Geo-Trips :: Across Birmingham city centre
Birmingham city centre
A walk from Hagley Road, Sat, 20 Oct 2018 by Rudi Winter
This is a walk traversing Birmingham's city centre from west to east and back. It starts from Hagley Road Premier Inn, where there is parking, presumbably intended for guests of the hotel and the nearby restaurants.
After following the main road inbound for a while, we turned into Monument Road (noting a domed building with an interesting history, the Birmingham Oratory) and across Chamberlain Gardens towards the Middleway, the main ring road around central Birmingham (much of the former inner ring road, the Queensway, has been decommissioned in recent years to give the city centre a little more room to breathe and develop). After overcoming this obstacle, we cross a housing estate to reach the Birmingham Canal's old line at the Oozells Street Loop. This takes us into the city centre proper.
We meet the "new" line (at a mere 204 years) of the canal opposite Birmingham Arena and reach Old Turn Junction. From there follows a short detour up onto the plaza of the Brindleyplace development and back down to the canal, crossing over a footbridge to the rear entrance of the International Convention Centre. After dipping under Broad Street through its canal tunnel, we reach Gas Street Basin with its interesting history of competing canal companies resulting in the Worcester Bar, a narrow barrier left standing across Gas Street Basin to prevent water loss from the Birmingham Canal when the Birmingham & Worcester Canal was built.
Leaving the canals for the railway, we turn towards Navigation Street and New Street Station (now hidden under the silvery plastic facade of the Grand Central shopping centre) and the recently extended tram line. The other end of the station faces another shopping centre, the Bullring, with some open pedestrianised streets. St Martin's Walk leads down to St Martin in the Bull Ring, Birmingham's first parish church.
We cross the open markets south of the Bullring and cross the road named Digbeth (lending its name to this area of the city), turning east along Meriden/New Canal Street through an area of warehouses. After crossing under the railway viaducts feeding into both New Street and Moor Street Stations, we reach the Eastside City Park and the Millennium Point building, where we have a look at the Science Garden and spend some time in the Science Museum, Thinktank.
Afterwards, as light is beginning to fade, we walk past the vast building site of the HS2 railway project towards Moor Street Station. From here, it is a matter of retracing our steps towards the canal and then back to the hotel along Broad Street and, after dipping under the Five Ways roundabout, Hagley Street. In daylight, I suppose following the Birmingham & Worcester canal until past Five Ways Station might have been a better alternative for the return from the city centre.
On the map below, the grey line is the GPS track from this trip. Click the blue circles to see a photograph taken from that spot and read further information about the location. The blue lines indicate the direction of view. There is also a slideshow of this trip. ( )
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Oratory Church, Plough & Harrow Road, Birmingham
The domed building is the Roman Catholic church of the Birmingham Oratory, a... more
Morville Street, Birmingham
Residential area just inside the Birmingham middle ring road with a mixture of low... more
Oozells Street Loop, Birmingham Canal, Birmingham
In the foreground lies a short dock off the Oozells Street Loop... more
Oozells Street Loop, Birmingham Canal, Birmingham
Docks along the Oozells Street Loop http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6062041 of... more
Apartment blocks along the Oozells Street Loop, Birmingham Canal, Birmingham
Quite a contrast between the canalside apartment blocks and the houses just a row... more
Residential garden by the Birmingham Canal, Birmingham
This small garden in a triangular patch of land between Sheepcote Street and the... more
Birmingham Canal New Main Line, Birmingham
The bridge takes Sheepcote Street across the "new" line of the... more
Sheepcote Street bridge across the Birmingham Canal, Birmingham
The bridge takes Sheepcote Street across the "new" line of the... more
Lighthouse atop a canal boat, Birmingham Canal, Birmingham
The roof of a canal boat moored opposite Birmingham Arena is adorned with a small... more
Legoland Discovery Centre, Birmingham Arena
Surrounded by hordes of unicorns, Bobs-the-Builder and princesses during the... more
Old Turn Junction, Birmingham Canal, Birmingham
View from one of the two footbridges across the Birmingham Canal beneath the... more
Roundabout island, Birmingham Canal, Birmingham
The island is situated at the centre of Old Turn Junction... more
Old Turn Junction, Birmingham Canal, Birmingham
At Old Turn Junction the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal joins the Birmingham Canal.... more
Sculpture "Aquaduct", Brindleyplace, Birmingham
The 1995 sculpture by Miles Davies refers to the important role canals have played... more
Sculpture "Aquaduct", Brindleyplace, Birmingham
The 1995 sculpture by Miles Davies refers to the important role canals have played... more
Sculpture "The Battle of Gods and Giants", Birmingham
The sculpture by Roderick Tye was made in 1990 and is located outside the rear... more
International Convention Centre, Birmingham
This is the rear entrance of the venue, facing onto the Birmingham Canal... more
Birmingham Canal, Birmingham
Looking from the western end of Broad Street Tunnel towards Old Turn Junction... more
Gas Street Basin, Birmingham Canal, Birmingham
The Birmingham Canal emerges from the short Broad Street Tunnel to reach its... more
Gas Street Basin and Worcester Bar, Birmingham
The two rows of narrowboats are separated by the Worcester Bar, the barrier... more
Grand Central entrance, New Street Station, Birmingham
Somewhere hidden in the new shopping centre is the UK's busiest railway station... more
Tram outside New Street Station, Birmingham
Line 1 of the West Midlands Metro (or rather, at present, its only line) runs... more
New Street Station, Birmingham
View down towards the eastern end of the platforms of New Street Station from the... more
St Martin's Walk, Birmingham
Looking down the pedestrianised St Martin's Walk from Rotunda Square, all part of... more
Spiceal Street, Birmingham
Pedestrianised area surrounding the church of St Martin in the Bull Ring... more
Selfridges building, Bullring, Birmingham
Part of the shopping centre near to New Street Station... more
Warehouses and car park, New Canal Street, Birmingham
Commercial buildings in the trapezoid between the railway lines out of New Street... more
Millennium Point, Birmingham
Millennium Point opened in 2001 and houses, amongst others, the Faculty of... more
Super furry animals, Thinktank, Birmingham
A group of taxidermied animals in the natural history section of the science... more
Ammonite, Thinktank, Birmingham
A giant ammonite fossil in the prehistoric section of the Thinktank science museum... more
Megaloceros skeleton, Thinktank, Birmingham
A skeleton of a megaloceros or giant elk in the prehistoric section of the... more
Apartment buildings, Park Street, Birmingham
Overlooking the vast HS2 building site. These buildings have been built on the... more
Moor Street Station, Birmingham
Platform 5 (seen here) is no longer in use. Trains terminating at Moor Street use... more
Moor Street Station, Birmingham
Two trains are waiting in the terminal platforms 3 and 4. Platform 5 (on the... more
All images © Rudi Winter and available under a
Creative Commons licence 
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