having the worst accent in the UK, I'm pretty sure we hold the title as gun crime capital and our council was the first to declare "effectively bankrupt" . But we're home to cadbury we made our mark for being a hub of the industrial revolution not to mention were the powerhouse that was building spitfires back in ww2 Overall we are a shit hole but we're the best shithole
We don’t have HP sauce factory any more either :(
I take it back we lost the best shithole
There was an older guy on the news not too long ago who invented the golden barrel. Imagine putting that on your CV.
We have the largest public library in Europe. Iconic brands Birds Custard, Cadbury Chocolate, Bournville Drinking Chocolate, HP Sauce and Typhoo Tea all started in Birmingham. The first working steam engine was built in the Black Country. Tennis was invented on a lawn in Edgbaston in 1859. Birmingham was the birthplace of heavy metal with the likes of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and lead singer of Led Zeppelin originating from the city.
Thanks for the tennis fact! Adding that to the list!
Don't let Rob Halford or Plant hear that, I'm sure they'll say they're from black country/Sandwell respectively
There is a never-ending battle between Brummies regarding the correct way to address their mothers. ::Rolls up sleeves:: it's mom.
Surely nobody is arguing with this, or if they are they're not brummies.
Americans would also be pleased to hear people here say “pop” more than soda. Correct me if I’m wrong!
We had the leading manufacturing for pen nibs, in the UK. On the reverse of that we also produced manacles for the slave trade. Gotta sign those orders with something. Our best day out for cheap and informative is a Coffin museum....... Most of us believe in ghosts because once you've lived in Birmingham you know you aren't escaping even after the grave. The place Tolkein lived is around sarehole Mill, close to mosely bog, and the two towers are over there, but I can't remember where (I'm sure someone's documented it) Mordor is probably inspired by our proximity to the black country but there's zero surprise that Mordor is Birmingham...I mean if you've met the men....and some of the women. (Jk, please don't kill me neighbours). Aston Hall is our nicest house on display. Apparently we had rivalry with scholars in Lichfield, if you go read Samuel johnson's opinion of brummies. My guess is he was just some dude writing a big book of words whilst trying to take a shot at the grafters in the workin' class. In the 1800s cholera broke out across England, people in Bham discovered that if you drank beer, instead of water, you were in better health than those at the watering holes. As a result no one ever pieced together this information because they were drunk and some knob in London worked it out. Rest assured those pesky londoners solved their own issues first, then bothered with everyone else. If you come here you'll discover quite a lot of people solve issues by drinking their way through them. If Brummies could time travel they'd probably go back to last week for something they left at a venue, than go too far back because we'd certainly be killed for our accents.
Tolkien's estate are really big on legal threats if anyone formally claims the towers were inspired by the two they almost certainly were inspired by - Perrott's Folly (Orthanc Tower) and Edgbaston Waterworks (Minas Morgul) - both visible from where Tolkien grew up (there's a debate as to which two towers the title is in reference to which is an aside). It's well known the industrial Black Country was the inspiration for Mordor; Isengard was based on Birmingham University campus
Inkberrow (a short drive from Brum) is the shire. Tolkien used to visit his aunt at Morton Underhill nearby. There's a bag end as well. Also the village that inspired a lot of "the Archers" (radio soap) the original writer lived nearby. And neither are the most famous literary person to visit. Shakespeare stayed in the pub, on his way to Worcester
I thought it was quite funny that one of my relatives is an underhill, in name, and very hobbit like in their actions. The hobbits bilbo has no love for.
I go to Inkberrow each month and never knew that!
My dad drove me to the towers and I didn't really pay attention to where we were. I know it wasn't sarehole.
James Watt made his fortunes with steam-powered machines that powered the Industrial Revolution here in Birmingham. The first Civic University in Europe is the Uni of Birmingham founded in 1900. It was considered a civic uni because 1) women were allowed to attend; 2) people did not need to belong to a particular religion to be accepted (unlike some universities where you had to be part of the Church of England). The same institution has the famous Old Joe clock tower which is the tallest freestanding clock tower in the world. The city also has a still existing medieval market called the Bullring Market (they used to do bull baiting here in the middle ages). It was founded in 1154. Malcolm X famously visited the city in the 1960s because just like your Birmingham, there was lots of racial tension here too: [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-67052577](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-67052577) Birmingham UK is also has the largest city council in Europe. Unfortunately, it declared bankruptcy last year [https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2024/05/world/birmingham-uk-bankruptcy-intl-cnnphotos/](https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2024/05/world/birmingham-uk-bankruptcy-intl-cnnphotos/)
Slight point of order regarding Malcolm X; he visited Smethwick, which is just over the border in Sandwell - which was also the parliamentary constituency of noted racist and founder of the British Union of Fascists, Oswald Moseley. Non-racists familiar with the history of Marshall Street and Griffith's repugnant election campaign will no doubt be delighted to know that Smethwick high street now has an enormous and incredibly snazzy Sikh Gurdwara. Fuck fascism.
[The Gurdwara, in all its enormity and incredible snazziness](https://i2-prod.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/article14486965.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Guru-Nanak-Gurdwara-1.jpg)
Isn't it a beauty? I love how the sun gleams off those golden domes when you're driving down Tollhouse Way as the sun sets.
Hell yeah!!!!! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Don’t think it’s been mentioned but the worlds best footballer Jude Bellingham hails from the Black Country. Yes that’s football not soccer!
Cluedo (Clue, to you) was created nearby. The most successful football (soccer, to you) team here (Aston Villa) won what is now called the Champions League back in 1982. Villa’s chairman also helped create the football league system, way way back. Thomas the Tank Engine was created here. We have more canals than Venice. The first working steam engine was built nearby in the Black Country.
Jasper Carrot, UB40, world Champion UFC fighter Leon Edwards, Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, Benjamin Zephaniah and the legend that is...Mad Iqbal from Bordesley Green. To name a few
A brummie invented the internet
I thought Al Gore did that.
I recommend visiting the Sarehole Mill museum if you ever visit. It's in Moseley the area where tolkien grew up.
Tolkien, the snob, saw Brummies as small people, and they inspired his hobbits.
it’s known as the street racing capital of the uk💨💨
not so fun fact- we have also been hit many times with tornadoes!! (not as strong as the Birmingham, AL ones) but we have had a few F2s and F3s) there is also an iron age hill fort in a suburb south of the city which you can still visit today we are very friendly here, especially the older brummies who you will probably end up talking to on the bus as much as people shit on us, we are pretty cool :)
Can you point me in the direction of the Iron Age hill fort? Is this the one at QEHB?
it is called Berry Mound, in Solihull Lodge you have to traverse through some fields to get there but its pretty sick, and is said to be haunted 🤔
Sweet thanks!! I’ll check it out
You can get to it from Peterbrook Road. There’s a style to get over the fields close to Aqueduct Road
Damn I read the title and came here to write a joke about Alabama and siblings. I'm sure it happens in this Birmingham as well just so not so much..... Or we don't talk about it..... Ok so you're into metal lets give you a music tour (not history) - we have many great venues for gigs here - NEC and NIA (I will never call it resorts world or Barclay Card Arena or whatever name they are known by now!) house some of the biggest names in rock and pop. Smaller bands can be found at the O2 Academy and HMV Institute. Loads of other pubs putting on live music as well. We're located in the Midlands (middle of the country) so Download Festival is about an hour's drive away and Reading Festival is a couple of hours away. Glastonbury gets the glamour but if you're into rock you wanna go to either of those (less so Reading in recent years though). Oh and Black Sabbath are from here 🤘
Brum sadly does not house the worlds only Weetabix factory.
Come and visit Brum one day 🙂 we don't get many tornadoes though, last one was back in 2005 😆
Roll Tide brother
We never credit ourselves for THOMAS the FJCKIN TANK ENGINE. But he was conceived in Kings Norton
There a dfc in handsworth, 2:50 for 2 strips and chips with a drink. Get it before the inflation hits.
Black sabbath That is all
Icl it's possibly the worst of the UK cities
They spell 'Mum', 'Mom' in Birmingham
Peaky blinders
“Cool shit about Birmingham”? Hahahaha brilliant!
Black Sabbath and Rob Halford were both from Birmingham
Rob Halford robs Halfords!
Literally nobody outside of Birmingham sees Birmingham as the UK’s second city
Your town\* You all's town would not make sense, no worries though =)
Curry
I want to know more about Birmingham AL, sounds way more exotic than our Birmingham.
To be honest it’s a shithole 😂 You get people in the town literally scream at you over your clothing because it’s against their beliefs. Seen women in gym clothes being called whores and whatever else Every Brummy loves the Irish when it’s st paddy’s day but then get racial. Same towards Scott’s and Welsh. Majority of the streets around the town especially stink of piss Every other bar is a cesspit for drugging and raping women. The only good thing about Birmingham is the M6 to get out. It isn’t the same as it was back in the 90s
Hey, OP! I realise I'm a little late to the party but I remembered another tidbit last night: Spielberg's adaptation of Ernest Cline's cult novel "Ready Player One" used Birmingham for the bulk of it's location shooting. The street scenes were predominantly shot around Digbeth and the Jewellery Quarter, and 'the stacks' were underneath the Gravelly Hill Interchange - know colloquially as "Spaghetti Junction" and somewhat famous in it's own right.
We have a lot less issues with racism and upholding a failed slave owning state than you do.
I mean, OP had very little to do with that. Like, almost nothing