Picspam: Jewelry museum in Birmingham

[dieastra]

I must post more pictures of Birmingham. Such a beautiful city.
In 2014 I visited the Jewelry museum. I only can recommend this to anyone who is interested in history and crafts. It was amazing. When this manufactory closed in the Eighties, the workers just left but left everything there. There are even still teacups and their work clothes and everything. A woman showed us how the machines worked, and we each got a little golden dog punched out. And all those old file folders and type machines in the office! Loved it.

Birmingham has a so called "Jewelry quarter" where lots of manufactories and shops can still be found. Even whistles for the Titanic had been made here. The workers were watched carefully to not hide any gold and take it home. Even when washing their hands, the water would be collected and the gold dust re-used. It was a very interesting tour.

Please see all the pictures behind the cut.

Comments

[gillo]

I find it fascinating that you consider Birmingham to be beautiful. I have lived nearby much of my life and have been in the habit of thinking it is pretty ugly, especially the 60s road network and concrete monstrosities near it. I suppose it's not quite as ugly as Coventry, but "beautiful"? Really?

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

Oh boy, I wrote too much. I'm sorry. This is part 1/2:

Well, maybe beautiful was not the right word, but it has charm for me. A rough charm? I’m not sure what I expected when I first came, but I was positively surprised.

Admittedly I haven’t seen the whole city. I never could figure out the bus system which only seems to go around in circles, so we only saw what we could walk by foot but thankfully the inner city is not that big so if I walk briskly, I am through in half an hour from one end to the other. And I did like what I saw. There are nice reconstructed historical buildings, and there is nice interesting modern architecture. I love unique modern architecture. Living in a city where people only allow baroque architecture and criticize everything else and architects only build either boring fake historical buildings, or boring simple ugly modern cubes, this makes for an interesting change. I love the fascinating library building, and I also love the Bullring center. Anything that is not a cube and steel and glass you know?

I love that place with the huge fountain and all the old buildings around. I love that interesting Greek Style town hall.

I love that other place where the library is, and then when you walk through the convention building where the symphony hall is you come to the canals. I love the canals. Apparently this was an ugly part of town until it got reconstructed, same like what they did to the bay in Cardiff. And I love historical places getting an upgrade like this but not losing their charm with all the brick walls and such. You can breathe history there.

So this is one walk I have walked, starting from New Street, and it was December, and there was the German Christmas market on New Street, and when we arrived at the canals it was dark already and very romantic.

Another time we first went to the BBC shop in the Mailbox, had fun with TARDIS and Dalek and then and hit the canals from that side, which gave me new and interesting sights and buildings. And then there is also the nice old Moor Street train station. Everything there yells “Look I’m cute and British” to me ;) With its signs to the platforms etc. Like in a Harry Potter film (and I am not even a Harry Potter fan)

One time we also went till the Think Tank museum and had fun with the exhibitions outside. There is so much to see and do. If I ever come back (sadly the last two Miracle Day conventions were in London Heathrow) I want to do the Back-to-Backs tour where you get to see old narrow streets and how people used to live. Apparently they are closed off and can only be visited with this tour. I also have been to the city museum and learnt about the history with the button industry and there was also a painting gallery.

We also went down Broad Street, with the golden memorial of the three famous engineers, and the “Walk of fame” style stars in the ground. Admittedly the five walkways or what’s it called at the street’s end is nothing to write home about, but we did and saw a lot of things (even Tennant street LOL) and yet when looking at a map there is so much more I want to explore. So I hope I come back one day.

Outside of the city I also love that little monorail that brings you from the airport to the NEC. We rode it often on our way from the convention hotel to get something to eat at the airport. It’s just a fun little ride. Things like this make a trip special, as I have not encountered anything like this before. Unless you count the skytrain in Vancouver which also was without any driver, but it was way bigger.

Please read on in part 2/2

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

And part 2/2:


It’s just nice that now when hearing the name Birmingham, I can say I have been there, and I have a picture in my head, rather than just thinking “some industrial grey city”. Four things have brought me there at four different times: Stargate, Doctor Who, Sherlock and Torchwood.

I recently had a layover in Hannover, one hour time between trains. So I thought, let’s see what Hannover looks like, and walked from the station through the pedestrian area with its shops. Apparently Hannover must have been bombed in WWII as well, and the whole inner city destroyed. And instead of reconstructing, like they did in Nuremberg which also has many nice historical buildings, here they just built new ones. Architecture from the Fifties and Sixties and they all look the same. Warehouse after warehouse. Nothing special. Same can be said for Ludwigshafen, which also looked rather dull, at least the part I saw. So yes, in comparison to those cities which rather shocked me (as they certainly don’t look like the “golden West” every GDR citizen imagined), I think Birmingham is beautiful.

[owensheart.livejournal.com]

Wow looks like an amazing tour. Did you go to the BBC in Birmingham when you were there?

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

We went to the BBC shop and visitor center, but we did not do a tour. But in the visitor center they have a TARDIS and a Dalek, I should post more pictures. And you can play the newsman on a green screen ;)

[owensheart.livejournal.com]

I went there too when we were in Birmingham last April, It was such fun doing the Weather.

[alumfelga.livejournal.com]

Great picspam! It's like going back in time.

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Yeah, it was time travel indeed.

[aletheiafelinea.livejournal.com]

I like the one with tightly crammed buildings. It feels storytelling in a way. :)

It's either the most messy museum ever, or a museum carefully maitained to look messy... In the latter case, I must admire the authenticity. :]

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

The right building is where all the machines are standing in. It gets light through the big roof windows. And they put the white stones at the left building so the sun would reflect and it would be even brighter. Clever people!

Before we went down there, there is also a "regular" museum where you learn about the history and with glass vitrines and video screens where you press a button. Every half an hour then a group is led downstairs.

This manufactory was closed in 1981 and then stood like this, untouched for about 20 years, when someone opened the door - I think at first they wanted to tear down the building and build something new but then they realisted what a treasure they have here and made a museum out of it.

I assume they remove the dust once in a while. Sadly we also were not allowed to go down the green steel stairs, we went down another way. I guess it was too old and fragile.

[aletheiafelinea.livejournal.com]

And they put the white stones at the left building so the sun would reflect and it would be even brighter.
I love this!

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

A spirit of old days must be still present in the premises...

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

Exactly! One thinks every moment the workers return and continue with their work. It was really awesome.