Owl's of the Baskerville's

Last night I went into town to meet our friend Steve Barr who was popping over to see us from Ward End. Steve and I were in senior scouts together and after a reunion a couple of years ago we have kept in touch when we pass through Birmingham on the canals. He soon settled in and we were catching up with a couple of years chat. Helen did us proud with plenty of grub and tea and the time flew past. It was great to see him again and hopefully it wont be so long until the next time.

It seemed to be quite nippy this morning, compared that is to the last few weeks. We weren't up very early as we had no where to go today. When I did get up to make the tea there was plenty of revving of engines and it turns out that there was a boat towing a butty starting down the Farmers Bridge locks. They were obviously penning down one at a time but the towing boat was waiting for the butty to tow it to the next lock. I would have thought that it would have been much quicker for each of the two lads to move their own boat by hauling as the intervening pounds are very short on this flight. Later still the procession of boats was starting down. The first inline was a hire boat with a couple. The bloke was working the locks and the lady was supposed to be steering the boat. All I could hear coming over the wall was 'Oh, I'm not liking this. I'm not liking this at all'. Her husband helpfully told her that she is doing fine as she collided with the lock knuckle and 'any way there is no bloody turning round now!'.

Yesterday on our travels we saw that the city centre was scattered with large plastic owls that had been painted. They were drawing large crowds to have their picture taken with them too. It was largely Mum's with their children but lots of adults were getting their phones out for a selfie with them. Over the last few years we have seen this sort of thing in a few cities. In Hull we had large toads, inspired by a poem by Philip Larkin a hero of Hull. In Birmingham that have 89 not only in the city centre but spread out to the suburbs too. Each one is sponsored and painted by artists from all over. At the end of the period they are all auctioned off to make more money for the chosen charity which this time is Birmingham's Children's Hospital. When they did a similar thing in Liverpool they made over £500,000. You can by a map and go and try to 'bag' them all. (or get an app for your phone). In Bristol when they had Gromitts instead of owls they reckon it brought an extra 1.2 million extra visits to the city. It is a great idea but I can't really find out why they chose owls?

Inside the Museum and Art gallery.

Helen has had to go home today so I am once more 'boat alone'. I set her to New Street Station which is still very much a building site, and then made my way to the open and closed markets before settling on a few purchases. As I once again passed over Centenary Square where the Hall of Remembrance from yesterdays post and the new Library are I looked at Baskerville House and wondered about it. It seems that there is a bit of a story behind it after all.

Baskerville House.

Originally this was the site of the home of John Baskerville. He was a printer and a Member of the Royal Society of Arts. He set the printing world aflame when he produced a book Virgil's writtings in his own type face, Baskerville. He became pinter to the University of Oxford. When he died in 1775 he had prepared a conical tomb in his garden where he wished to interred. His wishes were carried out. However in 1821 a canal branch was built over the land. The owner of that land dug up the body as found it perfectly preserved so put it on show! That was until his family and friend could arrange to have it moved to Christ Church. That church was then demolished in 1897 so the body was moved once more to Warstone Lane Cemetry. In 1963 a petition was raised to once again move the body to unconsecrated ground as Baskerville had originally wished. It stayed put this time. The side of the canal where Baskerville house is now built was taken by the Birmingham Aluminium Company who built a basin for them selves. Near by was Gibson's Basin to serve a rolling mill. In 1919 the council bought the for a new civic centre and filled in Baskerville Basin. How ecver it wasn't until 1936 when the Gibson mill relocated and that land could  be obtained and the basin filled in.

In 1926 the Council had held a competition to design a new Civic Centre. the winner had then been deemed too ambitious and the council engineer asked to design something! The whole are was supposed to have important buildings around it but only the Civic Centre was started in 1938. Obviously the WWII intervened and the it wasn't finished. The back wall was hurriedly finished in brick, and it is still so today. The council vacated the premises in 1998 and all sorts of plans were drawn up for it but eventually in 2007, after £30 million had been spent it opened as offices.

Baskerville House under construction in the 1930's.

Industry and Genius, by David Patten, a sculpture dedicated to John Baskerville was placed outside the building in 1990.

In case you didn't know this is what the Baskerville font looks like.