August 2010
1 post
4 tags
Hotels with a history
Tutwiler Hotel, Birmingham AL
I spent my 24 hours in Bham at various places around town but late at night, after my visit to Dreamland for pork ribs (nom!), I went home to The Tutwiler Hotel. It was Oscars Night so I hit the bar for a reassuringly expensive Sauvignon and a drunken chuckle at Sandra Bullock as she blubbed her way through her acceptance speech.
As a travel journalist, I’m...
July 2010
2 posts
5 tags
Entertainment districts...
…and nightlife areas live next to a confluence of five roads, in both cities. This is a really weird coincidence, right?
Five Ways, Birmingham UK
Brum’s main entertainment district starts at Five Ways roundabout and runs along Broad Street to Paradise Circus (such a pretty name, such a grim place). It is a vision of bright lights, big bouncers, staggering scantily dressed females,...
9 tags
Famous factories
One melted iron ore, the other melted chocolate; both have become tourist attractions in their respective Birminghams…
Sloss Furnaces, Birmingham, AL
What it is: Now a National Historic Landmark, this blast furnace produced iron for nearly 90 years and helped build ‘the Magic City’ of Birmingham.
Info: Website: Slossfurnaces.com Address: 20 32nd Street North, ...
June 2010
1 post
7 tags
Iron Men
Iron: Man, Birmingham, UK
Yes, that’s Iron [colon] Man. Though the locals just call it The Iron Man. This tilted 1993 sculpture by Turner Prizewinner Antony Gormley lives in Victoria Square, home of Brum’s Town Hall, Council House and the Floozie in the Jacuzzi (more on that in a later post). It’s 6m-tall with it’s feet buried in the pavement and leans 7.5° backwards and...
May 2010
2 posts
3 tags
Confused skylines
Spot the difference? Hopefully you can, but our skylines became notoriously linked when a Birmingham City Council designer used a picture of Birmingham Alabama’s skyline on a Birmingham UK recycling leaflet in 2008. Full story here…
Did you spot which was which? Click on the pics to see them at a larger size.
Bham skyline (top): © Katchooo/Flickr
Brum skyline (bottom): © Tony...
4 tags
Co-working spaces
Suburban Moseley & Downtown Birmingham
THE MOSELEY EXCHANGE, Birmingham UK
Twitter: @moseleyexchange
Website: Moseleyexchange.com
Address: 149-153 Alcester Road, Moseley, Birmingham B13 8J
Opening hours: 9am-8pm Monday to Thursday; 9am-6pm Friday
About The Moseley Exchange:
A co-working space and place to meet, work and share ideas.
Unlimited membership is £85 a month...
April 2010
3 posts
8 tags
Problematic highway exchanges
Malfunction Junction, Birmingham AL
It was while standing on the top of Vulcan The Iron Man (more on Brum and Bham’s high and low-level Iron Men in a future post) that my local host Daniel Walters pointed out Birmingham’s Malfunction Junction.
The busiest intersection in Alabama (260,000 vehicles daily) has been churning through traffic since 1970. Here, Interstates 20, 59 and 65...
Roller derby teams
© Melinda Shelton – TCR in action
As Whip It has just come out in the UK, my next “Birmingham meet Birmingham” post is going be on roller derby. Yay! [Transparency: I skated at a CCR practice once and fell flat on my ass/arse.]
So it’s time to introduce Brum’s rollergirls to the US ladies that helped kickstart the whole roller derby revival. Ladies, feel free to internationally...
6 tags
