About Brum

I had to laugh when I read this BBC article – Major city ‘flash mob prevented’;

Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre said it stopped a major ‘flash mob’ exercise involving dozens of people. But members of the group said the event, in which people froze for five minutes, took place and images went on the social networking website Facebook. The Bullring said it prevented a “major blockage”. A spokesman added that the shopping centre “could not afford customers not being able to get past”. A spokesman for the ‘flashmob’ said they had not intended to annoy people.

And then it gets better:

The Bullring’s general manager, Tim Walley, said on Saturday lunchtime that security had spoken to a group which had assembled outside and was told they would reconvene in smaller groups in the shopping centre.  He said: “We saw one of them with a loud-hailer. “We couldn’t afford customers not being able to get past. We’ll be looking at 180,000 people coming to shop on a Saturday.”

What’s a flashmob? Well, ‘a flash mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief period of time, then quickly disperse.’ What’s so harmful about that? I was shopping in the Bullring last Saturday, and let me tell you, there was PLENTY of space for people to walk around – more than enough space for a few dozen people to do five minutes’ worth of Pythonesque comedy. If they’d been juggling fire or whipping round on rollerblades to the music of Starlight Express, then fair enough, I’d probably expect them to be moved on too – but standing still? How square do you have to be to not find that a bit of harmless fun (and amusingly odd?)

If I’d been in Birmingham this weekend, I would’ve taken part myself, Flashmobs are really nothing more than a bit of painless, hassle-free fun which provide great entertainment value for observers. In what way is it obstructive or harmful to shoppers? I think we can determine from this that the Bullring security staff (and the managing director) could be accurately described as humourless, revenue-driven employees who seek to disrupt peoples’ fun at every opportunity possible.

We need to have weekly Flashmobs in the Bullring from now on.

Corny I know, but appropriate… Just now (about 1am), Birmingham (and much of the Midlands and Central England) had a little earthquake! It only lasted about ten seconds here, but was strong enough to make my speakers rock on their stands and my radiator make a noise… Amusingly, we all initially blamed each other in our house

Through quickly jumping onto Facebook, fast proving to be the quickest way to gauge opinion and feedback from your friends around the country, it seems that this was felt as far afield as Sheffield, Manchester, right down to Northampton (although Bristol didn’t apparently feel it, according to one of my friends). A friend who lives in Milton Keynes says that it was much more severe, shaking the house quite violently – he heard things moving around and falling over in the loft.

The BBC hasn’t even published a full article about this yet – proof positive that citizen journalism is good at a few things! [01:18: BBC News 24 reports that it was felt as far afield as Darlington, Cheshire, Northampton and parts of London]. However, they do have much more comprehensive info on the 2002 Dudley earthquake (5 on the Richter scale!) here and here – and Wikipedia has an article about it. MadJad, a Dudley area resident, has a little minisite dedicated to it. There was also a much stronger earthquake in Kent last year.

Yay for unexpected exciting things!

Edit: my housemate’s just sent me a link to the USGS site, where there’s a much more detailed technical writeup of the quake: it was apparently 4.7 on the Richster scale at its epicentre! Here’s the initial stats:

Earthquake Details

There’s even a map showing the epicentre (somewhere near Lincoln!) from the USGS site – click here to load it in Google Maps. Take three minutes and report your experiences back to the USGS while you’re at it.

[02:44: The Sun, in its usual restrained manner, has taken the time to carefully and objectively report on the night's events. I won't spoil it for you, but it's really worth a read. I liked the bit with smoke and flames.]

In typical style, I’m fashionably late writing about this. Just like I was to the actual event. Note to self: update satnav maps (I drove straight to Brum from work via a route I don’t normally travel via – the bloody thing tried to take me the wrong way around two separate one-way systems, one in Wolverhampton and another one in Brum!) Anyway, I got there, and I wasn’t to worry, because people were there way after I said my goodbyes and headed home.

If you didn’t turn up on Monday night at the Dragon Inn, you missed out – around 30 bloggers and creative types descended on the pub for an evening of spontaneous conversation, anecdotes and other small issues… things like the future of blogging in and about the West Midlands, and how to promote the region outside of the clique of Birmingham bloggers (paraphrased from Podnosh‘s Nick Booth, or Mr. Nosh as I think I might call him from now on).

Read the rest of this entry »

Unless something dire happens to obstruct my attendance, you can find me (along with a bunch of other friendly locals) at the second Brum Bloggers Meetup. I’ll give you fair warning now… It’s nestled just at the top end of the Gaybourhood (as my lesbian housemate calls it, and the name just happens to have caught on in our house, so that’s our name for Hurst Street). Whenever she nips down to The Fox on Hurst Street, I like to say that she’s ‘got a thirst for Hurst’, but I get odd stares and I suddenly feel the need to leave the room. You decide on that one.

To be fair, The Dragon Inn is actually nestled in The Arcadian Centre, so it’s almost separate – to get to the Arcadian car park, you just drive down (up?) Hurst Street and the entrance is there. Parking costs, according to the company which runs it, are about £1-£1.20 an hour, so put aside a fiver for parking if you’re driving there (like I’ll have to).

Now, for the brave, here are the event details:

Name: Brum bloggers Meetup 2
Tagline: or the first Birmingham Social Media Cafe?
Host: Birmingham Bloggers UK

Type: Meetings – Club/Group Meeting
Date: Monday, February 18, 2008
Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm

Location: The Dragon Inn

Address:
Hurst Street
B5 4TD
Birmingham

Map: View

See you there!

Well, you’re in luck.

In a somewhat meta presentation at Town Hall, due to take place on Sunday the 20th of January at 2pm, a chap called Anthony Peers is going to deliver “an account of the architectural history of Town Hall from its construction through to it recent renaissance.” Apparently, “Anthony has been researching the history of the building for close to a decade and was involved in the planning of the recently completed scheme of repairs and improvements.”

Unfortunately I’m not in Birmingham that weekend – drat! However, it sounds really quite interesting, and it’s only £6 (£5 if you’re over 60, although I bet they have student concessions going if you ask nicely)… So, there’s no real excuse for you to avoid this talk if you’re truly interested in the redevelopment and reopening of one of Birmingham’s largest and best-known landmarks.

And, as a bonus, click the image above to get a full-sized version, taken (and stitched together) by yours truly. Enjoy

Only in Birmingham… Just in case you weren’t sure of the location of the last public hanging in Brum (apparently it was mistakenly thought to have taken place somewhere else for all these years), it’s now been comemorated with a plaque:

The site of the last public hanging in Birmingham is being marked with a plaque, after the spot was wrongly identified for a number of years.

Philip Matsell was hanged for shooting and wounding, in front of a crowd of 40,000 in August 1806 on the corner of Great Charles Street and Snow Hill.  An historian’s research proved it was not in Ludgate Hill as earlier thought. Public executions in London took place in Ludgate Hill which may account for the mix-up.

The new plaque, known as a History Plate, is being unveiled by Birmingham’s Civic Society. Conceding it was a “gruesome” act to commemorate, a spokesman said Birmingham stopped its public hangings many years before other cities. Mr Matsell was executed for the murder of a “peace officer” – an early form of police officer.

The unveiling will be at the West Midlands Police Museum in Sparkhill, Birmingham, with the plaque being put up under the Great Charles Street railway bridge later.

Erm… Well, I’m sure that’ll be hotly attended – still, might as well go take a look at it. You can’t deny that it’s certainly an evocative thing to comemorate, if nothing else! I’ll always look at Snow Hill in a slightly different light now…

First things first: I immensely dislike Christmas and everything it’s come to stand for… except for Chocolate Oranges in my stocking on Christmas Day. Mmm. However, I’m more than willing to promote events based around this season, because no doubt there’s far more people who aren’t grouchy old grumpies who actually enjoy these events! So, here’s a quick summary of what’s going on this Christmas (well, November) in Brum:

The Birmingham Christmas Lights Switch-On concert is being held from 3pm-7pm in front of Millennium Point on the 10th of November. If you’re wondering where Millennium Point is, it’s the building housing the IMAX cinema just down past the Masshouse building (basically, stand with your back to Selfridges, walk down the long straight Queensway and then bear right slightly, walking down the hill, you’ll get there in five minutes. Billed acts include McFly, Leona Lewis, Scouting For Girls and Sugababes get to turn the lights on on at 7:30pm. Wouldn’t want to miss that. The MAXMIX Diwali Celebrations take place on the 11th of November, and are again in front of Millennium Point from 3-7pm.

Here’s the best bit: the stuff-of-legend Pantomime Horse Race! The Panto Horse Grand National is always the talk of the town and draws some sizeable crowds if the weather’s not crap! It also helps raise some money for Children In Need, so it’s for a very worthwhile cause. There’s usually some foam too, so if you’re going either as a participant or a spectator, prepare to get messy.

This year, the race is taking place on the 16th of November, from 6:30pm-10pm (and although I’d guess the route is still via Colmore Row, finishing just over from the Town Hall, the official listing is “Broad Street / Centenary Square”). There’s also a very pretty-looking Broad Street Canal Boat Light Parade being held on the 9th of December along the canal running from the NIA to The Mailbox (from 5:30pm to 6:15pm). I might head along to that to take some snaps. I know it’s short notice, but I only just found out myself!

So, weather permitting, use these events as an excuse to get out the house and enjoy some pre-December Christmas niceties, courtesy of various local businesses and your City Council. And don’t forget to say thankyou afterwards.

I’ll say it loud, and I’ll say it clear: I like Birmingham Central Library. It’s a real landmark. Being built from concrete, it’s a bit dirty here and there but it has a real sense of character, plus it’s pretty cool inside.

I got lost in there the first time I went in.

The current location of Birmingham Central Library, snapped on the 2nd of May, 2007.

Credit: BCC

However, it’s looking more and more like the existing BCL is going to be knocked down to make way for a new development, with an estimated cost of about £193 million (this isn’t such a long time after they picked up the remainder of the tab for the expensive Town Hall renovation, something like £18 million on top of the EU and Lottery funding). The Guardian picked up on this story a long time ago, and published an article to that extent (and while it’s dated, it’s still relevant, so it’s worth a read). A little has changed though from the original article. This is how the Guardian report reads:

Still dominating Chamberlain Square and squaring up to some of the city’s best Victorian and Edwardian buildings, the library is to be replaced by gleaming office towers. The Richard Rogers partnership, meanwhile, has been commissioned to design a new £130m library at Millennium Point, Eastside, Digbeth. The Rogers building – a stately ultra-modern galleon – will be the flagship of Birmingham’s new cultural quarter, set across a ring-road and web of railway lines from Chamberlain Square.

This has changed slightly – insofar as the new plans talk about the location being a shared site along with the Birmingham Rep, “with the library and theatre joining together and sharing a number of facilities to create a unique centre for knowledge, learning and culture.” Hmm. “Subject to Cabinet’s approval of the proposals (on 22 October), the next step will see a project manager and design team appointed to take the project forward and conduct an international search for an architect so that design work can get underway by summer 2008, and the new centre completed by 2013.”

More info’s available on the BCC web site’s “Library Of Birmingham” pages, and this is where you’d see it should it be built:

The council’s plans include converting the space between the Rep and Baskerville House, currently used as a car park (which is kinda useful!) into a massive Library. However, what’s wrong with Birmingham Central Library being in Chamberlain Square? It’s a great venue, the vista as you stand with the Birmingham Gallery to your back is really something (with the “inverted ziggurat” of the library towering over you and curving around the long ampitheatre-like steps down to the fountain).

I can see the need to put one’s best foot forward, and as Britain’s Second City, I fully agree with that. However, a cost of £193m for a new building on property already serving a useful purpose – parking is already hard enough in the city without another car park being bulldozed… Is it really necessary?

The Council rationalise their thinking by informing us that:

Birmingham’s existing Central Library is the busiest public library in Britain and the city’s most visited public building. However there are major problems with the building, which was built in the early 1970s. The fabric is in very poor condition and the design unsuitable for modern-day needs. The storage capacity and environment, and level of public access for archives, photography and rare printed collections are unacceptably poor given their national and international significance. The Library of Birmingham will provide an exceptional solution to this.

So just closing the Library, gutting it and renovating it then reopening it isn’t enough? Oh wait, I forgot, you want to convert the prime real estate in Chamberlain Square into office blocks, I forgot about that.

If you want to support those who would keep things the way they are, there’s a Facebook group where all the cool people hang out. According to Love Concreation, “Friends of Central Library are proposing to have a meeting on Tuesday 20th November at 6pm – location TBC, somewhere in Bham town centre.” So, keep your eyes peeled if you’d like to take part.

Yes, Gigbeth begins tomorrow, and I’ll be there (helping represent Revolver Records, who are also one of the event’s sponsors) – I won’t be hard to spot, I’ll be the one who looks like he’s the odd one out and running round with a camera! See you there.