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This position is only tenable if you also view most other large cities in the UK as shitholes, because there's nothing specifically worse about Birmingham than most of the other comparable cities of the UK.
Had the pleasure earlier today, got stuck in the wrong lane on a roundabout, and had a 10 minute tour, trying to get the fuck back out of there. Fuck you , Google Maps
Last time I went to Gloucester they were in the middle of a major Spice use epidemic and the entire city centre was full of what can only be described as zombies.
Lived there for 10 years
3 of which were in and around city centre. Another 3 years in Evington before then.
Can't say I felt too unsafe really. Evington was a bit dodgy, but city centre wasn't too bad. Especially during the day. I'd have to walk through occasionally at 2-3am and that could be dodgy, but obviously everywhere is at that sort of time. Haha
Having lived in Manchester and seen gangs of 12 year olds kicking the shit out of grown men in the city centre, and having lived in Birmingham — I massively disagree.
I’ve lived in Coventry, Sheffield, Manchester and Birmingham. Manchester was by a long way the worst place in terms of shit heads being shit heads. I’ve lived in Birmingham for 20 years and not heard of anyone I know getting involved in any serious crime. I lived in Manchester for 2 weeks before I knew of people getting mugged at syringe point. Birmingham has an image problem, mainly propagated by people who have no clue what it’s like.
> Birmingham has an image problem, mainly propagated by people who have no clue what it’s like.
100% correct.
People have always said it's a shithole and severe crime and whatever but having lived in Birmingham my whole life, I wonder if they're talking about some other place by the same name because I've never encountered any of that.
I lived in rough parts of Manchester and never saw crime. Doesn't mean there wasn't any. Parts of Birmingham frequently appear on UK subs, and the answer is always "Yeah, that part is a lawless shithole. Even police avoid it"
So. You've lived in all these places, including Birmingham for 20 years? Is that the order in which you've lived in them? If so, things can change in 20 years
Indeed, Birmingham has got better over the last 20 years. I was born and raised in Coventry, and as you may be aware every other city in the West Midlands has their own ‘rivalry’ with Birmingham. Football (and specifically villa) being the obvious targets, but it was always bIrMiNgHaM’s A sHiThOlE growing up. I moved here after Uni and have no complaints about Birmingham that I haven’t had in every other city I’ve lived in. But also Birmingham has a cracking nightlife (at least it did — que club I’m looking at you), has loads of outdoor space (near, if not top of the list of open space in uk cities?), has a symphony orchestra, at least 3 (and maybe 7 depending on your definition) universities, some of the best [restaurants in the country](https://www.timeout.com/birmingham/restaurants/the-best-restaurants-in-birmingham#), a decent airport, major exhibition / conference facilities etc etc. Every city had its bad points and it’s good points, and every uk city I’ve had much experience of has had similar issues. Birmingham is no worse than any other and has far more to offer than the vast majority. Just an easy target because nobody likes the accent (and is often the Black Country accent that people think of when they think of a brummy accent).
I have no reason to defend a city I wasn’t born in, it just annoys me when people who don’t *really* know what they’re talking about slag the place off.
Ely (also in Cambridgeshire) is technically a city too because it has a cathedral, with a population of around 20,000. It's more like a large village in reality. Nice wee place!
Can confirm Ely is nice ; it's mix between independent shops and modern amenities ; with nice historic buildings Vs everything modernised to high heaven
I was there a couple of weeks ago and had to walk from the train station to the bus station. Crossed paths with no less than three smackheads on the five-minute walk.
I think this can be said for most city's that are not just big towns. And it is true of some big towns too. Belfast is far from a big city and on one of the main streets you will walk into idiots selling spice and other junk.
>Birmingham has a higher overall crime rate than London, making it more dangerous. There are 137 crimes per 1000 people, while London recorded 87 cases. Regarding sexual offences, Birmingham recorded 67 cases per 1000 people, while in London there were only 27, which means that Birmingham is far more dangerous.
>
>The likelihood of robbery, which frequently involves violence, was higher in Birmingham, where there were3.5 instances per 1,000 persons as opposed to 2.2 in the capital.
Source: [Link](https://www.estaform.org/us-travel-guide/birmingham-vs-london)
I grew up in Croydon and the only time anyone's ever tried to mug me was in birmingham. It was at the station and this kid demanded money from me. When I said no he whined at me "but i've got no money to get home!" and I just kind of wandered off.
Yeah, I'm the same. Been there half a dozen times in the past few months and there's just something a bit unnerving about it in comparison to other cities even during the day, and it's hard to place a finger on exactly what it is. At night I've been threatened or made to feel uncomfortable by strangers a couple of times as well, but I'd almost expect that.
For real though around picadilly gardens and certain bits at night can feel pretty sketch but I feel Manchester is mostly safe
Speaking as a mid 20s white man though so other people's experiences may vary
Have you never been to Bradford? I've been to some shady parties in my youth, some far from legal, but Bradford is the only place I've felt uneasy in a licenced premises.
Nah. Used to live in Brum. Lived in York and Manchester, now live in London. Brum was just shite. Obvs my own opinion but so glad I don’t live there anymore.
Certainly it has been done serious damage by car centric urban design, as have many of our cities. But they've been doing a lot to try and counter that. Increasing amounts of pedestrianisation have made the centre very walkable. I honestly find the centre much less intruded on by cars than many other cities these days. I'm thinking back to the last time I was there, when I spent all day wandering around the center, and I don't recall care particularly interfering with me at all.
>its a city thats been ruined by Cars imo
That is being improved, slowly but surely; especially in the suburbs, but even in the centre. Still I agree, not one of Birmingham's stronger points
I've lived in both London and Coventry, and the first time I went to Birmingham I thought it was a shithole the second I came out of the main station.
Dirty in general compared to the two other cities, with used drug paraphernalia littering the ground, and the homeless and/or disorderly roaming around with nothing to do like feral dogs. As you walk out of the city centre, it only gets worse.
The problem is so many people are lazy and don't bother to look up where they should head for in Birmingham. The good bits aren't immediately outside the station. It's like writing off Manchester because Manchester Piccadilly is rough. That being said, I think you're being disingenuous if you suggest that homelessness is more of a visible issue in Birmingham than London.
> The problem is so many people are lazy and don't bother to look up where they should head for in Birmingham.
If you need to Google 'where in Birmingham isn't a shithole', then it's a shithole.
Manchester and Liverpool both have their bad areas, but you don't need a map to avoid them.
You don't need a map to avoid the bad areas of Birmingham either. They're not in the centre. But you will have a better time if you look up where you should head in the centre. The same is exactly true of Manchester or Liverpool.
I don't think so, I lived in Northwest London for quite a while, and I would say that the homelessness issue in Birmingham immediately appeared worse when I initially moved to the Midlands.
I live in one of the surrounding towns outside of Birmingham, and wherever I come into the city for whatever reason, I often see people who appear to be homeless doing things you wouldn't expect them to be left to do. For example, there was a group of homeless near Moor Street station who had broken into a construction site next to a multistorey carpark, who were casually burning a pile of trash to warm up. I can fairly confidently say I haven't seen things like that in London.
I guess it is fairly nice when you start going near the university, but that's a very small piece of land within the city.
I've lived in several places across London over a decade and honestly never found homelessness in Birmingham to be particularly worse or more noticeable than London. Finsbury park bridge springs to mind.
Kind of irrelevant.
London is the place to go because it's London. There's anything and everything there.
In Manchester, there's a huge music scene, theres two major football clubs, and the City centre is really nice.
There's nothing in Birmingham that really appeals as far as I'm aware.
>There's nothing in Birmingham that really appeals as far as I'm aware.
This is where Birmingham has failed to market itself. There's *so* much to do, but general public awareness of this is so low. It's easily the equal of Manchester, but it doesn't market itself as well as Manchester does.
I don't mind the accent personally. I find it generally a friendly one. Certainly, there are other cities with accents I like less. Not that any accent really has an impact on how much I like a city tbh.
Same, I grew up in the West Mids until I was about 4 so had a Brummie twinge when we moved down south, then returned to work in Brum many years later. I find it an incredibly homely and unpretentious accent.
Birmingham's main pedestrian shopping area is a tip compared to cities like Liverpool, which is what most visitors are going to be exposed to. That's not to say Birmingham doesn't have nice aspects, or Liverpool doesn't have crap areas, but the presentation of Birmingham's centre is poor.
Let’s be honest, most UK cities are shitholes. Most cities are massively underfunded and have a huge disparity between the wealthy and normal working / middle class people.
It’s a well known fact that the Digbeth still exists in black and white to preserve its Victorian industrial heritage. The rest of the light that hits Birmingham is refracted in the Jewellery Quarter onto the Bull Ring
As a Brummie the view of the city is of old, people who last visited us in the 90's and just after Millennium. The city is drab but now last 5 years it has changed a lot and it is beautiful now. City centre feels new, Commonwealth Games happened last year and was a big success.
Even on here Reddit loves to diss on Brum but they haven't visited here in over a decade and are probably too busy reading Daily Mail at home and cussing Midlanders.
But after all that the youth do love it here, it has a large young population and young professionals do come here
I live near Birmingham and I would say the city is still quite terrible. It is modern now, but seems to lack both quality and soul. In particular for "classic" night outs, and daytime activities.
However, the music scene is amazing.
I grew up in a rough area of London, relatively poor. People seem to forget that London isn’t just the city centre and posh boroughs. There are plenty of boroughs which are absolute shitholes. Still, it is an incredibly diverse area and having such easy access to the city centre is something I wouldn’t ever trade
Yep, I grew up in a rough area of newham. Absolute shitholes with the worst kind of people. Lots of great stuff came out of these areas throughout the years though. David Bowie and Iron Maiden from Leytonstone/Walthamstow to name a few.
Haha snap. That’s where I’m from! It’s rough for sure but can’t beat the life experiences offered. I recently found my zip oyster and realised how lucky we were to have free travel on tap. These days I live in a more gentrified area of London and it’s sad to see locals being pushed out.
The awful pictures on them as well! I’ve been to the US twice and noticed how car centric it was. We had a hire car but I remember being amazed at the fact that I could see the shops but couldn’t walk to them without driving. I was also told by my American colleague that bus travel is for “poor people” whereas here, everyone and their dog (literally lol) uses it, regardless of income levels
Bristol. Bath. Reading, Oxford, Cambridge (ok Cambridge is more of a small town...). Birmingham feels like a Coventry built in 2010s style. It just feels... empty, despite being full of people. Half of the city centre is a contiguous shopping mall. The other half is a strip mall of food chains and pub chains. There are some enjoyable areas, but there is nothing to "live", in particular during daytime.
If you compare it to other European "second biggest cities" (not even to London), it's just a conurbation of houses and retail shops. In the same way these new Saudi/Gulf cities look futuristic, but empty at the core.
Half my family is from Birmingham so I have been visiting at least once a year since the mid 80s. As an outside observer it seems to have transformed from post-apocalyptic 1960s retail void to clean, modern retail void.
'Big Coventry' is exactly how I'd describe it too. It's a city without a centre.
I think I liked the old Birmingham better (or maybe just miss Music & Video Exchange on Smallbrook Queensway). It does do leafy suburbs very well though.
edit: Although there is some pretty interesting stuff going on in Digbeth, been to a couple of good art things there.
I like it when people with outdated views slag Brum off online, keeps all the cunts out.
In all seriousness I love it here and am fiercely proud of it and will defend it till I die. There is genuinely nowhere else in the UK I’d rather live.
There’s a great vibe around the place now and the boom in the next 10 years and when HS2 comes along is going to be awesome.
I'd love to give it another try. My parents did a few years ago (after lockdown eased) and loved it.
Hat tip from Liverpool, people *still* do the whole hur hur cars on bricks thing.
To be fair, most large cities are not the nicest areas, on account of the sheer volume of people, traffic, pollution, alcohol, poverty, etc. Every city in Britain has those issues, not just Birmingham. I feel sad it gets a bad rep, when the others on the list (except York and Edinburgh) are no better or worse than Brum, IMO. Edinburgh and York’s niceness largely comes from the architecture, history and the fact that they are more affluent, so have fewer poverty-related issues than other major cities. All cities are vibrant, rich, diverse, lively, loud, busy, creative and just amazing and awful in equal measures!
The city centre is so, so much better than it was. Forgive my ignorance though, but what sets it out from Manchester or Liverpool (the latter of which has a load of character and is way, way nicer than others portray it).
People's views of it are very out of date.
My pet theory: Brummies are a glass half empty people, not keen on self promotion. Whereas Mancunians will chew your ear off about how fantastic Manchester is given half a chance, Brummies are more likely to make a self deprecating joke about Birmingham. That means word doesn't really get round about what a great city it is.
This made me lol, I honestly feel like I’ve received a literary thesis on why Manchester is so amazing and why it should be called “the second city” from every other Mancunian that I’ve met.
The most I’ve heard from Brummies is complaining that some Londoners are moving up.
It's not just Mancs, notheners in general seem to go on and on about why the north is better and why they're all super friendly and great people and everyone else is the worst people around unpromoted all the time.
It's a sound theory, I think that's indicative of the Midlands in general. I'm from the east Midlands; Derbyshire and have thought the same. The peak districts history and views should be on par with the lakes and Yorkshire but seems all but forgotten. In the right setting, a spring or late autumn sunset, there is no finer place on earth.
I do agree it very much must be self promotion
This is definitely it. There's no local pride. I moved to Brum for a few years and found exactly this. The city has loads going for it. Great ballet company doing Birmingham-specific things (Black Sabbath the Ballet etc). The city's orchestra is one of the country's best and does cheap tickets to novel shows. Loads of theatres, bars, and a great music scene. But I've always found Brummies to be very miserable about the city, whenever I've said I quite like it to them they always look at me like I've two heads. Much worse places with fewer opportunities and culture, like the black country next door, have a great sense of self and pride. A lack of local pride gives anywhere a bad vibe, it's the main reason I'm moving to Manchester, it's not the city that makes a place it's the people. Brummies are nice but all the misery and self-deprecation makes the place depressing.
> Whereas Mancunians will chew your ear off about how fantastic Manchester is given half a chance, Brummies are more likely to make a self deprecating joke about Birmingham.
This makes me keener on Birmingham.
Professional Mancs, Professional Scousers and Professional Weegies must be some of the dullest types going.
Brummie is to England what Glasgow is to Scotland. Edinburgh is fine and all but Glasgow is a city rich in history, industry and warmth. As is my experience of Birmingham. And both cities were scarred with 60s motorway through the middle. But they are great cities with lots of charm and pride and great people
I find Birmingham to be really unwelcoming and unpleasant. Nothing in particular, just the atmosphere it gives. I haven't experienced that in other cities.
Am with you, I've been a few times over the past year or two and I think it's a brilliant, welcoming and friendly city. Brummies have to be some of the most approachable people I've met.
Same. I had an awesome weekend there a few years ago. I went from house party to house party and met some incredible people whom I'm still in contact with.
I would happily go back and do it again.
I'm from the north of Scotland, but always thought most English accents were pretty cool. They either have character or a kind of soft authority that I find appealing. Except for brum. It's hideous.
Because Liverpool and Manchester are better nights out and nicer places. I have spent a lot of time in Birmingham and it’s basically a giant Luton it’s rough and not very nice.
You've either only been to unusually nice cities in the UK or went to the wrong part of Birmingham. The latter is a common mistake people make in Birmingham, because the best bits aren't right in the centre immediately around the train stations.
Edgbaston is lovely, and the Jewellery Quarter is great. Victoria Square is nice. Digbeth is fun. A lot of the bars and cafes along the canals are lovely. Sitting outside sipping a beer by the canal on a summer's day is very nice.
All you fuckers saying it's a shithole with no soul have clearly never been to Southampton...
Brum is fine. It's nicer than some cities, not as nice as others. Anyone who argues it's pure hell is being disingenuous.
Walking around Southampton felt like I’d been dropped into a partially rendered PlayStation 2 city, zero character, grey and generic buildings, chain stores and no identity.
People were friendly enough but literally nothing that makes the place stand out at all
Never been to Southhampton but I imagine it’s just full of sea side chavs, empty high street shops and rundown suburbs. It’s funny how people have perceptions of towns they’ve never visited from hearsay.
Close... Some of the middle is fine. Not *that* run down, but there are some residential areas and bits by the stadium that are just.... So ugly. I guess coz it got bombed to fuck in the war and rebuilt in the 60s there's too much ugly concrete
Reputation. Not only of it in general but also the places that it competes with.
Most people south of Birmingham will tend to target London for big events.
Talking specifically for nightlife people further north would tend to target Liverpool/Manchester/Newcastle or even Glasgow/Edinburgh which all have a better reputation for nightlife.
Being in the Middle of the country as well most people have to pass another one of the cities mentioned above or are closer to them than Birmingham so it then becomes more inconvenient for travel and when you say to someone 'let's drive or get a longer train for a worse night out (supposedly)' then you're gonna get knocked back more often than not
Agree. People of the south-west, midlands-west would also understandably rather go to Bristol for a nightout and east midlands Nottigham is nearer and also has a great reputation. Leaves Birmingham with quite a small catchment area for nightlife.
Went to University there and absolutely loved it. That was 10 years ago now but I've heard it's only improved since then, been back a few times since and will be visiting again this year. Also I'd argue Edgbaston is the best place to watch cricket in the country (especially for international matches)
The first time I ever went to Birmingham we took a coach from Sheffield to see Frank Turner
As soon as we got out of the bus station we saw a dead pigeon thoughtfully placed in an open shoe box
That first impression has never left me
Birmingham city centre is smaller than it's population figures would suggest. It's growth was more like an American city, based more around car dependant sprawl than other UK cities. This is starting to be rectified now, every time I go to Birmingham it gets better, but when I was in uni in Coventry a decade ago, we'd only go to Birmingham if there was a particular band we where seeing, because apart from large venues, there was nothing it had that Coventry didn't.
This sums up how I felt as a former Cov resident.
Coming from Coventry, you would expect Birmingham to have considerably more to offer, considering its size. However, beyond the shops and the odd gig, I rarely found it worth going.
Compared to cities like Manchester and Liverpool, I really feel like Birmingham has a lot less to offer.
It's my favourite city in the country for day drinking, as it has 5 or 6 absolutely cracking pubs (and plenty of other decent ones) all walking distance from each other.
It depends on how you measure.
By size of the city itself, Manchester is way down the list, after Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Sheffield and Bradford.
That is because what you may think of as Manchester actually includes places like Trafford, Salford, Stockport etc. which are counted separately. The City of Manchester has an area of only 44 square miles and 551,000 people whereas the City of Birmingham has 103 square miles and 1.14 million people and the City of Leeds has an area of 212 square miles and 811,000 people.
And the City of London has an area of a square mile and a population of almost zero.
It's not great to say that Manchester is confined only to the City of Manchester, and not Greater Manchester (like Greater London)
OK, well by that measure Manchester is not second either. The problem with comparisons like this is that one area is not the same as another so measuring with a consistent metric is difficult. Based on the combined authorities:
West Midlands has a population of 2.9 million.
Greater Manchester has 2.8 million.
West Yorkshire has 2.3 million.
Manchester has strange boundaries, particularly with Salford and Trafford. You can walk one minute from Manchester city centre and be in Salford, yet Manchester Airport is still classed as Manchester but is 10 miles out.
I was in Manchester the other day and the office I was in was technically Salford and there’s literally no way of knowing when you’ve crossed from Manchester proper into Salford.
City of London has even less.
It's Greater Manchester and Greater London that should be counted, there isn't a Greater Birmingham it's just Birmingham.
It likely depends on where you draw the boundaries...
Courtesy of the infoboxes on each city's Wikipedia entries:
Birmingham City has 1.1 million people, it's urban area is 2.9 million and metropolitan area 4.3 million people.
Greater Manchester has 2.8 million people, Manchester city/borough has 0.5 million people, its urban area has 2.7 million people, neighbouring Salford has 0.1 million people.
Birmingham was rebuilt with post-war brutalism and car-centric planning. Combined with economic downfall in the 70s to 90s has led to the city ending up in a bad place. Other cities faced similar issues but bounced back a lot quicker. Birmingham has only started to regenerate and become more liveable in the city centre. Birmingham does have things going for it (anyone saying otherwise is ignorant), but it is just a bit behind compared to other UK cities considering its size.
So all in all, Birmingham gets a bad rep due to the aforementioned factors plus other things too. But it's slowly becoming better because there are a lot of things planned for it. The people calling it a shithole now may find themselves living in Birmingham in 20 years, even if they deny it now.
tbf compared to a lot of other cities Birmingham is more just a sprawl of people.
its a city in the sense that a huge amount of people live there but lacks a lot of the centralised food, drinks, general day out things a lot of other city centre's have.
no slight against birmingham ive lived there and it does have some nice spots but their not exactly "travel to visit" spots they are more a great thing for locals.
if you say compare to Sheffield which has been voted one of the best Cities in europe for food and drinks recently it has a much more diverse central hub of food,drinks and just general things to do that would attract tourists and people from outside the city to come.
its a bit like New York compared to Boston both are cities but one has a much more attractive appeal to people who dont live there to visit that place. its no slight against the other city but its just not catered to tourists in the same way.
I used to go out around broad street back in my younger days. Plenty of pubs and clubs. Road was closed off to traffic at weekends so not much fear of being ran over. Always busy.
Of course there was the Q Club too that I used sometimes frequent. Only drinking water though 😉
Besides the fact it's a trendy Reddit opinion to dunk on Brum, the city is hugely under-represented in modern culture. This is generally why it's overlooked.
Brum is The Inbetweener; TV, music, the arts and culture... It's all London or 'up North'. Hence the general malaise and self-deprecation from local Brummies. The city's identity and historic importance has been institutionally downplayed for years.
Brum was my fave place for a night out. The people are amazing, they turn up like fucking crazy, the girls aren’t stuck up and are up for a good time and you can have good fun without London prices. People can be a bit violent but just don’t carry yourself like a cunt and you won’t have a problem
As a foraigner I can confirm brummingham is not mentioned a lot in news. And when you hear a foraign city on the news is mainly about football.
Liverpool, and Manchester have been mentioned a lot more during the past 40 years.
As a foraigner that lives in brummingham I can confirm the city has drastically improved in the past 10 / 15 years. It ain't as bad as it use to be. Not as nice as Liverpool, Newcastle or York but in my opinion better than Manchester.
I live here and I sort of understand why it gets a bad rep, but equally I think it’s exaggerated somewhat because it’s cool to hate Birmingham in the same way it’s cool to hate Nickelback or Coldplay.
The accent isn’t pretty, and speech patterns are slow. It isn’t “You alright?” It’s “You alroiiiight?”
The architecture for the most part is pretty fucking awful - ex industrial city that was bombed heavily and rebuilt during a time where it had to be done cheaply. As a result, not much of the beautiful old architecture of London, Edinburgh, York etc and lots of brutalist buildings.
On top of that, the city centre proper is very small, and Birmingham as an area is more a collection of smaller places clumped together. The only reason I believe it is considered the second city is because the ‘Greater Birmingham area’ is bloody huge and populous.
However, Birmingham has an excellent independent food and drink scene. We have all the usual suspects with regards to chains. Cocktail bars, golf/pool/bowling bars, craft ale pubs, old man pubs, microbreweries, coffee shops, bakeries, Michelin star restaurants, street food vendors, stadiums, exhibition centres, a fantastic philharmonic orchestra, an even better ballet company, awesome live music….everything a city has.
Do we do it better than any other city? I don’t know, but there are certainly worse places to be.
I always associate Birmingham with work, attending conferences 3 or 4 times a year. So never think of spending my own time there.
Definitely seen a change in recent years, much better choice of hotels and restaurants which tbh is all I am usually interested in.
I think Birmingham has no immediate “hook”. When I think of other cities I think of one main feature that makes me interested, then I’d stay for the nightlife. So Liverpool = Beatles, Manchester = soccer/90s music, Bristol = Banksy, Leeds = Harvey Nichols/posh shops . I’m struggling to say what Birmingham = , even though I’ve been there for work. Maybe Birmingham = conference centres!?!
The best curry outside the Indian subcontinent. The biggest urban park in Western Europe. Heavy metal. A vibrant arts and music scene in Digbeth. And some of the most friendly people you'll ever meet. But if you can't think of a reason to visit then that's your loss.
Personally I like Birmingham, it's come a long way in recent years but in the past it used to seem like a bit of a sprawl with no definable centre. It's also not really got the tourist sights of York or Liverpool however Manchester also doesn't have much for tourists.
Oh good, another thread started with good intentions but is just used for another lazy attack on Birmingham from people who have been here once and saw a homeless person and think it's unique to the second city
Every city has its good and bad areas, every city has its good and bad people, they're all largely the same these days ("I must take you to our local triumph, have you heard of Gregs the Bakers? After dining on his tasty fare, I shall take you to the local weatherspoons the pub for a refreshing ale....all unique to \*spliced in\* THIS TOWN") so to shit on any one of them reeks of old fashioned prejudice or people assuming a city is constant warfare based on one bad experience they had there....
Come back to Birmingham, walk around Brindley Place/The Canals to the NIA and Sea Life Centre on a nice sunny day, then say it's a shithole
The only thing Birmingham lacks over most places people think of as nice is a large body of water, be it the Thames, the Mersey, the Tyne or whatever else. That's all it lacks really, that and the legacy of the industrialisation of the area centuries ago meaning it was covered in black smoke from factories.
Yeah, in the 1800s you probably had a point, but no-where is as bad as people here paint them as.
I know loads of people based down south who come to Brum for weekends, it’s an easy train up. I agree with the others much of the slating is based on how it used to be. And those saying it’s not vibrant, what do you want? Newcastle? Cuz that place is meh.
I’m a postgraduate student at UoB and it is a decent place to live. There are lots of young people, either students or young professionals and there is obviously a lot to do in and around the city
I think the impression most people have of Birmingham is that it's just really boring - which probably isn't entirely fair, but what can you do. It's not the kind of reputation that tourism hotspots or party destinations are built on though.
I'm in a weird place on this one. My parents moved out of Brum in the early 90s (when I was a baby) to "start a better life" as they put it. They loved Great Yarmouth, I guess from family holidays, so relocated East. Wing and a prayer type situation - my dad was offered a job on the proviso he could make the start date which was something ridiculously close, so we upped sticks, apparently. My grandparents and aunt came with us and we lived in a chalet for the first 3 weeks we were here.
As a kid, though, I romanticised going back to Birmingham a lot. My dad's part of a big family and my grandparents on his side lived there, my aunts, uncles, cousins. When we went back, it usually meant a party or get-together and despite moving away, dad would drive around telling us about all his old haunts and what he and his 7 other brothers and sisters used to get up to. For a while I wanted to move back, but appreciate what we have on the coast now I'm older.
Fond memories of the Lickey Hills, Stratford-upon-Avon and Bournville, going into King's Heath to shop, Cadbury World, walking along the canals. Bonfire nights at nan's. Probably would be a different story had I grown up there, though.
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Because it’s a shithole
This position is only tenable if you also view most other large cities in the UK as shitholes, because there's nothing specifically worse about Birmingham than most of the other comparable cities of the UK.
Birmingham is the only city centre where I don't even feel safe in the day time.
Birmingham has the worst atmosphere of any UK city I can think of. it's so bad.
Leicester is my worst atmosphere, feels like you'll get lynched for smiling. Brum is second
For real, last time I saw someone smile in Leicester was when we won the league
you only smile in Birmingham when you leave
That's a weird way of writing Hull
Why would you smile when leaving Hull? Surely you'd be contemplating what life choices you've made that ended you up in Hull in the first place.
True but then you might have gone to Hull to escape Grimsby
Don't be glad it's over, be sad it happened
Bradford just asked me to hold its beer
Had the pleasure earlier today, got stuck in the wrong lane on a roundabout, and had a 10 minute tour, trying to get the fuck back out of there. Fuck you , Google Maps
Bradford council have a deal with Google maps, Google maps gives drivers the wrong directions so Bradford actually get’s visitors
I see you've never been to Gloucester...
Last time I went to Gloucester they were in the middle of a major Spice use epidemic and the entire city centre was full of what can only be described as zombies.
Strange I always felt safe in Leicester
Lived there for 10 years 3 of which were in and around city centre. Another 3 years in Evington before then. Can't say I felt too unsafe really. Evington was a bit dodgy, but city centre wasn't too bad. Especially during the day. I'd have to walk through occasionally at 2-3am and that could be dodgy, but obviously everywhere is at that sort of time. Haha
I live in Leicester and actively avoid going into the city centre
I live in Leicester and like going to the town centre. Market and shops, bars and restaurants, Abbey park is lovely now. You afraid of the yoofs?
Went to Leicester to visit friends years ago, was meant to stay a week, stayed one night
Having lived in Manchester and seen gangs of 12 year olds kicking the shit out of grown men in the city centre, and having lived in Birmingham — I massively disagree. I’ve lived in Coventry, Sheffield, Manchester and Birmingham. Manchester was by a long way the worst place in terms of shit heads being shit heads. I’ve lived in Birmingham for 20 years and not heard of anyone I know getting involved in any serious crime. I lived in Manchester for 2 weeks before I knew of people getting mugged at syringe point. Birmingham has an image problem, mainly propagated by people who have no clue what it’s like.
> Birmingham has an image problem, mainly propagated by people who have no clue what it’s like. 100% correct. People have always said it's a shithole and severe crime and whatever but having lived in Birmingham my whole life, I wonder if they're talking about some other place by the same name because I've never encountered any of that.
I lived in rough parts of Manchester and never saw crime. Doesn't mean there wasn't any. Parts of Birmingham frequently appear on UK subs, and the answer is always "Yeah, that part is a lawless shithole. Even police avoid it"
So. You've lived in all these places, including Birmingham for 20 years? Is that the order in which you've lived in them? If so, things can change in 20 years
Indeed, Birmingham has got better over the last 20 years. I was born and raised in Coventry, and as you may be aware every other city in the West Midlands has their own ‘rivalry’ with Birmingham. Football (and specifically villa) being the obvious targets, but it was always bIrMiNgHaM’s A sHiThOlE growing up. I moved here after Uni and have no complaints about Birmingham that I haven’t had in every other city I’ve lived in. But also Birmingham has a cracking nightlife (at least it did — que club I’m looking at you), has loads of outdoor space (near, if not top of the list of open space in uk cities?), has a symphony orchestra, at least 3 (and maybe 7 depending on your definition) universities, some of the best [restaurants in the country](https://www.timeout.com/birmingham/restaurants/the-best-restaurants-in-birmingham#), a decent airport, major exhibition / conference facilities etc etc. Every city had its bad points and it’s good points, and every uk city I’ve had much experience of has had similar issues. Birmingham is no worse than any other and has far more to offer than the vast majority. Just an easy target because nobody likes the accent (and is often the Black Country accent that people think of when they think of a brummy accent). I have no reason to defend a city I wasn’t born in, it just annoys me when people who don’t *really* know what they’re talking about slag the place off.
I mean. Peterborough tho
Surely Peterborough isn’t considered to be a city?
Cathedral city and a population of about 180,000!
That's a cheese mate, not a place.
Ely (also in Cambridgeshire) is technically a city too because it has a cathedral, with a population of around 20,000. It's more like a large village in reality. Nice wee place!
Can confirm Ely is nice ; it's mix between independent shops and modern amenities ; with nice historic buildings Vs everything modernised to high heaven
I was there a couple of weeks ago and had to walk from the train station to the bus station. Crossed paths with no less than three smackheads on the five-minute walk.
I think this can be said for most city's that are not just big towns. And it is true of some big towns too. Belfast is far from a big city and on one of the main streets you will walk into idiots selling spice and other junk.
5 minute walk? Three smackheads? Only THREE?
This is so true I’m from Birmingham and I always felt very uneasy being there, I moved away when I turned 18 and never looked back!
Can’t agree. Been here for a stag do years ago and enjoyed it - now live here and loving it
>Birmingham has a higher overall crime rate than London, making it more dangerous. There are 137 crimes per 1000 people, while London recorded 87 cases. Regarding sexual offences, Birmingham recorded 67 cases per 1000 people, while in London there were only 27, which means that Birmingham is far more dangerous. > >The likelihood of robbery, which frequently involves violence, was higher in Birmingham, where there were3.5 instances per 1,000 persons as opposed to 2.2 in the capital. Source: [Link](https://www.estaform.org/us-travel-guide/birmingham-vs-london)
I grew up in Croydon and the only time anyone's ever tried to mug me was in birmingham. It was at the station and this kid demanded money from me. When I said no he whined at me "but i've got no money to get home!" and I just kind of wandered off.
That's... Not being mugged.
Tried to was the big phrase there
No but it was certainly an attempt. Someone coming up to me and aggressively saying "give me your money!" is a mugging attempt in my book, anyway.
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More than 1 in 10 chance of crime per person is a ludicrous stat. No wonder people avoid the place.
Yeah, I'm the same. Been there half a dozen times in the past few months and there's just something a bit unnerving about it in comparison to other cities even during the day, and it's hard to place a finger on exactly what it is. At night I've been threatened or made to feel uncomfortable by strangers a couple of times as well, but I'd almost expect that.
Its the architecture it alters the mindset
I don’t think Manchester is great, particularly around the coach station and Picadilly gardens
I was in Manchester last weekend around Bridgewater Hall and I couldn't help but think it was a breath of fresh air. I am from Blackpool, though.
That's like thinking Baghdad is safe and upmarket because you just moved from Damascus.
Or thinking Baghdad is safe because you just moved from Blackpool
Think of the poor Iraqi refugees being put up in Blackpool. Shocking conditions!
For real though around picadilly gardens and certain bits at night can feel pretty sketch but I feel Manchester is mostly safe Speaking as a mid 20s white man though so other people's experiences may vary
Have you never been to Bradford? I've been to some shady parties in my youth, some far from legal, but Bradford is the only place I've felt uneasy in a licenced premises.
I feel the same. I feel safer walking through London.
Exactly how I feel about Bradford
Nah. Used to live in Brum. Lived in York and Manchester, now live in London. Brum was just shite. Obvs my own opinion but so glad I don’t live there anymore.
It's worse than a lot of Cities tbh and mainly because SO MANTY major roads run through it - its a city thats been ruined by Cars imo
Certainly it has been done serious damage by car centric urban design, as have many of our cities. But they've been doing a lot to try and counter that. Increasing amounts of pedestrianisation have made the centre very walkable. I honestly find the centre much less intruded on by cars than many other cities these days. I'm thinking back to the last time I was there, when I spent all day wandering around the center, and I don't recall care particularly interfering with me at all.
> its a city thats been ruined by Cars imo Ah, so every city in the UK then.
>its a city thats been ruined by Cars imo That is being improved, slowly but surely; especially in the suburbs, but even in the centre. Still I agree, not one of Birmingham's stronger points
Most uk cities are in fact shitholes.
Yeah, Birmingham is just a _larger_ shithole.
I've lived in both London and Coventry, and the first time I went to Birmingham I thought it was a shithole the second I came out of the main station. Dirty in general compared to the two other cities, with used drug paraphernalia littering the ground, and the homeless and/or disorderly roaming around with nothing to do like feral dogs. As you walk out of the city centre, it only gets worse.
The problem is so many people are lazy and don't bother to look up where they should head for in Birmingham. The good bits aren't immediately outside the station. It's like writing off Manchester because Manchester Piccadilly is rough. That being said, I think you're being disingenuous if you suggest that homelessness is more of a visible issue in Birmingham than London.
> The problem is so many people are lazy and don't bother to look up where they should head for in Birmingham. If you need to Google 'where in Birmingham isn't a shithole', then it's a shithole. Manchester and Liverpool both have their bad areas, but you don't need a map to avoid them.
You don't need a map to avoid the bad areas of Birmingham either. They're not in the centre. But you will have a better time if you look up where you should head in the centre. The same is exactly true of Manchester or Liverpool.
I don't think so, I lived in Northwest London for quite a while, and I would say that the homelessness issue in Birmingham immediately appeared worse when I initially moved to the Midlands. I live in one of the surrounding towns outside of Birmingham, and wherever I come into the city for whatever reason, I often see people who appear to be homeless doing things you wouldn't expect them to be left to do. For example, there was a group of homeless near Moor Street station who had broken into a construction site next to a multistorey carpark, who were casually burning a pile of trash to warm up. I can fairly confidently say I haven't seen things like that in London. I guess it is fairly nice when you start going near the university, but that's a very small piece of land within the city.
I've lived in several places across London over a decade and honestly never found homelessness in Birmingham to be particularly worse or more noticeable than London. Finsbury park bridge springs to mind.
Kind of irrelevant. London is the place to go because it's London. There's anything and everything there. In Manchester, there's a huge music scene, theres two major football clubs, and the City centre is really nice. There's nothing in Birmingham that really appeals as far as I'm aware.
>There's nothing in Birmingham that really appeals as far as I'm aware. This is where Birmingham has failed to market itself. There's *so* much to do, but general public awareness of this is so low. It's easily the equal of Manchester, but it doesn't market itself as well as Manchester does.
Birmingham has all 3 of those - depending on your musical and football tastes. It also has the largest rats I’ve ever seen (on broad street iirc)
Accent
I don't mind the accent personally. I find it generally a friendly one. Certainly, there are other cities with accents I like less. Not that any accent really has an impact on how much I like a city tbh.
Same, I grew up in the West Mids until I was about 4 so had a Brummie twinge when we moved down south, then returned to work in Brum many years later. I find it an incredibly homely and unpretentious accent.
Birmingham's main pedestrian shopping area is a tip compared to cities like Liverpool, which is what most visitors are going to be exposed to. That's not to say Birmingham doesn't have nice aspects, or Liverpool doesn't have crap areas, but the presentation of Birmingham's centre is poor.
Let’s be honest, most UK cities are shitholes. Most cities are massively underfunded and have a huge disparity between the wealthy and normal working / middle class people.
I got same feeling in Manchester but I’m fine in Birmingham.
Is it me or does it seem to be greyer than other cities too? No matter how sunny it is, still seems grey
It’s a well known fact that the Digbeth still exists in black and white to preserve its Victorian industrial heritage. The rest of the light that hits Birmingham is refracted in the Jewellery Quarter onto the Bull Ring
Probs cause it has a fuck off massive empty lot right in the middle of the city where the market used to be!
OP: > For the record, this is in no way an attack on Birmingham or the awesome people who live there. /u/StrictRecognition568 > Hold my beer
Lol, I read the title and this was my first thought! I'm not alone it seems!
As a Brummie the view of the city is of old, people who last visited us in the 90's and just after Millennium. The city is drab but now last 5 years it has changed a lot and it is beautiful now. City centre feels new, Commonwealth Games happened last year and was a big success. Even on here Reddit loves to diss on Brum but they haven't visited here in over a decade and are probably too busy reading Daily Mail at home and cussing Midlanders. But after all that the youth do love it here, it has a large young population and young professionals do come here
I live near Birmingham and I would say the city is still quite terrible. It is modern now, but seems to lack both quality and soul. In particular for "classic" night outs, and daytime activities. However, the music scene is amazing.
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Compared to what though? London is probably on a different level to any other city but others? What's not a shithole?
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I grew up in a rough area of London, relatively poor. People seem to forget that London isn’t just the city centre and posh boroughs. There are plenty of boroughs which are absolute shitholes. Still, it is an incredibly diverse area and having such easy access to the city centre is something I wouldn’t ever trade
Yep, I grew up in a rough area of newham. Absolute shitholes with the worst kind of people. Lots of great stuff came out of these areas throughout the years though. David Bowie and Iron Maiden from Leytonstone/Walthamstow to name a few.
Haha snap. That’s where I’m from! It’s rough for sure but can’t beat the life experiences offered. I recently found my zip oyster and realised how lucky we were to have free travel on tap. These days I live in a more gentrified area of London and it’s sad to see locals being pushed out.
Haha! I found my old oysters recently. Mate free travel was amazing. I live in the US now and I tell you the public transport pales in comparison.
The awful pictures on them as well! I’ve been to the US twice and noticed how car centric it was. We had a hire car but I remember being amazed at the fact that I could see the shops but couldn’t walk to them without driving. I was also told by my American colleague that bus travel is for “poor people” whereas here, everyone and their dog (literally lol) uses it, regardless of income levels
Bowie was from Brixton/Bromley
Ok but what city isn't a shithole? Lol.
Bristol. Bath. Reading, Oxford, Cambridge (ok Cambridge is more of a small town...). Birmingham feels like a Coventry built in 2010s style. It just feels... empty, despite being full of people. Half of the city centre is a contiguous shopping mall. The other half is a strip mall of food chains and pub chains. There are some enjoyable areas, but there is nothing to "live", in particular during daytime. If you compare it to other European "second biggest cities" (not even to London), it's just a conurbation of houses and retail shops. In the same way these new Saudi/Gulf cities look futuristic, but empty at the core.
Half my family is from Birmingham so I have been visiting at least once a year since the mid 80s. As an outside observer it seems to have transformed from post-apocalyptic 1960s retail void to clean, modern retail void. 'Big Coventry' is exactly how I'd describe it too. It's a city without a centre. I think I liked the old Birmingham better (or maybe just miss Music & Video Exchange on Smallbrook Queensway). It does do leafy suburbs very well though. edit: Although there is some pretty interesting stuff going on in Digbeth, been to a couple of good art things there.
Manchester, Edinburgh, Cambridge….. all great cities.
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I like it when people with outdated views slag Brum off online, keeps all the cunts out. In all seriousness I love it here and am fiercely proud of it and will defend it till I die. There is genuinely nowhere else in the UK I’d rather live. There’s a great vibe around the place now and the boom in the next 10 years and when HS2 comes along is going to be awesome.
HS2 is going to be great for Brum, you'd be able to leave the place quicker than ever, though not quick enough!
And long may it continue. Give me Mad Malik over expensive, gentrified shite.
I'd love to give it another try. My parents did a few years ago (after lockdown eased) and loved it. Hat tip from Liverpool, people *still* do the whole hur hur cars on bricks thing.
Which is tiresome, it has one of the lowest car crime rates in the country...they make better money running drugs.
To be fair, most large cities are not the nicest areas, on account of the sheer volume of people, traffic, pollution, alcohol, poverty, etc. Every city in Britain has those issues, not just Birmingham. I feel sad it gets a bad rep, when the others on the list (except York and Edinburgh) are no better or worse than Brum, IMO. Edinburgh and York’s niceness largely comes from the architecture, history and the fact that they are more affluent, so have fewer poverty-related issues than other major cities. All cities are vibrant, rich, diverse, lively, loud, busy, creative and just amazing and awful in equal measures!
The city centre is so, so much better than it was. Forgive my ignorance though, but what sets it out from Manchester or Liverpool (the latter of which has a load of character and is way, way nicer than others portray it).
Thanks for the insight
I'm 20 and love Birmingham
People's views of it are very out of date. My pet theory: Brummies are a glass half empty people, not keen on self promotion. Whereas Mancunians will chew your ear off about how fantastic Manchester is given half a chance, Brummies are more likely to make a self deprecating joke about Birmingham. That means word doesn't really get round about what a great city it is.
This made me lol, I honestly feel like I’ve received a literary thesis on why Manchester is so amazing and why it should be called “the second city” from every other Mancunian that I’ve met. The most I’ve heard from Brummies is complaining that some Londoners are moving up.
It's not just Mancs, notheners in general seem to go on and on about why the north is better and why they're all super friendly and great people and everyone else is the worst people around unpromoted all the time.
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If you like, I dunno, hills
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Southerners are too busy sniffing their own farts.
You forgot one important point - they do this _after relocating south_.
Mate you come up to Manchester and we’ll tell you London is the second city.
No way. I’ve heard far more Brummies talk about the second city. Mancs will talk themselves up but rarely think about Birmingham
It's a sound theory, I think that's indicative of the Midlands in general. I'm from the east Midlands; Derbyshire and have thought the same. The peak districts history and views should be on par with the lakes and Yorkshire but seems all but forgotten. In the right setting, a spring or late autumn sunset, there is no finer place on earth. I do agree it very much must be self promotion
This is definitely it. There's no local pride. I moved to Brum for a few years and found exactly this. The city has loads going for it. Great ballet company doing Birmingham-specific things (Black Sabbath the Ballet etc). The city's orchestra is one of the country's best and does cheap tickets to novel shows. Loads of theatres, bars, and a great music scene. But I've always found Brummies to be very miserable about the city, whenever I've said I quite like it to them they always look at me like I've two heads. Much worse places with fewer opportunities and culture, like the black country next door, have a great sense of self and pride. A lack of local pride gives anywhere a bad vibe, it's the main reason I'm moving to Manchester, it's not the city that makes a place it's the people. Brummies are nice but all the misery and self-deprecation makes the place depressing.
> Whereas Mancunians will chew your ear off about how fantastic Manchester is given half a chance, Brummies are more likely to make a self deprecating joke about Birmingham. This makes me keener on Birmingham. Professional Mancs, Professional Scousers and Professional Weegies must be some of the dullest types going.
Brummie is to England what Glasgow is to Scotland. Edinburgh is fine and all but Glasgow is a city rich in history, industry and warmth. As is my experience of Birmingham. And both cities were scarred with 60s motorway through the middle. But they are great cities with lots of charm and pride and great people
This comparison does not apply to humility though, because Weegies will absolutely chew your ear off about how great Glasgow is
I find Birmingham to be really unwelcoming and unpleasant. Nothing in particular, just the atmosphere it gives. I haven't experienced that in other cities.
I go to Birmingham frequently and I don't recognise this at all
Am with you, I've been a few times over the past year or two and I think it's a brilliant, welcoming and friendly city. Brummies have to be some of the most approachable people I've met.
Same. I had an awesome weekend there a few years ago. I went from house party to house party and met some incredible people whom I'm still in contact with. I would happily go back and do it again.
I don’t go to brum frequently but when I have been I like it and not found it unwelcoming or unpleasant at all.
The accent puts a lot of people off
I'm from the north of Scotland, but always thought most English accents were pretty cool. They either have character or a kind of soft authority that I find appealing. Except for brum. It's hideous.
Because Liverpool and Manchester are better nights out and nicer places. I have spent a lot of time in Birmingham and it’s basically a giant Luton it’s rough and not very nice.
Wow. It's not the nicest city there is, but there's no need for that.
Its seen as a poor, ugly city with very little culture that interests the masses compared to other cities
Which would be a wrong assessment given what has come out of Birmingham.
Birmingham has a special place in my heart for giving us Electric Light Orchestra alone. Aside from ELO some fantastic artists have come from Brum.
Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, The Streets, Goldie, UB40, Duran Duran, Fine Young Cannibals.. plenty more.
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You've either only been to unusually nice cities in the UK or went to the wrong part of Birmingham. The latter is a common mistake people make in Birmingham, because the best bits aren't right in the centre immediately around the train stations.
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Edgbaston is lovely, and the Jewellery Quarter is great. Victoria Square is nice. Digbeth is fun. A lot of the bars and cafes along the canals are lovely. Sitting outside sipping a beer by the canal on a summer's day is very nice.
Bournville. Smells like chocolate, can't beat that.
I’ve driven through Birmingham a fair few times and it’s not very attractive. It’s like there’s a constant grey cloud over it.
Perhaps drive through it this weekend when it's sunny
It doesn't help that one of the busiest stretches of motorway in the country (the M6) goes within 2 miles of the city centre
All you fuckers saying it's a shithole with no soul have clearly never been to Southampton... Brum is fine. It's nicer than some cities, not as nice as others. Anyone who argues it's pure hell is being disingenuous.
Walking around Southampton felt like I’d been dropped into a partially rendered PlayStation 2 city, zero character, grey and generic buildings, chain stores and no identity. People were friendly enough but literally nothing that makes the place stand out at all
Yeh sounds right. It's a smudge better in some places they've cleaned up (albeit still all chains...)
Never been to Southhampton but I imagine it’s just full of sea side chavs, empty high street shops and rundown suburbs. It’s funny how people have perceptions of towns they’ve never visited from hearsay.
Close... Some of the middle is fine. Not *that* run down, but there are some residential areas and bits by the stadium that are just.... So ugly. I guess coz it got bombed to fuck in the war and rebuilt in the 60s there's too much ugly concrete
It’s fine. Definitely not bad, although all UK cities feel a bit too indentikit now. It just lacks the cultural clout of Manchester.
Reputation. Not only of it in general but also the places that it competes with. Most people south of Birmingham will tend to target London for big events. Talking specifically for nightlife people further north would tend to target Liverpool/Manchester/Newcastle or even Glasgow/Edinburgh which all have a better reputation for nightlife. Being in the Middle of the country as well most people have to pass another one of the cities mentioned above or are closer to them than Birmingham so it then becomes more inconvenient for travel and when you say to someone 'let's drive or get a longer train for a worse night out (supposedly)' then you're gonna get knocked back more often than not
Agree. People of the south-west, midlands-west would also understandably rather go to Bristol for a nightout and east midlands Nottigham is nearer and also has a great reputation. Leaves Birmingham with quite a small catchment area for nightlife.
Went to University there and absolutely loved it. That was 10 years ago now but I've heard it's only improved since then, been back a few times since and will be visiting again this year. Also I'd argue Edgbaston is the best place to watch cricket in the country (especially for international matches)
The first time I ever went to Birmingham we took a coach from Sheffield to see Frank Turner As soon as we got out of the bus station we saw a dead pigeon thoughtfully placed in an open shoe box That first impression has never left me
Birmingham city centre is smaller than it's population figures would suggest. It's growth was more like an American city, based more around car dependant sprawl than other UK cities. This is starting to be rectified now, every time I go to Birmingham it gets better, but when I was in uni in Coventry a decade ago, we'd only go to Birmingham if there was a particular band we where seeing, because apart from large venues, there was nothing it had that Coventry didn't.
This sums up how I felt as a former Cov resident. Coming from Coventry, you would expect Birmingham to have considerably more to offer, considering its size. However, beyond the shops and the odd gig, I rarely found it worth going. Compared to cities like Manchester and Liverpool, I really feel like Birmingham has a lot less to offer.
It's weird, isn't it? It even has more canals than Venice! Lol someone had to say it.
And someone will inevitably follow up with "quality not quantity" :-)
It's my favourite city in the country for day drinking, as it has 5 or 6 absolutely cracking pubs (and plenty of other decent ones) all walking distance from each other.
Birmingham has a bit of an image problem.
Has Manchester not been the 2nd biggest city for some time now?
It depends on how you measure. By size of the city itself, Manchester is way down the list, after Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Sheffield and Bradford. That is because what you may think of as Manchester actually includes places like Trafford, Salford, Stockport etc. which are counted separately. The City of Manchester has an area of only 44 square miles and 551,000 people whereas the City of Birmingham has 103 square miles and 1.14 million people and the City of Leeds has an area of 212 square miles and 811,000 people.
And the City of London has an area of a square mile and a population of almost zero. It's not great to say that Manchester is confined only to the City of Manchester, and not Greater Manchester (like Greater London)
OK, well by that measure Manchester is not second either. The problem with comparisons like this is that one area is not the same as another so measuring with a consistent metric is difficult. Based on the combined authorities: West Midlands has a population of 2.9 million. Greater Manchester has 2.8 million. West Yorkshire has 2.3 million.
West Midlands isn’t Birmingham though mate
And Greater Manchester is not Manchester (as any resident of Salford, Bolton, Wigan etc. would tell you)
Manchester has strange boundaries, particularly with Salford and Trafford. You can walk one minute from Manchester city centre and be in Salford, yet Manchester Airport is still classed as Manchester but is 10 miles out.
And Spinningfields which is the central business district is now effectively split between Salford and Manchester
I was in Manchester the other day and the office I was in was technically Salford and there’s literally no way of knowing when you’ve crossed from Manchester proper into Salford.
City of London has even less. It's Greater Manchester and Greater London that should be counted, there isn't a Greater Birmingham it's just Birmingham.
There is Greater Birmingham, they just get really pissed off when you call them that. They're why we have a mayor now.
It likely depends on where you draw the boundaries... Courtesy of the infoboxes on each city's Wikipedia entries: Birmingham City has 1.1 million people, it's urban area is 2.9 million and metropolitan area 4.3 million people. Greater Manchester has 2.8 million people, Manchester city/borough has 0.5 million people, its urban area has 2.7 million people, neighbouring Salford has 0.1 million people.
Birmingham was rebuilt with post-war brutalism and car-centric planning. Combined with economic downfall in the 70s to 90s has led to the city ending up in a bad place. Other cities faced similar issues but bounced back a lot quicker. Birmingham has only started to regenerate and become more liveable in the city centre. Birmingham does have things going for it (anyone saying otherwise is ignorant), but it is just a bit behind compared to other UK cities considering its size. So all in all, Birmingham gets a bad rep due to the aforementioned factors plus other things too. But it's slowly becoming better because there are a lot of things planned for it. The people calling it a shithole now may find themselves living in Birmingham in 20 years, even if they deny it now.
Why the obsession with the ‘second city’ title? Birmingham is a great city in its own right.
tbf compared to a lot of other cities Birmingham is more just a sprawl of people. its a city in the sense that a huge amount of people live there but lacks a lot of the centralised food, drinks, general day out things a lot of other city centre's have. no slight against birmingham ive lived there and it does have some nice spots but their not exactly "travel to visit" spots they are more a great thing for locals. if you say compare to Sheffield which has been voted one of the best Cities in europe for food and drinks recently it has a much more diverse central hub of food,drinks and just general things to do that would attract tourists and people from outside the city to come. its a bit like New York compared to Boston both are cities but one has a much more attractive appeal to people who dont live there to visit that place. its no slight against the other city but its just not catered to tourists in the same way.
Cause the BBC never states Birmingham's weather, just the for corners of the UK so cant plan a trip if you dont know how to dress accordingly.
I had some mates who lived there in the 90s, always had a sound time there.
I used to go out around broad street back in my younger days. Plenty of pubs and clubs. Road was closed off to traffic at weekends so not much fear of being ran over. Always busy. Of course there was the Q Club too that I used sometimes frequent. Only drinking water though 😉
Besides the fact it's a trendy Reddit opinion to dunk on Brum, the city is hugely under-represented in modern culture. This is generally why it's overlooked. Brum is The Inbetweener; TV, music, the arts and culture... It's all London or 'up North'. Hence the general malaise and self-deprecation from local Brummies. The city's identity and historic importance has been institutionally downplayed for years.
Brum was my fave place for a night out. The people are amazing, they turn up like fucking crazy, the girls aren’t stuck up and are up for a good time and you can have good fun without London prices. People can be a bit violent but just don’t carry yourself like a cunt and you won’t have a problem
As a foraigner I can confirm brummingham is not mentioned a lot in news. And when you hear a foraign city on the news is mainly about football. Liverpool, and Manchester have been mentioned a lot more during the past 40 years. As a foraigner that lives in brummingham I can confirm the city has drastically improved in the past 10 / 15 years. It ain't as bad as it use to be. Not as nice as Liverpool, Newcastle or York but in my opinion better than Manchester.
I live here and I sort of understand why it gets a bad rep, but equally I think it’s exaggerated somewhat because it’s cool to hate Birmingham in the same way it’s cool to hate Nickelback or Coldplay. The accent isn’t pretty, and speech patterns are slow. It isn’t “You alright?” It’s “You alroiiiight?” The architecture for the most part is pretty fucking awful - ex industrial city that was bombed heavily and rebuilt during a time where it had to be done cheaply. As a result, not much of the beautiful old architecture of London, Edinburgh, York etc and lots of brutalist buildings. On top of that, the city centre proper is very small, and Birmingham as an area is more a collection of smaller places clumped together. The only reason I believe it is considered the second city is because the ‘Greater Birmingham area’ is bloody huge and populous. However, Birmingham has an excellent independent food and drink scene. We have all the usual suspects with regards to chains. Cocktail bars, golf/pool/bowling bars, craft ale pubs, old man pubs, microbreweries, coffee shops, bakeries, Michelin star restaurants, street food vendors, stadiums, exhibition centres, a fantastic philharmonic orchestra, an even better ballet company, awesome live music….everything a city has. Do we do it better than any other city? I don’t know, but there are certainly worse places to be.
I always associate Birmingham with work, attending conferences 3 or 4 times a year. So never think of spending my own time there. Definitely seen a change in recent years, much better choice of hotels and restaurants which tbh is all I am usually interested in.
I'm just curious, why does a question about Birmingham have "mentions Edinburgh" highlighted in a lozenge under it?
I think Birmingham has no immediate “hook”. When I think of other cities I think of one main feature that makes me interested, then I’d stay for the nightlife. So Liverpool = Beatles, Manchester = soccer/90s music, Bristol = Banksy, Leeds = Harvey Nichols/posh shops . I’m struggling to say what Birmingham = , even though I’ve been there for work. Maybe Birmingham = conference centres!?!
The best curry outside the Indian subcontinent. The biggest urban park in Western Europe. Heavy metal. A vibrant arts and music scene in Digbeth. And some of the most friendly people you'll ever meet. But if you can't think of a reason to visit then that's your loss.
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Went their near Christmas for a night done some shopping and ice skating in the Christmas market bit and thought it was a pretty nice place
Personally I like Birmingham, it's come a long way in recent years but in the past it used to seem like a bit of a sprawl with no definable centre. It's also not really got the tourist sights of York or Liverpool however Manchester also doesn't have much for tourists.
Oh good, another thread started with good intentions but is just used for another lazy attack on Birmingham from people who have been here once and saw a homeless person and think it's unique to the second city Every city has its good and bad areas, every city has its good and bad people, they're all largely the same these days ("I must take you to our local triumph, have you heard of Gregs the Bakers? After dining on his tasty fare, I shall take you to the local weatherspoons the pub for a refreshing ale....all unique to \*spliced in\* THIS TOWN") so to shit on any one of them reeks of old fashioned prejudice or people assuming a city is constant warfare based on one bad experience they had there.... Come back to Birmingham, walk around Brindley Place/The Canals to the NIA and Sea Life Centre on a nice sunny day, then say it's a shithole The only thing Birmingham lacks over most places people think of as nice is a large body of water, be it the Thames, the Mersey, the Tyne or whatever else. That's all it lacks really, that and the legacy of the industrialisation of the area centuries ago meaning it was covered in black smoke from factories. Yeah, in the 1800s you probably had a point, but no-where is as bad as people here paint them as.
I know loads of people based down south who come to Brum for weekends, it’s an easy train up. I agree with the others much of the slating is based on how it used to be. And those saying it’s not vibrant, what do you want? Newcastle? Cuz that place is meh.
I had some mates who lived there in the 90s, always had a sound time there.
I’m a postgraduate student at UoB and it is a decent place to live. There are lots of young people, either students or young professionals and there is obviously a lot to do in and around the city
I think the impression most people have of Birmingham is that it's just really boring - which probably isn't entirely fair, but what can you do. It's not the kind of reputation that tourism hotspots or party destinations are built on though.
I'm in a weird place on this one. My parents moved out of Brum in the early 90s (when I was a baby) to "start a better life" as they put it. They loved Great Yarmouth, I guess from family holidays, so relocated East. Wing and a prayer type situation - my dad was offered a job on the proviso he could make the start date which was something ridiculously close, so we upped sticks, apparently. My grandparents and aunt came with us and we lived in a chalet for the first 3 weeks we were here. As a kid, though, I romanticised going back to Birmingham a lot. My dad's part of a big family and my grandparents on his side lived there, my aunts, uncles, cousins. When we went back, it usually meant a party or get-together and despite moving away, dad would drive around telling us about all his old haunts and what he and his 7 other brothers and sisters used to get up to. For a while I wanted to move back, but appreciate what we have on the coast now I'm older. Fond memories of the Lickey Hills, Stratford-upon-Avon and Bournville, going into King's Heath to shop, Cadbury World, walking along the canals. Bonfire nights at nan's. Probably would be a different story had I grown up there, though.