Walking round Brum.

We were going to venture into Birmingham to look at the museums etc, plus a bit of shopping etc.

From our mooring behind the Sealife Centre we walked through Brindley Square, named after the canal engineer, and across the canal. This was the first part of the area that got refurbished, the lower levels, and the red and blue brick, and steel joists are there to evoke the old industrial area that was here previously.

The view in the opposite way looks towards the Broad Street tunnel and Worcester Bar.

We headed for the New Library to see a new exhibition of photography.  Phyllis Nicklin was a local geography teacher who took photos of the quickly changing Birmingham in the 1960's. They are in the City archives. Recently a project has been in place to identify the exact position of the original photos and then take the same photo. I left the Birmingham area in the 1970's so it was of great interest to me. Some places had been flattened completely and some hadn't changed at all. I love the idea of taking pictures of the same place over the years and will try it where I live I think.

We went off to do a little shopping, and I have always been taken with this street off New Street, Colmore Street, due to the number of building types and the curve of the buildings. Helen got some bargains at White Stuff too.

On all the pedestrian areas in the city centre are these barriers that have obviously been placed to prevent the terrorism acts of vehicles driving into pedestrian areas.

 When in the library we saw a leaflet about a walk. We have looked for walks before and there were no regular ones at all. We did the 'normal' walk that had to booked on line. At £9-80 we thought it was a bit steep but you are equipped with a headset and ear buds so that you can hear the guide at all times, which with all the building work going on was useful. You get to keep the earbuds too.

Due to all the work going on in Century Square we went up to the 3rd level garden to look down on the square. The guide had quite a  architectural bent but there was plenty of information that I didn't know too. The 'new' square is going to have a water feature included and the tram is to be extended through to 5 Ways at the far side of the square. The walk took us a bit off the beaten track so it was quite nice, and we learned a fair bit too.

We walked through the International Coference Centre and out onto Brindley Place again. There is the old Brewmaster house preserved on the left and although the Malt House pub is new it was built on the site of an old maly house. It's main claim to fame is that Bill Clinton called in for a pint and some chips during a G7 conference in Birmingham. The USA Secret Service took the glass so that no DNA could be recovered from it! The barge is an adjunct to the nearby Ikon Contemporary Art gallery.

The land based Ikon Art Gallery is in this old Board School from the 1870's. There are beautiful stone carvings and tiles on the frontage and the tower is really a ventilation shaft to get fresh air in for the 'great unwashed' who were taught there!

This church was built in the late 1800's and I wonder if it was built in this blue engineering brick so as not to be 'stained' by the smoke and grime of the time. It was later then bought by the Second Church of Christ Scientists, and is now a night club. The tower is pretty distinctive too.

I loved this tower with a crown above what is now clubs and restaurants. I shall have to do some research to see what the building originally was. Always look up when you are in a city is my best tip.

We walked round to Gas Street basin and this restaurant was was the offices of the Worcester and Birmingham canal. Behind was the actual Worcester bar where the BCN and the W&B met, but did not join. All cargoes had to be discharged and carried over the bar and reloaded.

We visited the cube and I hadn't realised that it had an open atrium in the middle, and this is it. I found it pretty dark on the whole.

We then walked through the Mailbox and all it's posh shops and eateries and then came in to the back of Grand Central/New Street Station. The mirrored external makes for a chaotic imagine but it is just the movement and light that is attractive.

At the end of the walk we were given a hard back book called Positive Birmingham that actually made the cost of the walk seem much more reasonable as it was selling in the shops for about £12-99. After the walk we went for a bit more shopping and then visited the Post Office Vaults just off Queen Victoria Square.