Birmingham: A Guide To The Modern UK City

Once a sociologist’s paradise of bleak tower blocks and desolate underpasses, Birmingham was commonly regarded as a concrete wilderness. Yet lately, something strange and wonderful has happened here. The city of a thousand trades’, as those virtuous Victorians called it, has become the city of a thousand start-ups. Improbably, boring old Brum has become chic.

So what’s changed? The skyline, for one thing. First the Bullring, the city’s biggest eyesore, got a much-needed makeover. Now it’s home to Selfridges, the most recognisable building. Even the Rotunda, one of the ugliest skyscrapers in town, has been revamped by hip designers Urban Splash. But the biggest change has been at street level. Carved up by motorways, Brum used to be a no-go zone for pedestrians. The flyovers are still here, but today you can actually walk around. And there’s reason to dawdle, the city centre has come alive. The Dickensian canal is a pleasant place to stroll, and the grim thoroughfares I recall from my student days are filled with people having fun.

If one building sums up Birmingham’s renaissance, it’s the new library. The structure is stunning, like an enormous Christmas present wrapped up in gold and silver foil, but the best bit is what’s inside. Part reading room, part rendezvous, it’s an energetic mishmash of highbrow and lowbrow – a lot like Birmingham. When it opened in 2013, replacing a brutalist hulk across the road, the library instantly became a symbol of this rejuvenated city – and the view from the top floor is breathtaking.

Yet this revival isn’t merely a matter of town planning. There’s something in the air that wasn’t here before. Brum now has one of the youngest populations of any city in Europe (almost 40 per cent of its citizens are under 25) and districts such as Hockley and Digbeth are full of creative twenty-somethings making things happen on their own terms. You could say the wheel has come full circle. Birmingham was built on hard graft and enterprise – all those earnest industrialists who turned this modest market town into the workshop of the world. Today’s resourceful Brummies are reinventing an old tradition, turning derelict factories into funky shops and studios. Innovative, eccentric and endearingly self-deprecating, Birmingham is constantly evolving, a metropolis on the up and up.

KEEP IT SWEET: Built by Sir Alfred Bird, whose father invented instant custard, The Custard Factory churned out oceans of the stuff until Bird’s moved to more modern premises in 1964. The site stood empty until 1993, when it reopened as Birmingham’s answer to London s Covent Garden. However, unlike Covent Garden, it never lost its rebellious vibe. The City is a Work of Art’ reads a slogan painted on the wall. Daubed in dazzling dayglo, adorned with murals and massive sculptures, this is the way all shopping destinations ought to be. Highlights include several vintage boutiques and a splendid little record shop. Left for Dead.

NATIONAL TREASURES: The historic Jewellery Quarter still produces nearly half of the jewellery made in the UK, but nowadays it’s also a lively cultural hub. Housed in an old factory, Symon Bland’s St Pauls Gallery sells limited-edition prints by British artists, including Peter Blake and David Hockney, but his speciality is album-cover art, particularly the distinctive LP sleeves of Pink Floyd designer Storm Thorgerson. For a really unusual ring or necklace, visit young jeweller James Newman in his stylish shop and workshop. His modern pieces are unlike anything else I’ve seen.

IN THE FRAME: Birmingham’s contemporary art gallery. Ikon, was 50 years old last year, and its Ikon 50 programme, which runs until early 2015, is a greatest hits of its first half century. The shop sells all sorts of aesthetic trinkets, from arty stationery to button badges. The cafe serves British comfort food: boiled egg and soldiers; bangers and mash. Run by charismatic director Jonathan Watkins, the space is avant-garde and challenging. If your tastes are more traditional, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery has the biggest Pre-Raphaelite collection in the world.

Where to shop – HOMEGROWN DESIGNS: New Street is full of high-street chains, but hidden down an alley is Disorder, the city’s best independent boutique. Mark Howard started the shop with his wife Thiri in 1998. She is Burmese and grew up in Italy, and the clothes they make are a beguiling blend of East and West. They’ve won countless awards, but their hole-in-the-wall outlet maintains its old underground appeal. Nearly everything here is made by them, but there are also items by guest designers. Look out for one-off creations at bargain prices: handmade belts from £15, scarves from £25.

UNDERCOVER AGENT: The Great Western Arcade is an ornate relic of Brum’s Victorian heyday, but it’s not just a museum piece. Restored to its former glory, it now has some of the city’s most unusual shops. Phil Hazel’s Liquor Store doesn’t peddle booze – it actually sells men’s apparel – yet somehow this esoteric title feels like the perfect fit. The main focus is Fifties Americana (obscure baseball caps, rare Levi’s) but it also stocks snazzy European brands, including Elka raincoats, made for Danish fishermen.

INDEPENDENTLY MINDED: Matthew Nation’s eclectic corner of the Custard Factory will challenge your expectations. His shop. Provide, sells hand-picked books, hard-to-get magazines and Nation’s own clothing range. But it’s also where people come to network and exchange ideas, and it stages film nights and publishes its own magazine. The space is like a miniature department store for freethinkers, and Nation is still only in his twenties.

Where to eat – CURRY FAVOUR: Tucked away in a quiet side street in the Jewellery Quarter is Birmingham’s finest curry house – and here in the Balti Triangle, there’s stiff competition. At first glance, Aktar Islam’s menu at Lasan (about £50 for two) doesn’t look all that different from a standard Indian restaurant, but in his hands dishes are transformed: fluffy Punjabi-style pumpkin with fennel seeds and fresh coriander; succulent mahi machli (salmon marinated in tomato and red pepper with lime). Even his dahl a dull staple in most restaurants, tastes divine. I’ve never eaten a better curry anywhere in the UK.

REACH FOR THE STAR: Birmingham has four Michelin-starred restaurants, more than any other UK city outside London, and one of them, Turners, is along the road from an Iceland on Harborne High Street. How like Birmingham to have such a superb restaurant in such a down-to-earth location. Largely self-taught, local chef Richard Turner opened here in 2007 and won his first star in 2009. It’s an intimate space, softened with mirrors and muted greys, but the food is the main attraction: beef is slow-cooked for 48 hours; the coconut-and-liquorice parfait is delicious. For such fine cuisine, it’s also excellent value: the three-course lunch costs £32.50.

OUT TO LUNCH: Within six months of opening, Adam’s, a city-centre restaurant run by Adam Stokes and his wife Natasha, had been awarded a Michelin star. Squeezed into a former sandwich shop, the tiny dining room can only seat 26 (there are plans to expand this year), but the understated decor makes it feel a lot larger. That elegant simplicity is reflected in the food. My three-course lunch (just £32) was delightful: spelt and crisp pigs’ trotters, followed by cod with fennel and whitebait, and rounded off with several contrasting textures of dark chocolate. Comparisons with Turners (see above) are invidious. Try them both.

Where to drink – SPIRIT WORLD: The brainchild of Matt Scriven, the man behind quirky pub group Bitters ‘n’ Twisted, The Jekyll and Hyde feels like the setting for a good old-fashioned melodrama. ‘It’s all about spending time sourcing interesting bits and pieces,’ says Scriven. The downstairs bar feels vaguely decadent, in a Hammer House of Horror sort of way, but the real fun begins upstairs in the Victorian Gin Parlour. A barmaid who looks like Cruella de Vil served the best G&T I’ve ever tasted (Martin Miller’s distilled in nearby Langley) and gave me a beginner’s guide to gin. *We have a resident ghost.’ she warned. There have been sightings.’ After a few drinks, I believed her.

EASY DOES IT: Adam Johnson started out managing record shops and nightclubs before deciding what he really wanted was to run his own local. The Plough Harborne is that rare and useful thing: a busy pub where you feel like a regular, even if you’ve only been here a few times. The industrial look is contrasted with playful touches: Star Wars figurines; jars of sweets above the bar. Craft ale is the local brew, although lots of customers drop in for coffee and food (the cooked breakfast is delicious). But this isn’t a fancy gastropub, simply a great pub with smashing grub.

PRETTY AS A PITCHER: Another Bitters ‘n’ Twisted creation, in the heart of the Jewellery Quarter, the Grade Il-listed Rose Villa Tavern could be the most beautiful boozer in Britain. A kaleidoscope of stained glass and antique tiles, it’s been lovingly renovated: the parquet floor was underneath the old carpet all along. Real ale (try the Butty Bach from Wye Valley) and cocktails are the speciality. Grab one of the big leather chairs in the snug, sit back and watch Birmingham go by.

Where to stay – AHEAD OF THE PACK: Bloc (from £45 per night) is a brilliant idea – a budget hotel with all the stuff you don’t need taken out, and all the stuff you do need done better: Italian tiles, Egyptian cotton, king-size double beds, hi-tech TV, free Wi-Fi. The rooms are deliberately tiny (no wardrobe; a walk-in wet room with loo and shower), and lots of units means lower prices. A double is a tight fit unless you’re very good friends, but compact quality is what Bloc is all about. And the hotel does deals with local restaurants, including Lasan around the corner.

HIGH ROLLER: I adore the clean lines and paint-box colour scheme of Hotel Indigo (doubles from £100), but it’s the location that makes this contemporary hotel such a treat. On the 23rd to 25th floors of The Cube, Ken Shuttleworth’s glitzy high-rise (shaped like a gigantic jewellery box), the vistas are gobsmacking. Drink in the view from the Champagne bar on the top floor, or Marco Pierre White’s penthouse restaurant. The Ikon is a short walk away, along the spruced-up canal.

CENTRE OFTHE ACTION: You probably already know the Malmaison brand (doubles from £89): night-club ambience, dark furniture, cheeky chatty signage. This one is slap-bang in the middle of the Mailbox, previously Brum’s postal sorting office, now a swish shopping centre (Harvey Nicks. Armani) backing onto the canal. And the hotel bar and brasserie is a popular nightspot.