Our waiter at the Birmingham Marriott Hotel tells me how he likes to buy 1kg bars of Dairy Milk from the Cadbury World shop in Bournville and dunk the squares in peanut butter. When I reveal that we are going to the Back to Backs later – the city’s last surviving court of houses built around a communal courtyard – his reaction is; “Ooh, there’s an amazing old-fashioned sweetshop on the corner”. He’s practically drooling. We’re not; we’ve just eaten the most gorgeous fish stew lunch (me) and a huge mound of brownies with chocolate sauce and cream (daughter Sophie).
I think something’s a bit fishy when our guide at the Back to Backs holds up a seemingly incongruous oyster shell in these homes for “poorer people” who could not afford fresh meat. The fact that shellfish were cheap is just a taste of the quirky information imparted by the volunteer guides.
Fish – succulent sea bass – is on the menu again that night, at close-by Del Villaggio restaurant and as part of our four course Sunday brunch (£24.95) next day at the Hotel du Vin in the former eye hospital in Church Street. We’re told to take as much time as we like – and don’t we need it!
Sophie passes over the fresh seafood and crustacea amid the artistic centrepiece of charcuterie and salads which provide the second course. Perhaps it’s something to do with having got very close to 2000 or so marine creatures, including Hammerhead Sharks, and an enormous turtle at National SEA LIFE Birmingham, a 10 minutes’ stroll from our hotel.
Ironically, the first of many exhibits to engage us at the Thinktank science museum that afternoon is a film showing how food is digested. I love the ‘blood station’, which likens our circulatory systems to a train destinations board. Most unnerving are the Jaguar robots, like something out of War Of The Worlds, demonstrating welding parts of a car.
Centuries ago the people of Birmingham used to bait bulls with dogs for fun. Apparently it made the animals’ meat more tender. Now their main occupation on a weekend seems to be shopping or sipping coffee in the Bull Ring, the swish centre built around the spot where the bulls were once tethered.
Thus Birmingham’s a curious city to behold. It’s a bit like a kaleidoscope, constantly changing. At first glance it’s a sea of cranes, building sites, derelict factories and some ugly 1960s/70s concrete monstrosities. But a few twists and turns here and there show grand Victorian buildings and stunning modern architecture such as Selfridges’ façade of 16,000 silver discs. The Mailbox still appears, at least from the outside, like Europe’s largest sorting office. It was built to withstand a nuclear bomb, but now it’s a posh and pristine mall of designer shops and eateries.
All this is set amid a pattern of well-used canals and thriving quarters, each with a unique industrial history, as befitting a place once known as ‘the city of 1000 trades’.
Some of the towpaths of the 103 miles of canals skirt malls packed with every type of restaurant imaginable. The ambience is of a city which doesn’t stand still for a minute.
WHAT ELSE TO SEE AND DO
* Museum of the Jewellery Quarter has an old bracelet factory frozen in time where the workers literally hung up their coats and shut the door on a fascinating time capsule. www.bmag.org.uk
* Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery has the largest collection of Pre-Raphaelites in the world. www.bmag.org.uk
* Birmingham has more miles of canals than Venice, so exploring by water is a great way to see the city. www.secondcityboats.co.uk
* St Phillip’s Cathedral is renowned for its four fabulous jewelled-effect windows by Edward Burne-Jones. www.birminghamcathedral.com
* Ikon, in Brindleyplace (free), is one of Europe’s leading contemporary art galleries. www.ikon-gallery.co.uk
* Birmingham Hippodrome, in Hurst Street, is the UK’s busiest theatre outside of London’s West End www.birminghamhippodrome.com
* Birmingham Botanical Gardens and Glasshouses are a tranquil oasis of colour with tropical and sub-tropical houses and a Mediterranean House full of citrus fruits. www.birminghambotanicalgardens.org.uk
WHERE TO STAY
* Birmingham Marriott; very comfortable, centrally-located, four star hotel with attentive service. Restaurant and bar, Leisure Club and on site parking (charge). www.marriott.co.uk
INFORMATION
* www.visitsealife.com/birmingham – The new Penguin Ice Adventure opens at Easter.
