27/06/26 - Perry Barr, Witton and Aston - a Birmingham AZ City Walk

Spaghetti, Stadiums and Dead Centres

If you take nothing else from this blog, take this. Do not stop in Perry Barr Square, waiting to get a signal on your GPS. You will be left wondering why extras from The Walking Dead need spare change.

This walk from the AZ Series is primarily concerned with stadiums. The Alexander Stadium was re-developed for the Commonwealth Games. The Greyhound Stadium closed in 2025 and has already been demolished. Villa Park sadly remains. (A joke from a Baggie, Vile fans).

First they came for the pubs, then the greyhounds

Commonwealth Games Legacy

1709 Perry Bridge - with tags

The Birmingham Canal is picked up, which could take us all the way and under Spaghetti Junction. Yet we make a worthy diversion into Witton Cemetery, one of the largest in the country. A stop for lunch on a handy bench by the main chapel of worship. A grave catches my eye - Big Lee was a young man when he died. A quick Google - stabbed in the neck at a house party after calling an acquaintance a paedo. Just one of the thousands of stories contained in this huge final resting place.

Looking across the M6 into the City

Back to the canal for a unique perspective of Spaghetti Junction from underneath. 18 different routes across five levels, with 559 columns and 13,000 tonnes of reinforcing steel.

How it looks below

Up to civilisation on the Lichfield Road to walk on roads through Aston and Witton.

Watkins, ?, Martinez

Back at Perry Barr to avoid the zombies and head into a shopping estate 'spoons. What it lacks in looks it makes up for with £2.45 pints of quality cask.

Just don't sit outside.

Walk Details

Distance - 7.75 Miles

Geocaches - 1

Walk Inspiration - AZ City Walks, Walk 13

Previous Birmingham AZ Walks - Walk 1 & 2, Walk 3, Walk 4, Walk 5, Walk 6, Walk 7, Walk 8, Walk 9, Walk 10, Walk 11, Walk 12

17/04/26 - Birmingham Culture

Needless and Peaky

The latest West Midlands History Podcast features the Peaky Blinders. It was only a matter of time. Carl Chinn enthusiastically reminding the listeners that they are not to be glamourised and were simply street thugs. And then going on to glamourise them for the next 30 minutes.

Finding Peaky Blinders locations in Birmingham is a little like shooting fish in a barrel. In fact, an Arthur and/or Tommy mural in a pub has now replaced Alsatians on a flat roof pub as the international measure of roughness. 

Coincidentally, I had just finished a book set in Birmingham and during the same time period, Needless Alley. 

Needless Alley is a crime novel set in 1933 Birmingham. William Garrett, a struggling private detective, makes his living staging divorce “honey traps” with his friend Ronnie Edgerton, an out-of-work actor. Their work brings William into contact with Clara Morton, the unhappy wife of a wealthy fascist, and he falls in love with her. When murder and corruption follow, William is drawn into Birmingham’s criminal underworld and canal-side backstreets.

The main characters are William Garrett, the troubled detective; Ronnie Edgerton, his witty but reckless partner; and Queenie Maggs, Ronnie’s tough, resourceful sister who lives on a narrowboat and knows the canal world better than anyone.

Rather fortuitously, there are walking routes pre-made for both Peaky Blinders and Needless Alley. I am able to just get on with walking, spotting key locations.

Book Title and Location of William's Private Detective Agency 

The Grand Hotel - Trysts between Clara and William

Art Gallery and Museum - William and Clara's first date

Gas Street Basin - Queenie lives on a Barge

Jon Jones Mural in Hill Street for the launch of the Peaky Blinders Film

Electric Cinema (looking increasingly sad) - Where William watched Marlene Dietrich movies 

A refreshment interlude. William often meets Ronnie in the White Swan, Digbeth. Last month, I visited this rough and ready pub by error, confusing it for the recently renovated and reopened Anchor.

It's not too surprising a mistake to make. Both pubs were built by the same firm - James and Lister Lea - share the same terracotta brick style and are located on the same street. In the interests of variety, I make the Anchor my port of call. 

An added incentive - the best track on Katherine Priddy's new album, Hurricane, was filmed there.

It's good to have the Anchor back. A Tardis-like multi-roomer, which cries out to be explored. And the chance of a first Bass of the year. Permanently on, Quinno.

Very similar to the White Swan

The light didn't work for the reverse photo

That dog was in the White Swan last month

The Peaky Blinder walk would have had me drinking in the Rainbow. The first mention of the Peaky Blinders in print. Carl Chinn explains;

“An ‘inoffensive chap’ called George Eastwood had been drinking in the Rainbow pub on the corner of High Street, Deritend and Adderley Street. The teetotaller was picked on by three hard men on the evening of March 23, 1890 – and all because he had a non-alcoholic drink. There is a bit of a row, but it dies down. Later, at about 11pm, George decides to go home. The hard men had already gone, so he must have thought it was safe – but as he was walking underneath the Adderley Street viaduct, he hears them shouting at him and then they brutally assault him under one of these two viaducts. One on the attackers was a chap called Thomas Mucklow, another was called Groom. The identity of the third man is still unknown. Groom punched George before they all started kicking with their boots along the street. And then Groom took off his heavy leather belt – these had thick brass buckles and they would wrap it around their wrist and leave about eight inches free, buckle it together and they would slash! Poor old George took so many beatings from the belt and the kicking and the punch that he was in hospital for three weeks. On the Monday night, the Birmingham Mail reported that this brutal assault was carried out by the gang of Peaky Blinders. It was the first time – March 1890 – that the term ‘Peaky Blinders’ had appeared in print.”

This would have been interesting for the walk - but unfortunately, the pub keeps night-time opening hours only.

The Rainbow - looking better during yesteryear

The back streets of Digbeth providing Peaky Blinder menace and the occasional artwork reminders. Montague Street, with the best mural of the day.

King of the Blinders - part of a much bigger art work

Not Peaky at all

Walk Details

Distance - 4.75 Miles

Geocaches - 4

Walk Inspiration - History WM Podcast and The Book Trail

30/03/26 - Three Parks and the Highbury

City Green Spaces

The Ramblers - of whom I am both a big fan and a member - posted on Facebook a claim that a lack of green spaces is inhibiting city dwellers in their ability to work.

I attempted three times to say utter nonsense but stopped myself each time. I cannot do with the trolling.

Let me present the evidence from two recent walks. Last time in London, I walked 5 miles from Hyde Park, through Green Park and into St James Park and only crossed two roads.

Today's latest AZ City Walk in Birmingham has me walking through Kings Heath, Highbury and Cannon Hill parks for an experience similar in length and quality.

The original FB poster was from Scotland. I felt like adding that Edinburgh has a fecking mountain in the middle of it.

Today's walk has been completed before. A repetition, mainly as I am completing the AZ in order and I have noticed a previously unexplored CAMRA Heritage Pub in the vicinity.

Photos of the parks:

Kings Heath - standard, swings, tennis courts, grass

Highbury - wild and best place to dump a getaway car/hide a body

Cannon Hill - Boer War Monuments

Cannon Hill is the Jewel in the Crown. Lakes, Medieval pubs transported from Digbeth, the River Rea running along the edge and this little curio. Adventure Lab Caching taking me to a model of the Elan Valley - celebrating when fresh water arrived into Birmingham.

Dam

And the plaque

The walk ends at the Stirchley Fringes, where my CAMRA Heritage Pubs of the Midlands has an entry for the Highbury. I should have been suspicious when it was text only, with no photos.

A typical large Birmingham suburban pub, built in the 1920s for Mitchells & Butlers. The public bar at the front corner of the pub still has its original counter, an elegant bar back (with 'M&B' carved in the pediment), wall-panelling to two-thirds height, and a decorated fireplace. The door to the rear lounge has given way to a wider opening and this room is now used for pool. The wall panelling here is a little more elaborate and the beams are decorated. The small curved counter is probably from the 1950s or 1960s. A separate side entrance leads to a mostly modernised lounge (formerly gents only in the days when it was still legal to exclude women from parts of a pub) and a plain function room with panelled walls and a segmental-shaped ceiling. A former off-license can also be discerned between the two entrances.

At first, I think it may be closed but the parked mobility scooter provides both hope and an indication of Monday lunch punters.

Solid looking boozer

Inside, I look for signs of why it could be in the guide. It's a two roomer - front room, knocked through with the well described but not particularly impressive bar back. A pool table, with unusual leaning seats for non-combatants. A rear room offering more of the same on a smaller scale.

M&B etched in the pediment

With the external posters showing pictures of their wares (Guinness, smooth-pours, Carling), I was right to be sceptical of the Cask Marque sign. The first time I have used the form to update the CAMRA Heritage Web Site which claimed two real ales.

Walk Details

Distance - 5 Miles

Geocaches - 8

Walk Inspiration - AZ City Walks, Walk 12

Previous Birmingham AZ Walks - Walk 1 & 2, Walk 3, Walk 4, Walk 5, Walk 6, Walk 7, Walk 8, Walk 9, Walk 10, Walk 11

05/02/26 - On the Trail of..... George Dawson

The Civic Gospel

During my ramblings around Birmingham, you often stumble on magnificent Victorian buildings. Usually they are running to rack and ruin, and I am not just talking about Aston pubs. As I trip over dead rats and pick my way through the mountains of rubbish, I often consider "what went wrong?". The city used to have pride and purpose, with an obvious sense of "betterment".

The latest History West Midlands podcast gave me the background on this. George Dawson, a Nonconformist preacher who proclaimed "Everything for Everybody". The more famous Joseph Chamberlain took his words and vision to build a Birmingham that was once the envy of the civilised world.

A young George Dawson

George Dawson (1821–1876) was a Nonconformist preacher and radical thinker whose ideas helped shape Victorian Birmingham’s sense of civic purpose. Minister of the Church of the Saviour from 1847, he moved away from orthodox theology towards a broad, humane Christianity rooted in everyday life rather than doctrine. His sermons, rich in literature and moral urgency, argued that religion should be lived and enacted, not merely believed.

Dawson’s central idea, later known as the Civic Gospel, held that the city is a moral organism and that local government has a duty to improve human life. Clean streets, public libraries, parks, and education were seen as expressions of ethical and spiritual values, not luxuries. These ideas strongly influenced Joseph Chamberlain, who absorbed Dawson’s thinking and translated it into active municipal reform as Birmingham’s mayor in the 1870s, turning moral vision into practical governance.

"A city must have its parks as well as its prisons, its art gallery as well as its asylum, its books and its libraries as well as its baths and washhouses, its schools as well as its sewers; it must think of beauty and of dignity no less than of order and of health."

As if I couldn't admire the man more, it transpires that when he was invited by the Temperance Movement to provide a speech, he extolled the virtues of drinking.

But is it possible to put a walk together to find key locations of the man's life?  

A statue would have been nice. There was one - in the middle of Chamberlain square. Not universally liked and removed in 1951 for the Festival of Britain. The bust lives in a museum dungeon somewhere.

We won't let this stop me.

The Library of Birmingham

Our man played a key role in the 300th year celebrations of Shakespeare's Death. On the 9th floor of the new Library of Birmingham is both a plaque to the man and the current home of the Shakespeare memorial room.

The library is perhaps a symbol of Birmingham's decline. Built in 2013 to much fanfare and cost (£188 Million), it cannot afford to be staffed properly and keeps poor opening hours. Thus wrote a man forced to wait in the foyer for the 11am opening. The cafe is closed. Books? Despite having 10 floors, Kidderminster library has more on its shelves. 

Everything to Everybody

Moved from Old to New

The Shakespeare Room - Top Floor

A Bust

Chamberlain Square and the Arts Museum

These buildings provide the best architectural representation of the principles of the Civil Gospel. Classically designed and open to all to encourage learning. 

A first visit to the Arts Museum, which was rather packed. The Ozzy Osbourne exhibition is still running and bringing in the punters. Imagine what they could do with The Crown pub, if they showed a bit of imagination.

The Art Museum

The Ozzy Exhibition

Chamberlain Square

His Final Resting Place

Key Hill Cemetery, Section O, to the left hand side of the Icknield Street entrance. Internet research tells me to look for the tallest obelisk. I needn't have relied on the Internet. There is a handy map of key final resting places. I have a feeling the West Midlands History Podcast will be bringing me back here for other sons and daughters of the second city.

Easy Find

Died young - well remembered

18/11/25 - On the Trail of...... The Au-Pairs

Rock and Roll Meltdown

I've never previously heard of the Birmingham band The Au-Pairs before. Having listened to their debut album - Playing with a Different Sex - I can confidently say they are the band the Gang of Four could have been.

It was an article in The Dispatch that gave me the band background and move from right-on equality to Fleetwood Mac style squabbling.

The Au-Pairs, a pioneering post-punk band formed in Birmingham in 1978, built their reputation on energetic performances, politically charged lyrics, and a rare ethos of equality—two men and two women sharing songwriting credits and profits. Their debut album Playing with a Different Sex earned critical praise, and their success took them from local charity gigs to iconic venues like Whiskey A Go Go in LA.

Rooted in Birmingham’s DIY music scene and fueled by the city’s spirit of activism, the group embodied the era’s fight for equal rights and creative freedom. The original line-up—Paul Foad, Jane Munro (Dowsett), Peter Hammond, and frontwoman Lesley Woods—quickly became champions of feminist punk, with influences from second-wave feminism and anti-fascist movements shaping their sound and politics.

Despite their collective beginnings, relationships within the band eventually soured. Recent plans for a 2026 “reunion” ignited a public feud when it emerged that Woods had trademarked the band’s name and would perform with new members, excluding her former bandmates. The dispute centers on allegations about control, songwriting credits, and the band’s legacy, with former members insisting on their equal contributions and Woods claiming creative ownership.

My latest Birmingham AZ walk was taking me to Bohemian Moseley, so it made sense to seek out some of the locations that were key to the bands early development. A quest that took me to unexpected places. 

The First Rehearsal - The Earl Grey

The Pershore Road was also where Paul and Lesley first met - but no one needs to see a picture of a bus stop. The upstairs room of the Earl Grey was where the first rehearsals were held. Now hosting a legal firm, it's a location already marked for exploration as a Lost Pub of Birmingham.  Looks like three of the original line up could use Isaac Legal Services... and God knows what services Teeny Haven are offering from the front of the building.

The Earl Grey

Early Gig Venue - The Fighting Cocks

In better pub news, The Fighting Cocks is not only operational but also a CAMRA Heritage Pub.

The Fighting Cocks in Moseley is a CAMRA Heritage Pub with a rich history dating back to at least 1750. Originally called the "Fox and Dogs," it was first built as the Fighting Cocks in 1778 and later rebuilt in 1899 by Holt’s Brewery. Its name derives from the historical use of the building for cockfighting events, which were popular until made illegal in 1835.

The current building is notable for its original features like glass, windows, and Art Nouveau tiles at the York Road entrance, as well as an L-shaped bar with original mirrors. It maintains much of its historic character with a largely open-plan interior and several segregated seating areas. It is a Grade II listed building due to its well-preserved historic architecture.

Note the dial in the Lower Left

Complete with their own leaflet

The first things one notices are the meteorological devices embedded into the front walls. Not sure if they are working though. The Daily Express are predicting the return of the "Beat from the East", whereas the needle on this device simply points to fair?

In a bid to drum up business, it's 20% of cask on a Tuesday. It's not having much impact. Wetherspoons over the road is packed full of punters on 6% Oakham Green Devil for "£1.89 a pint.

Another Lost Gig Venue - The Carlton Cinema

A concert ticket led to another place to investigate.

The Au-Pairs at the Carlton

A memorial garden is all that remains, taking the odyssey down a much darker route.

The Carlton Cinema in Balsall Heath, Birmingham, has a layered and fascinating history reflecting both its resilience and its cultural significance. Originally, it was a grand cinema serving the local community, but its story took a dramatic turn during World War II. On the night of October 25, 1940, the cinema suffered a direct hit during one of the heaviest bombing raids on Birmingham, resulting in the tragic death of nineteen people watching a film. Despite this devastation, the Carlton was rebuilt after the war and continued operating as a cinema and live music venue until its closure in August 1977, with Twentieth Century Fox proposing its demolition afterward

The film? Typhoon

A newspaper article tells me there is a memorial stone. Some kids went to pay their respects but were outraged by the mess in the park, generating the headline;

Caring kids' fury after finding Balsall Heath cinema bomb memorial garden 'full of rubbish and poo'

Despite walking the found corners of the park, I couldn't even find stone. And if anything, the filth has got even worse. It's been quite depressing walking past the mountains of rubbish piled on every street corner - apparently, the Agency staff employed to complete the work of the striking bin men have gone on strike themselves. Birmingham is not being run as a tight ship.... it's a shite tip.  Even the rats have given up.

First thing spotted in the Carlton Memorial Garden

Depressing walking - in supposedly one of the nicer areas of Brum - but the music has stood the test of time remarkably well. Having listened to the album several times, I am not getting Spotify notification for future gigs for (25%) of the band.

Walk Details

Distance - 5 Miles

Geocaches - 0

Walk Inspiration - AZ - Hidden Walks in Birmingham Walk 11 

Previous Birmingham AZ Walks - Walk 1 & 2, Walk 3, Walk 4, Walk 5, Walk 6, Walk 7, Walk 8, Walk 9, Walk 10

14/10/25 - Two Historic Pubs in Northfield, Birmingham

Fewer but Better

Always interesting to walk with the Ramblers. The conversations jumped between topics; I have determined where the best place to watch free live Blues music in town is (Snobs). And as if they knew where I was heading post walk, the conversation turned to the rather magnificent Black Horse in Northfield.

One Rambler discussed playing in a band in the upstairs function room. Another recounted  the history of the Temperance movement in Victorian Birmingham. They campaigned for the closure of vice-addled drinking dens for "more family friendly pubs".  Fewer but better.

The absolute gits.

In the late Victorian era, when Joseph Chamberlain was transforming Birmingham from an industrial sprawl into a model of civic pride, reform extended even to its pubs. As Mayor from 1873 to 1876, Chamberlain championed the idea that a city could uplift its citizens through cleaner streets, better housing, and moral improvement — an ethos known as the “Civic Gospel.” That same spirit inspired a drive to reform Birmingham’s drinking culture. The Voluntary Compensation Scheme of 1897 allowed brewers to give up licences for overcrowded or disreputable pubs in exchange for trade-funded payments. The effect was dramatic: over 600 pubs were closed in Birmingham, clearing the way for a new generation of “improved public houses” — bright, spacious, and respectable — designed to encourage conversation, dining, and family life over hard drinking.

The Black Horse isa prime example of this blueprint. An enormous, mock Tudor roadhouse, that looks more like a manor house than a pub.

Too big for a photograph

Built in 1929 for Davenports, its now - and no prizes for guessing - a Wetherspoons. Let me count the ways that I loved it.

1. Ornate woodwork, inside and out
2. Real fires
3. Multi-roomed - but the CAMRA Heritage Pub Book includes a map
4. Interesting cask - all at £1.89 a pint
5. A bowling green
6. Downstairs Toilets

I settled in the Gent's Smoke Room

A incredible, affordable theme park palace of a pub.

Make a pint last an hour and this is cheaper than having the heating on at home

5.6% Cairngorm Bothy

The Bowling Green

The more you look, the more you see

I also wanted to discover "Historic Northfield" - so I headed down to the equally interesting Great Stone Inn. Away from the busy dual carriageway, opposite the church and clustered around a collection of cottages dating from the 18th-century.

Historic Birmingham

The item that gives the pub its name is a glacial boulder, once used as a mounting block for riders at the corner of Church Road and Church Hill. In the 1950s it was moved to the village pound, a sandstone enclosure once used to hold stray animals—where it still rests, next to the pub.

A Glacial Erratic in a Pound

Low ceilings, multiple rooms, promotion offers and one-armed bandits, I was faced with a choice of two disappointments. The supplied glass was a too crafty for Wye Valley HPA. And in this part of the world, when a man orders scratchings, he does not expect crunch.

Crispy Crackled Pork Bites are not scratchings